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Red Sox’ Sonny Gray ‘not surprised’ his Yankees comments went viral
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- Red Sox’ Sonny Gray ‘not surprised’ his Yankees comments went viral
During his Red Sox introductory Zoom call with the media in December, Sonny Gray was upfront about his experience playing for the Yankees .
Gray, who pitched for New York in 2017-18, said it “ just wasn’t a good situation” for him and he “never wanted to go there in the first place.”
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Boston acquired Gray from the Cardinals on Nov. 25 after he waived his no-trade clause .
“I will say what did factor into my decision to come to Boston is it feels good to me to go to a place now where it’s easy to hate the Yankees,” Gray said back in December.
His comments ended up going viral. Even Yankees GM Brian Cashman was asked about them during the Winter Meetings. Cashman told reporters that Gray’s account represented some revisionist history. He said Gray had previously told him he lied about wanting to be traded to New York .
‘I’m not surprised," Gray said about the viral attention. “To be fair, I did not see any of them other than people shooting me a text (about it). ... But I’ve also learned that no matter what I say or no matter what I do, people are going to take it and use it however they want to use it. And I’m OK with that at this point.”
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The 36-year-old Gray said he wasn’t always able to tune out things written and said about him.
“I learned a lot by going through all of the years that I’ve gone through this and I’ve learned to stay away from it, to be quite frank and honest with you,” Gray said. “I’ve learned to just be myself, be open, not try to shy away from anything, but also don’t follow it after that.”
Gray has put social media to the side. He hasn’t tweeted since 2023.
“I don’t have the Twitter and I don’t have the apps,” Gray said. “I’ve learned that they’re genuinely not healthy for me. And there may be times in my career where I’ve gotten caught up in that a little bit too much. ... I don’t feel like it’s good or beneficial for my well being of just a human being. I just stay away from it.”
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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.
His tenure in New York was the low point of his career. 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.
“Ever since I left New York, I’ve done a really good job of staying away from that stuff because it doesn’t matter to me,” Gray said. “But I’ve also learned to be myself.”
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