Sonny Gray didn’t mince words when he joined the Red Sox via trade this past offseason. Needing to waive a no-trade clause for the deal to go through, Gray said one factor in the decision was that it felt good to “go to a place now where it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”
“I never wanted to go there in the first place,” said Gray, who spent the end of 2017 and all of 2018 with the Yankees after a trade from the A’s. After struggling to a 4.90 ERA in 2018, the Yankees shipped Gray to the Reds, where he became an All-Star in 2019.
Now, the 36-year-old righty will get another up-close taste of The Rivalry.
Gray will get the start Wednesday as the Red Sox face elimination at Yankee Stadium in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series. The Yankees won Game 1, 9-0, behind a dominant Cam Schlittler start.
“As far as reception, this or that, it will be what it will be,” Gray said before Tuesday’s game. “I'm not going to sit here and try to control something that I can't control because I ultimately have no control over that.
“It will be what it will be, and I'll just do my part to be ready to go out there and compete and to pitch and to go win a game.”
Gray described his time in New York as a “snowball” with “a lot of outside this, outside that, unfamiliarity with me and my situation and my family.” He added that it took time and a different environment to reflect on what happened.
“But I do know that playing here [New York] made me a stronger person, made me a better man, a better husband,” Gray said. “Ultimately, it made me a better pitcher, a better baseball player. And that's kind of what I take from my time here.”
Gray got back to his best self in his first year in Boston after two seasons with the Cardinals. Leading MLB with 18 wins in 29 starts, the 14-year veteran turned in a 2.72 ERA. He owned a 2.79 ERA in 2023 for the Twins, when he finished as the AL Cy Young runner-up.
Gray faced the Yankees twice in the 2026 regular season. The Red Sox won both games, one at Yankee Stadium and one at Fenway Park. Gray turned in 6 1/3 innings of three-run ball his first time and 7 1/3 scoreless frames the second, striking out nine and flirting with a no-hitter.
The Red Sox will need that version of Gray on Wednesday with their backs against the wall. After all, teams taking a 1-0 lead in a three-game Wild Card series have gone on to win the series 21 of 24 times (88%), including 17 two-game sweeps. Home teams have won all nine series in which they have gone ahead 1-0, including eight sweeps.
“I feel good,” Gray said. “I think the atmosphere will be a high-level, high-energy, intense playoff atmosphere, which, as a player that's played for a while, who's been around, that's what you want, right? For me, that's what keeps you wanting to continue to come back and play.”