Shortly after the Yankees ended Aaron Boone’s first season with a disheartening performance in the ALDS against the dominant 108-win and eventual champion Boston Red Sox, Brian Cashman’s candidness about Sonny Gray was stunning.

It was not stunning Cashman was candid since he shows the trait occasionally, most recently with his comments about Giancarlo Stanton and pushback against criticisms of the Yankees being too centered and focused on analytics in recent seasons.

The stunning aspect of Cashman’s comments pertained to the delivery of what is known as a money quote when describing his plans to trade Gray.

“We’re entering the winter open-minded to relocation,” Cashman said of Gray on Oct. 12, 2018. “It’s probably best to try somewhere else.”

Gray’s time with the Yankees is among several recent moves not to work out for various reasons and on Monday, he signed a contract that will pay him $75 million to relocate from Minnesota to St. Louis for the next three seasons. The reason Gray was able to land that kind of deal is what he did in the final two years of a roughly $30 million contract he signed with Cincinnati upon being relocated from the Bronx on Jan. 21, 2019.

As a Yankee, Gray was 15-16 with a 4.51 ERA in 41 appearances. He made 34 of those outings as a starting pitcher before being pulled from the rotation following an outing when he lasted only 2 2/3 innings on Aug. 1, 2018, against a version of the Orioles who lost 115 games. In one of those things occurring often with those who struggle, Gray produced a 6.98 ERA at Yankee Stadium in 2018 and a 3.17 ERA on the road.

Since being relocated Gray is 39-33 with a 3.22 ERA and before he was relocated from Oakland to the Yankees, he was 44-36 with a 3.42 ERA in 114 games. Last year he was second to Gerrit Cole in the AL Cy Young race due to his 2.79 ERA and not his 8-8 record which shows he was pitching with little run support at times and the occasional dose of bad luck.

He also is a six-pitch thrower with a four-seam fastball, and an evolving sweeper to go along with the curveball, singer, cutter and changeup. It was the sweeper which first entered the lexicon this past season that showed the most success as Gray allowed 19 hits against the pitch.

So to numbers and pitch mix shown by Gray in Cincinnati and Minnesota are why Gray’s Midwest resurgence will continue with the Cardinals, who are the early leaders for free agency activity by adding Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson.

“Where I am in my career,” Gray told reporters during his introductory press conference at Busch Stadium, “I want to win. I’m coming to an organization like St. Louis — the tradition, just walking in here this morning, walking around seeing everything — the history is there. The feel is there. It’s just a baseball town and city and a place that I’m thrilled to be able to come and be part of it.”

According to the AP, Gray’s third relocation from the Yankees includes a $30 million team option for the 2027 season with a $5 million buyout. The buyout could make the deal worth $100 million over four seasons, which would be about $38 million more than his career earnings to date.

“We were hoping to sign a couple of pitchers we knew we could count on for innings,” Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told reporters. “And if we could accomplish that, we were hoping we could do something a little bigger, a little longer, and obviously that’s where Sonny fits in.”

So five years later, why didn’t it work out in New York is a question still being asked? Obviously the performance is the main reason just like other than injury would be main cause of someone’s struggles with the Yankees, but perhaps there’s something more, at least it seemed that way in comments he gave to Fangraphs shortly before he dominated the Yankees in Minneapolis on April 24.

Among the notable things, he said was the Yankees discouraged him from throwing two-seam fastballs but either way the Yankees were never able to get it clicking for Gray, which is why they were so open and candid to relocating him somewhere.

And three relocations later, Gray has evolved into a dependable pitcher worthy of the kind of contract the Cardinals signed him to earlier this week.