The Boston Red Sox made a big splash on the trade market to improve their starting rotation.
The Red Sox acquired right-hander Sonny Gray and cash from the St. Louis Cardinals for right-hander Richard Fitts, pitching prospect Brandon Clarke, and a player to be named later or cash, the clubs announced Tuesday.
The Cardinals are sending $20 million to the Red Sox to cover Gray's 2026 salary, reports ESPN's Jeff Passan.
The three-time All-Star's contract was reworked as part of the trade. The revised agreement will pay him $31 million next season and includes a $10-million buyout on a 2027 mutual option, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
The 36-year-old waived his no-trade clause, which was included in the three-year, $75-million pact signed with St. Louis in November 2023.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said it's too early in the offseason to declare Gray as the team's No. 2 starter.
"I don't know how much sense it makes in November to put a number on a guy," Breslow said, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI. "I think Sonny is a very talented major league player. The seasons that he has put up pretty consistently indicated that to be the case.
"That said, we still intend to improve our team and exactly what that looks like we don't know right now. But we'll continue to try and explore opportunities and figure out where that takes us."
Boston's rotation will now feature Gray, Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford. Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, Patrick Sandoval, and Kyle Harrison are options to round out the group.
Gray posted a 4.28 ERA, 3.39 FIP, 1.23 WHIP, and 10.0 K/9 over 180 2/3 innings (32 starts) in 2025. He amassed a 7.4 fWAR across his two seasons with the Cardinals.
Fitts, 25, authored a 5.40 ERA with 1.31 WHIP and 8.0 K/9 over 45 innings (10 starts) this year. The 22-year-old Clarke was the fifth-ranked prospect in the Red Sox minor-league system, according to MLB Pipeline. The latter recorded a 4.03 ERA with 1.16 WHIP and 14.2 K/9 across 38 innings in Single-A in 2025.
"We have somewhere we need to go, and we're not there now, and the way to get there is building on our core talent and (acquiring) promising, young talent that can be with us for many years and have their best ahead of them," Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said, according to John Denton of MLB.com.
