Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman discuss the pitcher’s recent comments reflecting on his time in New York after signing with Boston. Check out the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Sonny Gray, in his introductory Zoom, being like, “Hey,” I’m on the Red Sox now.
They were like, Hey, Sonny, how are you going to handle pitching in the big leagues?
Big market, like where everyone’s, you know, really mad at you when you pitch bad.
He’s like, well, he’s like, they’re like, you know, I didn’t do so well in New York.
You know, why is this going to be different?
And it is worth noting, we did not mention this when we talked about the Sonny Ray trade.
He did; he had a no-trade clause he did choose to say.
Yes, I want to go to the Red Sox.
That is, that is all notable, and I dont really think we discussed enough about.
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Look, like him, can he handle the Big Apple?
Narrative is with most players, I think it’s overdone.
But we all know that he is the Yankee was a disaster.
He is in the group of people we’ve seen where I genuinely believe being there Environment.
Made the player worse, right?
Like him.
Joey Gallo, like, that’s kind of, There are some others.
I mean, this is, We don’t have to do that whole “What that means,” but we know the Sonny Gray Yankees thing.
Did not go well, did not go well.
And I think it’s a legitimate question.
Hey, that went really poorly because of reasons related to the size of the market and the way That the fans were demanding, and it affected him.
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And so, to ask that question with him going to Boston is interesting.
What did he say, Jordan?
That was even more interesting.
He was like, I never wanted to go there in the first place.
It wasn’t my choice.
They sent me there, and I didn’t like living here.
Again, you’re talking about the size of the market and the fans.
Like it also just sounds like the life of being in New York.
Which is not for everybody, admittedly.
Uh, it was not meant for him.
That was a long time ago.
Sonny Gray’s, you know, career has progressed.
He’s earned more money.
He has, I think, more children than before then.
Um, he’s older, he’s wiser, he’s experienced with more stuff.
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He’s throwing softer.
Now he’s, right now, like, Cool, I’ll go pitch in Boston.
But based on his comments, he’s saying things like, Im excited, Like, now I get to be on a team where it’s like, I get to hate the Yankees for a living.
That’s great.
I love this.
It’s like, whoa, OK.
So, then, of course, what does that mean?
Yankees are like, Well, hold on a second.
You never want to come here.
Well, then, it’s like the meme, Like me?
Me?
Well, what do you mean?
Uh, so Brian Cashmans here in Orlando.
They got the Yankees folks to talk to Brian Cashman.
They’re like, ‘Hey, dude, what’s going on here?’
You, you have traded for Sonny Gray, you never wanted to come here.
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And Brian Cashman’s like, he told me he did want to come here.
He was telling his people; he was telling the minor-league video coordinator that I want to Be a Yankee.
I, you know, sure.
Uh, and then afterwards he admitted, “No, I really didn’t.”
Like I was just saying, that’s because my free agency was coming up, and I didn’t want to make It seems like I didn’t want to go to New York.
And it’s like, Maybe some of that’s true, maybe some of it’s not.
Rehashing the back-and-forth between these three from eight years ago, Not interesting to me.
What is interesting to me now is Sonny Gray is going to pitch against the Yankees one, two, three, four, or five times next year.
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Uh, as we have talked about on this podcast over the last half-decade, Like, all right, what is the status of Red Sox Yankees?
Do we have something adding spice to this, relative to where it used to be?
You know, 10:15, 20 years ago?
And now we have a very, like, just blatant example of Sonny Gray, Who was, who was a new Red Sox very late in his career, being like, Yes, I am looking forward to beating the Yankees because I had a bad time there.
And however we got there, whoever was lying, whoever misheard, Misunderstood, it doesn’t matter about that.
I don’t care.
Uh, this is enough to be like, okay, I am now very excited to watch Sonny Gray pitch in New York next season.
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The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is not as Spicy as it once was; over the last three months, we have come to have fun, Juicy little things that we can make bigger deals than they are next year between Cam Schlitter and Sonny Gray.
And Yankees fan, its great; give me more of this.