The St. Louis Cardinals went straight to work last offseason to rebuild their starting rotation and were mostly successful.

Their big investment was a three-year, $75 million contract for veteran right-hander Sonny Gray. The 34-year-old made 28 starts for St. Louis in 2024, going 13-9 with a 3.84 ERA over 166 1/3 innings. He also struck out 203 batters and posted a 1.09 WHIP.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recent re-graded every major offseason signing and gave St. Louis an A minus when evaluating the Gray signing.

“Sonny Gray was mostly solid in his first season with the Cardinals, albeit uncommonly unlucky,” Miller wrote.

“His ERA ended up being more than a run greater than it was last year, but that’s mostly a product of regressing from what was an unsustainable rate of 0.39 home runs per nine innings in 2023 to an exactly league-average mark of 1.14 in 2024.”

Gray was bit by the longball several times this year, especially on the road.

He may not have pitched quite like the ace St. Louis needed to contend for a World Series title. But he was solid and gave the Cardinals much of what they were searching for.

They needed a pitcher who could strike hitters out at a high rate, and Gray accomplished that. He did make two trips to the injured list, one due to a hamstring issue and another due to elbow tendonitis. But he stayed healthy for most of the season and gave them innings.

The Cardinals are about to take a step back from contention and enter a rebuild of sorts. How aggressive they’ll be in rebuilding remains to be seen.

Gray is a high-priced veteran, so we could see the Cardinals move him for the right price. Either way, he gave the Cardinals most of what they needed this season and helped them improve their record over 2023 by 12 wins.