Gray reached the 200-strikeout plateau in 2024 in his first year with the Cardinals, marking the second time in his career he's gotten to that level. At 30.3 percent, he was one of just three qualifiers to fan 30 percent of the batters he faced, joining Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal. Gray's sweeper was once again his go-to pitch for swings and misses with a 44.4 percent whiff rate, although he topped a 20 percent whiff rate with four other pitches, as well. Problems with the home run ball away from cavernous Busch Stadium helped lead to a pedestrian 3.84 ERA, but ERA indicators suggest Gray should have been at least a half-run or so better than that. Gray hasn't reached 200 innings since he did it back-to-back years in 2014 and 2015 with the Athletics, but with an average of 28.2 starts and 156.1 innings over the last five non-COVID seasons, he compares favorably to most of his contemporaries. Read Past Outlooks