The Purple Sox have made their first large transfer of the offseason.
In accordance with a supply, the Purple Sox have acquired veteran right-hander Sonny Grey from the St. Louis Cardinals.
The deal was first reported by Jon Heyman of the New York Put up. In accordance with ESPN’s Jeff Passan the Cardinals will obtain right-hander Richard Fitts and minor league left-hander Brandon Clarke in change. The Purple Sox will even obtain money concerns from the Cardinals to assist cowl Grey’s wage.
A 3-time All-Star, Grey has pitched 13 seasons within the majors and is coming off a season by which he posted a 4.28 ERA with 201 strikeouts over 180.2 innings. The 36-year-old has been among the many most sturdy beginning pitchers in baseball all through his profession and has posted at the least 165 innings in three straight seasons.
Grey tasks to fit into the highest of the Purple Sox rotation behind ace Garrett Crochet alongside Brayan Bello and a deep group of depth arms.
Grey initially had one yr and $35 million plus a mutual possibility for 2027 remaining on the three-year, $75 million deal he signed with the Cardinals forward of the 2024 season. However according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Grey’s contract is being reworked to be one-year, $31 million with a $10 million buyout for the unlikely to be exercised mutual possibility, guaranteeing him $41 million for the upcoming yr.
Passan reports that the Cardinals will ship the Purple Sox $20 million to offset Grey’s wage, leaving Boston on the hook for under about half of the complete quantity he’s owed.
To land Grey, the Purple Sox gave up two promising younger arms who didn’t have a transparent path to contribute in 2026.
Fitts was initially acquired within the Alex Verdugo commerce and emerged as one of many first merchandise of chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s new pitching pipeline. The appropriate-hander debuted in late 2024 and posted a 1.74 ERA over his first 4 MLB begins, and this previous spring he earned a spot within the membership’s Opening Day rotation.
Fitts didn’t get pleasure from the identical success in his first full large league season. The 25-year-old right-hander was restricted to simply 11 video games (10 begins) attributable to a number of accidents, together with a proper pectoral pressure and proper arm neuritis, and likewise bounced forwards and backwards between Triple-A and the majors all through the season.
Fitts completed with a 5.00 ERA in 45 innings, and this spring he would have confronted fierce competitors for a rotation spot from a crowded group that features Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval, Hunter Dobbins, Connelly Early, Kyle Harrison, Payton Tolle and others.
Clarke was certainly one of Boston’s breakout prospects this previous season and at one level surged into Baseball America’s High 100 listing earlier than struggling later within the yr following his promotion to Excessive-A Greenville. The 22-year-old left-hander boasts a high-90s fastball and averaged 14.2 strikeouts per 9 innings, although he posted a 5.08 ERA in 28.1 innings at Excessive-A and barely pitched greater than three innings at a time.
Clarke didn’t seem on Baseball America’s just lately launched High 10 Purple Sox prospects listing, however he nonetheless has a high-impact ceiling and may instantly turn out to be certainly one of St. Louis’s prime pitching prospects because the membership embarks on its full-scale rebuild.
