And it sounds like he is really looking forward to facing New York with his new club.
“What did factor into my decision to come to Boston, it feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees, right?” Gray said in a video conference with reporters on Tuesday. “It’s easy to go out and have that rivalry and go into it with full force, full steam ahead. I like the challenge.”
Gray became a Yankee ahead of the 2017 Trade Deadline when the A’s dealt him as the centerpiece of a four-player swap. But he scuffled to a 4.51 ERA over 41 appearances (34 starts) before the Yanks shipped him off to the Reds.
Gray was blunt when asked to reflect on his time with the Yankees: “I never wanted to go there in the first place.” He added that the move “just didn’t really work for who I am” and wasn’t great for him or his family.
However, Gray has gone on to make two All-Star teams and turn in a handful of solid seasons after leaving New York, including a runner-up finish for the American League Cy Young Award in 2023 with the Twins. He credited his time with the Yankees, as bumpy as it was, for helping to make him better on and off the field.
“I do appreciate my time [in New York],” Gray said. “I do feel like the last seven years of my career, my life and everything, I’ve been a better baseball player, husband, everything from having that experience and going through that. I just feel like I learned so much after going through that.
“When I immediately left, I was just like, you know what? I just wasn’t myself. And I don’t know what led to that or anything, but I just didn’t feel like I was allowed to, ‘Hey, just go out there and be Sonny, like, go out there and just be yourself.’”
