As the A’s continue to search for pitching, they could bring back an old friend to the staff.
This winter, the A’s have made it clear that they will look to bring in more pitching, as they look to continue building off their improvements from the 2025 season.
Digging through the free agent markets to find players willing to pitch in a minor league ballpark for the next couple of seasons will be difficult. Instead, the team could find it easier to lean towards the trade market to land another arm for their rotation.
Last offseason, the A’s added a pair of veteran starters in Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs. The team was able to overpay Severino to the tune of a franchise-record contract, and acquired Springs via trade. If the A’s are having trouble landing free agents, they’ll certainly have trade options.
One of the best trade options could be reuniting with veteran starter Sonny Gray. The right-hander is now 36-years-old, but is coming off back-to-back seasons with 200+ strikeouts, and is also one of the best pitchers in the league at not giving free passes.
Sonny Gray’s 201 strikeout to 38 walk ratio was the best in the National League in 2025. Although on the surface his 4.28 ERA and 1.23 WHIP doesn’t make him look like anything too special, his expected numbers were a lot better, meaning he got a little bit unlucky.
Gray’s expected ERA was 3.90, which looks a lot better than his actual 4.28 ERA. His pitching style should also fit well in West Sacramento, as he does well at getting hitters to chase (81st percentile), limits walks (93rd percentile), and is a solid ground ball pitcher (66th percentile).
According to Baseball Trade Values, Gray is listed at a negative value, indicating that a team could potentially acquire cash to help pay down his salary or another player in exchange for a small return. This is the case because of Gray’s $35 million due in 2026 and $30 million for the 2027 season.
Sure, Gray will not pitch to the value of his massive salaries for the next two seasons, but it wouldn’t be a complete salary dump transaction, as St. Louis would have to pay for at least a portion of the contract and still be a solid arm in the A’s pitching staff.
Outside of Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs, the A’s pitching staff lacks veteran presence. Gray has pitched in MLB for 13 years, is a three-time All-Star, and has even finished top-3 in Cy Young voting a couple of times.
As the A’s continue to develop their younger arms in Luis Morales, Jacob Lopez, J.T. Ginn, and even their minor league arms in Gage Jump and Jamie Arnold, having a veteran like Sonny Gray in the building could positively impact their development.
The Vandy product also has three years of postseason experience, one of them being with the A’s back in 2013 after the team won the AL West. As the young A’s squad looks to continue improving and building towards a potential postseason run, having Sonny Gray’s postseason experience could also be beneficial for the team.
The A’s will have a ton of options to improve their pitching staff before they start Spring Training in February, but reuniting with Sonny Gray would be a valid option to add a good arm to their young and relatively inexperienced pitching staff.
