ORLANDO, Fla. – The Boston Purple Sox and New York Yankees have butted heads in a plethora of how over the past 125 years.
This time, it’s a ‘He mentioned, he mentioned’ between new Purple Sox starter Sonny Gray and longtime Yankees common supervisor Brian Cashman.
Grey revisited his depressing tenure with the 2017-18 Yankees final week in his first Red Sox press conference, saying, “I by no means wished to go there within the first place … it feels good to me to go to a spot now the place, you realize what, it’s straightforward to hate the Yankees.”
On Sunday night time, Cashman instructed reporters at MLB Winter Conferences that whereas pitching for the then-Oakland Athletics, Grey had lied “to plenty of completely different folks” about eager to change into a Yankee.
“When he was with the A’s, he was telling our minor-league video coordinator, ‘You bought to get me over to the Yankees,’ ” Cashman mentioned. “Inform Money, get me over to the Yankees. I need out of Oakland. I desire a championship.”
New Red Sox pitcher reflects on Yankees stint: ‘I never wanted to go there”
Grey loved success with the A’s within the first 5 of his 13 big-league seasons. He made his main league debut in 2013, posted a 3.42 ERA over 114 regular-season video games with the California membership, and in 2015 was an All-Star and third-runner up for American League Cy Younger.
The A’s have been pretty profitable his first two seasons, profitable the AL West in ‘13 and incomes a Wild Card the next yr, however the downward spiral got here onerous and quick. They went 212-274 over Grey’s ultimate three seasons, ending final of their division annually and by no means profitable greater than 75 video games.
When the Yankees acquired Grey halfway via the ‘17 season, he instructed reporters, “I couldn’t be happier to be right here.”
Apparently he would have been a lot happier elsewhere, and after the Yankees didn’t commerce him on the ‘18 deadline, he met with Cashman on the stadium and enlightened him.
“He instructed me he by no means wished to be right here,” mentioned Cashman. “He hates New York. (He mentioned,) ‘That is the worst place.’ He simply sits in his lodge room.”
The entire gambit, Cashman mentioned, had been Grey’s agent Bo McKinnis’ thought.
“‘(McKinnis) instructed me to do this,’” Cashman mentioned Grey instructed him, explaining that his agent claimed he didn’t need his shopper to specific negativity about particular groups forward of his free company. “‘(He) instructed me to lie.’”
Shocked, Cashman mentioned he replied, “ ‘I want you’ll have instructed me effectively beforehand.’ ” He instructed Grey he would attempt to commerce him that offseason, and in January ‘19, despatched the righty to the Cincinnati Reds.
In a pair of statements to The Athletic, McKinnis dissected and refuted a number of of the Yankees GM’s claims, saying the supposed free-agency technique “makes zero sense.”
“If a participant doesn’t wish to play for a selected membership — thus probably not acting at their finest in the event that they have been with that staff — it doesn’t assist their profession and future free company to lie their manner right into a commerce to that membership,” the agent mentioned.
Grey’s 4.51 ERA with the Yankees, his worst mark with any of his 5 groups up to now, helps his agent’s declare. So, too, do his numbers within the seven seasons since leaving New York: 184 begins between the Reds, Minnesota Twins, and St. Louis Cardinals, a mixed 3.51 ERA, 3.31 FIP, and 1.153 WHIP, with 1,136 strikeouts throughout 1,017.1 innings. He averaged 28.3 begins and over 160 innings within the six 162-game seasons on this span. (Grey made 11 begins in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic restricted MLB to a 60-game season.)
“The phrases, ‘I need out of Oakland,’ have by no means been mentioned by Sonny,” added McKinnis in his second assertion. “He liked his time with the A’s.”
How Grey will really feel after his Purple Sox tenure, which may embrace the 2027 season in the event that they choose up his membership possibility, stays to be seen. But it’s already completely different from his Yankees tenure in a single essential respect.
Grey had no management over his future when the A’s dealt him to the Yankees throughout his years of arbitration eligibility, however his present contract included a no-trade clause.
If he hadn’t wished to pitch for the Purple Sox, he wouldn’t be delivery as much as Boston.
