Sonny Gray’s Admission on Joining the Yankees
During a recent news conference, Sonny Gray made a comment about his reluctance to join the New York Yankees, mentioning that it “feels good to go to a place where it’s easy to hate” them. This caught the attention of Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who responded to the statements on Sunday.
Cashman revealed that back in 2017, Gray had expressed a desire to come to the Yankees to various people, including the team’s minor league video coordinator and a former college roommate. “While he was with the Oakland Athletics, he was saying, ‘Get me to the Yankees, tell Cash…I want to win a world championship, I want out of Oakland,’” Cashman recounted.
The Yankees had acquired Gray from the Athletics just before the 2017 trade deadline. Yet, by the following year, he was surprised that they didn’t trade him again. He struggled during his time with the Yankees, particularly at home. “Later on, he said he never wanted to be here,” Cashman recalled. “He was, you know, not enjoying New York. I told him it was a bit late for that revelation, considering he had initially expressed a wish to be traded here.”
Gray mentioned that his agent, Bo McKinnis, advised him to be careful in how he approached the situation, implying that it might not be beneficial for free agency to openly state a dislike for certain teams. “He said, ‘My agent told me to lie; it’s not good for free agency to say there are places you don’t want to go,'” Cashman said.
McKinnis, however, strongly denied Cashman’s claims, arguing that it was illogical for Gray to have expressed a desire to join the Yankees while simultaneously not wanting to be with them. “Cashman thinks I somehow helped Sonny with his free agency by lying on his behalf,” he remarked.
Despite the controversy, fans quickly pointed out a video of Gray’s introduction to the Yankees, where he appeared genuinely excited about the opportunity to play for such a prestigious team. Cashman reflected on their prior conversation, expressing some regret: “I said, ‘I wish you’d communicated with me better before. I wish I’d known you didn’t want to come here.'”
After the 2018 season, Gray was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, where he experienced a successful career, both before and after his time with the Yankees. Now, at 36, he finds himself once again in a heated rivalry, as he was recently acquired by the Boston Red Sox.
