Scott Boras thinks an uptick in what he’s calling “pitching panic” will heat up the market for free agents and Boras clients Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, top-end starters still looking for work with opening day less than a month away.
“We’ve got so many starting pitchers who are now compromised — maybe short-term, but some long-term,” Boras said Monday. “The calls for elite starters are certainly starting to increase.”
Might be time to add St. Louis to the list after All-Star Sonny Gray exited his start against Washington on Monday in the second inning with right hamstring tightness.
Gray had a 1-1 count against Nick Senzel when he called timeout and promptly left the game. The right-hander, who finished runner-up to Yankee ace Gerrit Cole in AL Cy Young voting last year while playing for Minnesota, allowed one hit with a strikeout in 1 2/3 innings against the Nationals.
Gray was scheduled to have an MRI later Monday and declined to speak to reporters after his departure. The 34-year-old, who signed a $75 million, three-year deal with St. Louis in November, is slated to be St. Louis’ opening day starter.
CHAPMAN BACK BY THE BAY
Third baseman Matt Chapman is back where he once belonged. Well, almost.
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray, right, talks in the dugout with trainer Adam Olsen after being removed during the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Washington Nationals Monday, March 4, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. The team announced that Gray was removed due to tightness in his right hamstring. Credit: AP/Jeff Roberson
The veteran third baseman — who spent five years as a fixture at third for the Oakland Athletics from 2017-21 — is returning to the Bay Area with San Francisco.
Chapman, who signed a $54 million, three-year deal to join the Giants, felt like he had something “special” going in Oakland early in his career before it was “ripped” out of the players’ hands by frugal ownership. That…
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