REPORTS: Braves free agent target Sonny Gray finalizing deal with St. Louis Cardinals

The Twins pitcher is rumored to be joining the Cardinals rotation on a multi-year deal

Per reports from MLB Insider Jon Heyman, the St. Louis Cardinals are finalizing a deal to add free agent Sonny Gray, formerly of the Minnesota Twins, to their revamped rotation. 

Sonny Gray and the Cardinals are expected to finalize a deal today, via league sources

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 27, 2023

Gray, 33, had both MLB's lowest FIP at 2.83 and homer rate amongst qualifying pitchers, at 0.4 HR/9. The career year with the Twins before heading to free agency prompted Minnesota to tag him with the qualifying offer, which meant he would have cost Atlanta two draft picks to sign him as a free agent. 

Despite that, Atlanta's attention reportedly turned to Gray after Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola turned down more money from the Braves to return to Philadelphia on a seven year contract. 

Atlanta reportedly offered $27M per year to Aaron Nola before he returned to Philadelphia

In St. Louis, Gray joins a revamped rotation that saw the Cardinals also add Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson in the last few weeks - St. Louis starting pitchers were some of the worst in baseball by virtually every metric last season, as personnel changes and the ban on the defensive shift meant that their "pitch to contact" staff didn't see nearly the same success as in the past. 

And now, for Atlanta there's questions about where to go from here. Outside of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell, there's no other "top tier" starting pitchers available on the free agent market. For the Braves to reportedly be "determined" to come out of free agency with a rotation upgrade and not do it will undoubtedly be frustrating across Braves Country, but there's other options out there and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is undoubtedly vetting all possible options. 

With Aaron Nola off the board, Atlanta should pivot this offseason and focus on quantity

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