The Boston Red Sox have been shockingly vocal about their offseason plans after years of vague promises to compete while accounting for the future. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said he's looking for starting pitching, and on November 25, he got some.
The Red Sox traded for veteran starter and three-time Cy Young Award vote recipient Sonny Gray from the St. Louis Cardinals. Boston sent pitcher Richard Fitts and top pitching prospect Brandon Clarke to St. Louis in the deal, and the Cardinals ate $20 million of Gray's $41 million salary for 2026.
Gray fits the profile of a pitcher Breslow would covet. He posted a 4.28 ERA, 1.234 WHIP, 201 strikeouts and 38 walks over 180 innings in 2025 — his command is as strong as ever, his walk rate ranked in the 93rd percentile and his strikeout and whiff rates rank in the upper quartile of the league. But if Gray is the top of the rotation arm Breslow has said he's looking for, Sox fans will be disappointed.
Breslow has been vocal about the kind of arms he seeks to add this offseason and Gray doesn't align with some of his hopes.
"I don't think we're going to spend a ton of time trying to add a No. 4, No. 5 starter. If we're to going to make a starting pitching addition, I think it should be somebody who can pitch at the front of a rotation, start a playoff game for us," Breslow said (via Christopher Smith ofMassLive).
Sonny Gray doesn't fit the description Craig Breslow himself set for Red Sox's offseason pitching additions
He also mentioned the type of pitcher the Red Sox would be looking for in a guest appearance on NESN's "310 to Left" podcast on October 10.
"What we need to do and what we'll do over the course of the offseason is take a step back and really recognize what type of pitching additions or acquisitions really move the needle for us because we do have, what I would suggest, is a strong group of pitching depth," Breslow said. "And so we want to make sure that any additions that we make actually improve our team."
Breslow noted that the Red Sox have enough depth to address the front of the rotation, and Gray doesn't fit that role at this stage in his career. He's an experienced veteran with great command who racks up strikeouts and can eat innings, but he doesn't have the long-term projection that many Sox fans were hoping for.
Gray turned 36 in November, and signing him is a win-now move. Trading for him doesn't ensure the strength of the rotation next year or in the future when the Red Sox will still have Garrett Crochet, Roman Anthony, Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela signed long-term. If Boston complements the Gray trade with another deal for Joe Ryan, Freddy Peralta or MacKenzie Gore, we can look at this move completely differently.
Until then, the Red Sox's starting pitching moves feel incomplete. They have plenty of time to make another move since they acquired Gray during Thanksgiving week, and Breslow has swung massive deals during the Winter Meetings before.
Gray is a clear upgrade over Lucas Giolito, who seems bound to regress after his first season with Boston, but the trade still seems like a strange use of resources after Breslow said the Red Sox would aim much higher. Hopefully, the CBO has another big trade or free agent signing in the works to land a No. 2 starter — Gray is a great player, but he doesn't fit the expectations Breslow himself set for this offseason.