If the Cardinals are to return to the postseason, it’ll be Gray who leads the way
Every pitcher has a routine they follow after a start to help them maintain their arm and body over the course of a long season. After taking the mound in a game for the first time as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, Sonny Gray went through an important part of that routine on the turf half field adjacent to the Cardinals’ clubhouse.
He found himself laying face down behind the padded supports of a mobile batting cage, competing in a high stakes game of hide and go seek with his own two sons as well as the children of some of his teammates. That part of the spring routine may not carry over to the regular season, but from a distance, Gray looked no less a competitor there than he did on the mound a few hours prior.
The most impactful signing of the St. Louis offseason tossed two shutout innings in his 2024 Grapefruit League debut, allowing two hits, walking two, and recording two strikeouts. That performance came a handful of days after manager Oliver Marmol delivered the news that he shared with reporters on Tuesday – Gray, as expected, will be the Cardinals’ starting pitcher on opening day at Dodger Stadium.
“It’s a tremendous honor, to be honest with you,” Gray said of the assignment. “I don’t take that lightly. I don’t take that lightly at all. I have been fortunate enough to do it a few times in my career, and I’ve enjoyed every single one of them.”
After engaging Marmol in some typical morning conversation, the manager invited him into the office to continue the chat. Pitching coach Dusty Blake was waiting there, and the news was sprung, launching Gray into what he described as “chills.”
“I was like, ‘whoa, you got me there, and I don’t get got a lot, but you just got me,’” he recalled, laughing.
“Sonny’s done a phenomenal job not only in what he says but how he goes about it,” Marmol said. “It’s a great example for everybody else. It is contagious. The way he thinks about the game, he’s so good about just talking through it, and guys who are around freely listen at all times because he does a good job of explaining the ‘why’ behind something.”
Indeed, the loudest note of the soundtrack of the early days of Cardinals camp has been Gray, whether he’s calling out situations to catchers in bullpen situations, jumping in to instruct teammates as they execute bunt plays, or simply vocalizing his effort during live batting practice through a series of grunts and exclamations that might seem more at home on a tennis court than a baseball diamond.
And yet, on Tuesday, it was a lack of noise that led to one of the most notable plays of the game.
With two out and runners on first and second in the first inning, Gray noticed Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela inching a little too far away from second base. His internal competitor took over, and he was happy to find second baseman Brendan Donovan on the same page.
“I saw Donnie at second and he was looking in the dugout, and I think he was trying to get somebody to [signal] a pick,” Gray said. “I was like, ‘man, he’s got a big lead, I’m with you.’
“I saw him doing like this,” he continued, pulling an exaggerated, dramatic face. “I just kind of stuck my hand out…you know, we’ve never played together or anything, but I saw that and I was like, ‘I’m with you, bro.’”
“Once we’re in season,” Marmol said, “you have a decent amount of who does what out there, what kind of leads they get, their secondaries. There’s more intel and you can plan for some of it. But that right there is strictly instincts and those guys doing what they do.”
Gray was the only one of the three free agent starters added by the Cardinals this winter who received more than one guaranteed year on his contract; indeed, he’s the only free agent at any position with that distinction. His experience and his contract make the team’s expectations plain, and Marmol said honors such as starting opening day are, “what we signed him to do.”
For Gray, though, that was not taken for granted. His expectation that he would have to earn that honor, and his surprise at receiving it, are microcosms of the attitude the team has desired and the leadership they’ve been elated to see shown throughout his first month in uniform as a Cardinal.
“The way I look at it is I’m going to start the first game of the season for the St. Louis Cardinals, and that’s quite an accomplishment,” Gray said. “But I also look at it as it’s just one game throughout 162. If everything goes the way you want it to, that’s just one of 32 or 34 starts throughout the regular season and into the postseason.”
If the Cardinals do indeed get back to the postseason, it will be in large part because Gray led the way. That is an unavoidable part of the year’s design.
This story was originally published February 28, 2024 at 11:17 AM.
