Should Sonny Gray's Rough Tenure with Yankees Scare Boston Red Sox Fans?

The Boston Red Sox acquired three-time All-Star Sonny Gray on Tuesday in a big deal with the St. Louis Cardinals. Though the offseason is incomplete thus far, Gray currently figures to be the team's No. 2 starter behind Garrett Crochet. He'll be in front of Brayan Bello, with the fourth and fifth starter spots still to be decided in spring training.

Gray brings a real resume of success with him to Boston, having pitched very well over his 13-year career with the Oakland Athletics, Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota Twins and Cardinals.

The only place that Gray didn't have success? The New York Yankees, who acquired him at the trade deadline in 2017. With New York, Gray was just 15-16 with a 4.51 ERA in 41 appearances over two seasons.

The defenders of Gray will say that it was the outlier of his career and isn't that big a deal, while the people who don't like this move will say that Gray's time in the Bronx shows that he can't pitch in a big market.

So, which one is it?

Former big-league catcher Erik Kratz, who is now a contributor to the popular "Foul Territory TV" show spent some time with the Yankees in 2017, playing with Gray and appearing in a handful of games.

He said that Gray didn't love the way he was used by the Yankees and the strict "box" they essentially tried to put him in. Gray was apparently frustrated by the pitch usage in New York and that the Yankees allegedly took away some of the pitching freedoms he had enjoyed in Oakland.

That coincides with what Gray told The Athletic in 2019 about his time in New York.

“They had me throw more breaking balls than I ever had before,” Gray said of New York.

It’s just they had him throwing the wrong breaking ball.

“I can’t command my slider that well,” he admitted. “I want to throw my slider in the dirt with two strikes, and that’s about it. I don’t have that type of slider, like Tanaka’s slider. His slider, the catcher will catch it, and the batter will swing and miss. If I get a swing and miss, the catcher is blocking it in the dirt. When I try to throw sliders for a strike, I get around it and it’s just a s***** spinning pitch. I don’t know how people throw sliders for strikes that are still tight, good pitches. I’m at 2-0 and I’m throwing a slider, and either I’m throwing a shitty slider in the zone, or I’m yanking it into the dirt and it’s 3-0 and I’m screwed either way.

“They love sliders,” he said of the Yankees

The lesson for the Red Sox, and pitching coach Andrew Bailey, is to let Gray be himself. He won't necessarily fit into one specific box and they should try to force him into it.

If they trust him to be the guy that he's been for most of his career, he should be able to have success in Boston, regardless of the market size.

You can hear more on this in the video player above.

The Red Sox will wait for the winter meetings to get going in Orlando (Dec. 7-10). It's there that some additional big moves should go down, for the Red Sox and other teams. Boston has been linked to Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, Jorge Polanco, Bo Bichette and Eugenio Suarez at various points this winter.

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