The St. Louis Cardinals stole the show on Tuesday by trading three-time All-Star starting pitcher Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox.
We knew a rebuild of some kind was coming, and trading Gray in the final year of his three-year, $75 million contract was one of the Cardinals’ most obvious plays to jumpstart that rebuild. But the devil is always in the details, and when the full trade return emerged, it became obvious that the Cardinals nailed the details on this one.
According to a report from Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, the Cardinals included $20 million in cash considerations in the deal. That likely has everything to do with why the two pitchers they got back, Brandon Clarke and Richard Fitts, had a bit more name value than Red Sox fans may have expected.
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Adding cash got Cardinals a potential star
May 27, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; A Boston Red Sox hat and glove sit in the dug out before a game against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Michael McLoone-Imagn Images | Michael McLoone-Imagn Images
Fitts is a talented-enough 25-year-old righty with some big-league experience, one whom the Cardinals will almost certainly slot into their rotation from day one. So it’s saying something that he’s very clearly not the prize of this deal.
Clarke, the Red Sox’s fourth-round pick in last year’s draft, has quickly become a strikeout machine. In 38 innings this past season, he struck out a whopping 60 batters, making his 4.03 ERA between Low-A and High-A a non-issue.
With a high-90s fastball and an athletic delivery from the left side, Clarke has ace potential. That’s not a phrase to throw around lightly, and there’s no guarantee the 22-year-old becomes that ace someday, but he’s a fantastic get for one year of Gray at age 36.
Without including the money, there’s almost no chance the Cardinals would have had access to Clarke. And if they did, they certainly weren’t getting Fitts as a throw-in on top.
Gray is a very good pitcher, and without a few blowup starts this season, Boston fans wouldn’t be looking at his 4.28 ERA and wondering if they just got taken for a ride. But he likely wasn’t going to help the Cardinals get anywhere near the playoffs in 2026.
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