4 things to know about new Red Sox pitcher Sonny Gray

The Red Sox made their first main offseason transfer Tuesday, trading for righthanded pitcher Sonny Gray from the Cardinals.

In return for Grey, 36, the Sox despatched righthander Richard Fitts and minor league lefthander Brandon Clarke to St. Louis.

Grey, who performed school baseball at Vanderbilt and was chosen within the first spherical of the 2011 draft by the Oakland A’s, has performed 13 seasons within the huge leagues throughout 5 groups.

He went 14-8 with a 4.28 ERA with a 27 % strikeout charge and 5 % stroll charge over 180⅔ innings for the Cardinals final 12 months.

Listed below are 4 issues to know concerning the latest Crimson Sox pitcher.

He’s shut mates with some huge Boston names.

Vanderbilt has been a perennial producer of main leaguers all through Tim Corbin’s two-decade tenure because the Commodores coach, and Grey’s time there was no exception.

Whereas at Vanderbilt, Grey roomed with Mike Yastrzemski — an Andover native, one-time star at St. John’s Prep, grandson of Corridor of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, a 2009 Crimson Sox draft decide, and present main league outfielder.

He additionally grew shut with David Value, who grew up only a few cities over from Grey in Murfreesboro, Tenn., regardless of not enjoying on the identical roster.

Value performed for the Commodores from 2005-07, when Tampa Bay picked him first total within the draft that June. Then got here Grey, who first pitched for Vanderbilt within the spring of 2009.

Value in 2015 signed a seven-year, $217 million deal with the Red Sox, making him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball on the time, and he went on to turn into a key piece of Boston’s 2018 World Sequence-winning crew, pitching seven innings of one-run ball in Game 5 because the Crimson Sox beat the Dodgers, 5-1.

Grey and Value have maintained a friendship and infrequently labored out collectively at their alma mater as they progressed by way of their respective careers.

He was a real-life Troy Bolton in highschool … form of.

Whereas he starred on the baseball and soccer fields as a scholar at Smyrna Excessive College in Tennessee, Grey was dwelling a double life as a musical star.

He performed the main function of Troy Bolton in his faculty’s manufacturing of “Excessive College Musical,” — which, humorous sufficient, is the story of a star basketball participant who additionally has a ardour for the theater.

Corbin was within the viewers for one among Grey’s performances whereas he was recruiting the pitcher.

However there was one downside.

“He was the lead singer; he can’t sing; he’s horrible,” Corbin told Bleacher Report in 2016. “Like every part Sonny does, he thought he was actually good. And he’s actually good at most issues. Simply not singing.”

Following a tragedy, he confirmed renewed drive and willpower.

Grey, then a freshman beginning quarterback at Smyrna Excessive College, was together with his mom and sisters at Vanderbilt College Medical Heart the morning of the Aug. 26, 2004, when the choice was made to take his father, Jesse Grey, off life assist following an early-morning automotive accident.

Smyrna soccer coach Philip Shadowens joined the household on the hospital, and because the coach was leaving, Grey approached him and instructed him he needed to play within the Bulldogs’ recreation that night time.

Shadowens resisted at first and instructed his quarterback he ought to be together with his mother and sisters within the wake of the tragedy.

“After which he appeared me useless within the eyes, as a 14-year-old child, and stated, ‘Coach, my daddy would need me to play tonight,’” Shadowens stated, according to the New York Daily News.

Grey threw 4 landing passes that night time as Smyrna beat Hendersonville, 48-42.

“It appears like folklore, however that’s simply sort of who Sonny has all the time been,” Shadowens instructed the Every day Information. “That’s why he’s the golden youngster of Smyrna, Tennessee.”

Grey went on to win back-to-back state titles in soccer in 2006 and 2007 and was named Tennessee’s Gatorade Participant of the 12 months in 2007 and 2008.

The Crimson Sox narrowly missed on Grey within the 2011 MLB Draft,

The Crimson Sox have been subsequent on the clock and poised to pick out Grey when the Athletics nabbed him with the 18th decide within the 2011 draft.

With Grey off the board, Boston opted for righthander and Connecticut native Matt Barnes, who performed 9 seasons in a Crimson Sox uniform. Barnes appeared in reduction in Sport 1 of the 2018 World Sequence, an 8-4 win over the Dodgers.