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Veteran starter Sonny Gray has returned to the American League East as a member of the Boston Red Sox, acquired last week in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Introduced to the Boston media Tuesday morning, the former Yankees right-hander reflected on his turbulent tenure in The Bronx and emphasized his excitement to be on the other side of the most historic rivalry in sports.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels good to me to go to a place where it\u2019s easy to hate the Yankees,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n The Yankees acquired Gray, now 36, from the Athletics less than an hour before the trade deadline in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cI never wanted to go there in the first place,\u201d Gray, who waived his no-trade clause to join the Red Sox, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n Eight-plus years ago, he was singing a different tune.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cExpectations are always high at a place like this and I wouldn\u2019t want it any other way,\u201d Gray said the day after he was dealt<\/a> to The Bronx. \u201cI\u2019m ready. I couldn\u2019t be happier with how it all played out.\u201d<\/p>\n Former New York Yankees pitcher Sonny Gray has rejoined the American League East after being acquired from the Boston Red Sox last week. AP<\/p>\n The former All-Star was gone after the following season, shipped to the Cincinnati Reds<\/a> after posting a brutal 4.51 ERA across 34 total starts in Pinstripes.<\/p>\n He signed a three-year extension with the Reds and swiftly regained his ace-level form in Cincinnati, delivering a dominant 2019 campaign that saw him finish seventh in Cy Young Award voting.<\/p>\n Gray spent two seasons with the Twins before landing with the Cardinals, and he capped his second year with St. Louis by holding a 4.28 ERA with 201 strikeouts across 32 starts.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n He admitted Tuesday that he still has a certain appreciation for his time with the Yankees, despite the disappointing experience.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been a better baseball player, husband, everything from having that experience and going through that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Gray isn\u2019t the first former Yankee to vocalize his distaste for the franchise after joining their greatest rival.<\/p>\n Just a couple of months ago, flame-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman \u2014 who spent parts of seven seasons in The Bronx from 2016-22 \u2014 asserted that he would rather hang up his cleats than return to the club.<\/p>\n \u201cNo way, not even dead,\u201d Chapman said on a podcast<\/a>, as translated from Spanish. \u201cIf I were told that I was being traded to New York, I\u2019d pack my things and go home. I\u2019ll retire right on the spot if that happens. I\u2019m not crazy. Never again.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The Yankees and Red Sox added another thrilling chapter to their storied rivalry during the 2025 postseason, when the Bombers eliminated Boston in Game 3 behind a dazzling performance from Massachusetts-born rookie starter Cam Schlittler \u2014 who added fuel to the fire by trolling opposing fans<\/a> in the following weeks.<\/p>\n It seems as though the tension has continued to escalate in the early stages of the offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Access the Yankees beat like never before Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[1820,1113,5,48,20455,535,50,4259,4,536,1587,673,67,1949,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-458231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-american-league-east","9":"tag-aroldis-chapman","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-cam-schlittler","13":"tag-cincinnati","14":"tag-cincinnati-reds","15":"tag-cincinnatireds","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-reds","18":"tag-sonny-gray","19":"tag-st-louis","20":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","21":"tag-the-athletics","22":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115653449887332018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4fd06513cb0c9cc39cc1c1be0893489a.jpeg\"\/)
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