Newest Red Sox starting pitcher Sonny Gray has pitched for one major-market team — the New York Yankees — in his career and the experience went poorly.
But that didn’t deter him from waiving his no-trade clause to agree to come to Boston, a similar East Coast media market as New York.
The Red Sox sent pitcher Richard Fitts and pitching prospect Brandon Clarke to the Cardinals for the 36-year-old righty on Tuesday morning.
Gray has a career 3.58 ERA in 339 outings (330 starts) over 13 major league seasons for the Athletics, Yankees, Reds, Twins and Cardinals. The one blemish on his resume came in New York.
He posted a 4.51 ERA in his 41 outings (34 starts) in 2017-18 for the Yankees, who demoted him to the bullpen during August 2018 after he posted a 5.56 ERA in 21 starts that season. New York traded him to the Reds in January 2019. He told the New York Post in July 2019, “I think everyone kind of knows that New York wasn’t a great fit for me, place for me, last year.”
“The no-trade (clause) is a great barometer for how interested a player is in coming to a specific destination,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said during a Zoom press conference Tuesday. “And so by the nature of Sonny’s willingness to waive it to come here, I think that says a lot about his interest.”
Because of the no-trade clause, the Red Sox and Cardinals had to loop in Gray to get it done.
“I had a chance to talk to him, and he’s excited,” Breslow said. “I think he saw from afar what we’re building here. He had a ton of admiration that he expressed for Garrett (Crochet) and how much he believes Garrett can push him and how that (they) can push each other. And he was very clear about his desire to win and his excitement about this opportunity. So he’s very excited to come to Boston, and we’re excited to have him.”
The Red Sox re-worked Gray’s contract so that their commitment to him is worth about $21 million in 2026. His new deal will pay him $31 million in 2026 and includes a $10 million mutual option in 2027. With St. Louis pitching in $20 million, the Red Sox will be on the hook for $21 million.
“Certainly some complicated layers to this, given the no-trade protection that he had rightfully earned,” Breslow said. “And so as I was going back and forth with (Cardinals president of baseball operations) Chaim (Bloom), we’re trying to figure the right approach to this.
“There were conversations about potential trades probably early on in the offseason. I think those were made pretty public by Chaim and the players,” Breslow added. “I think what wasn’t so public was interest in coming to a specific market. So there’s always the chance that this could go sideways at some point. But fortunately, Sonny was excited about the opportunity to come to Boston. That was obviously the first question that he asked is ‘What is the team? I don’t need to know all the details, but what’s the team?’ And the response was overwhelming excitement.”
The Yankees traded Gray to the Reds in January 2019 and he reestablished himself as an elite starting pitcher in Cincinnati, making the 2019 NL All-Star team and finishing seventh for the Cy Young.
Gray posted a 4.28 ERA and 201 strikeouts in 32 starts (180 ⅔ innings) in 2025 for the Cardinals.
Breslow said two weeks ago at the GM Meetings that the Red Sox were looking to add a front of the rotation starter behind Crochet. Is Gray their No. 2?
“I don’t know how much sense it makes in November to put a number on a guy,” Breslow said. “I think Sonny is a very talented major league pitcher. The seasons that he’s put up pretty consistently indicate that to be the case. That said, we still intend to improve our team and exactly what that looks like, we don’t know right now. But we’ll continue to explore opportunities and figure out where that takes us.”
