Chapter 1: How did the trade for Sonny Gray come about?
for that picture that you needed sure um you know he was he was somebody that we had interest in um but you know it's early in the off season and there's interest across a whole span of players um but you know i just think it could make sense given our interest in building the best team we possibly can in 2026 and that uh you know potentially lining up with with what St.
Louis is trying to accomplish. And when you think about, you know, what Sonny has been in this league, it's a, it's a guy who's pitched at the front of rotations and, you know, those things that we think pitchers carry from year to year, things like strikeout rates and walk rates and ability to, you know, to stay off barrels. He excels there.
So we're really excited about adding a guy that, you know, is coming off back to back 200 strikeout seasons and, you know, shouldering significant workload.
That said, Craig, do you view him as kind of the number two behind Crochet at this point? And would you consider adding to the rotation going forward?
You know, I don't know how much sense it makes in November to put a number on a guy, I think, Sonny is a very talented major league pitcher. The seasons that he's put up pretty consistently indicate that to be the case. That said, we still intend to improve our team. And exactly what that looks like, we don't know right now.
But we'll continue to explore opportunities and figure out where that takes us.
Craig, how much did his pitch mix play into wanting to work with him? You mentioned missing barrels, having a number of different pitches. Was the type of pitcher that he was outside of his caliber something that drew your attention?
Well, We start by evaluating the performance on the field and try to understand what, like I said, what abilities and what metrics are sticky year to year because we're making a bet on what anybody is going to be in 2026, not what they have been in the past. And the strikeout rate and walk rate are, like I said, a good place to start.
Beyond that, though, he is a guy whose secondaries make up a significant part of the arsenal and particularly like sweeper and curveball are just two really, really good pitches. And you can look at
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Chapter 2: What metrics influenced the decision to acquire Sonny Gray?
Or is this like the big name starter edition you guys will make?
Like I said, I don't want to paint ourselves into a corner here. We felt like there was an opportunity to upgrade our rotation in 2026, and so we did that. It's early in the offseason. There are still opportunities that I anticipate materializing. Exactly what those look like, I'm not sure, but we're not going to close off any chance to make the team better.
Greg, how long have you targeted Sonny?
Sure. You know, I think initial interest going back even to the trade deadline, you know, and then as you start to have conversations with free agents, with other teams, you can't perfectly dictate timelines. And, you know, I think in two short years here, I've learned that when you have an opportunity in front of you that makes sense, you need to act on it.
Greg, obviously you have a lot of young pitchers who you're going to be giving opportunities, whether in spring training or in the near future, to compete for rotation spots. Was the idea of acquiring a starter for a kind of short-term appealing from that vantage point of pieces fitting over the course of the longer term?
Each of these situations is unique, right? There are certainly pitchers that are going to require long-term commitments. There will be position players who do so. And, you know, I don't think we can shy away from that, you know, especially in free agency. Otherwise, we'll largely be left with very limited options. That said...
I think this will be an important development year for a number of our guys and exactly where that takes place. I'm not sure. And the speed that it takes place at, I'm not sure. But knowing that, you know, guys like early and totally Harrison paralysis and.
Dobbins and others are all capable of taking a step forward or multiple steps forward and, you know, working their way towards the front of the rotation. We want to leave them the opportunity to do so. We also need to make sure that we're not becoming so reliant on, you know, on guys that need to continue to develop that we find ourselves handicapping our chances in the short term.
Craig, Sonny had kind of a negative experience in New York seven or eight years ago in his only full season with the Yankees, didn't seem to enjoy the environment.
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Chapter 3: How does Sonny Gray fit into the Red Sox starting rotation?
Did you talk to him in the process about, obviously he had to waive his no trade to have this take place, but did you talk to him about pitching in Boston and how he felt about that size market and attention? Sure.
You know, the no trade is a great barometer for how interested a player is in coming to a specific destination, right? And so, you know, kind of by nature of Sonny's willingness to waive it to come here, I think that says a lot about his interest. Beyond that, I had a chance to talk to him and he's excited. I think he saw from afar what we're building here.
He had a ton of admiration that he expressed for Garrett and how much he believes Garrett can push him and how they can push each other. And he was very clear about his desire to win and his excitement about this opportunity. So he's very excited to come to Boston and we're excited to have him.
Can you take us through just, you know, the process the last few days, you know, obviously you're not usually looping in a player when you're acquiring them in a trade, but you know, what point did you have to start talking to them about, you know, renegotiating and getting them to.
Sure. Certainly some complicated layers to this, given the no trade protection that he had rightfully earned. And so, you know, as, We were going back and forth with, as I was going back and forth with Haim, you know, we're trying to figure the right approach to this. And I think everyone has their preferences.
And, you know, obviously I would defer to him because Sonny was his player, you know, about exactly the right time. But, you know, I think that, there were conversations about potential trades probably early on in the off season. I think those were made pretty public by, by Hyman, the players, um, you know, I think wasn't, what wasn't so public was interest in coming to a specific market.
Um, you know, so there, there was always the chance that, that this could go sideways at some point, but fortunately, like I had said earlier, um, you know, Sonny was excited about the opportunity to come to Boston. That was, that was obviously the first question that he asked, you know, is, is what is the team? I don't need to know all the details, but what's the team. Um, and, uh,
you know, the response was overwhelming excitement.
Greg, what did you think? Just the overall kind of acquisition cost and, you know, the two guys you gave up, you know, what are your thoughts on them?
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Chapter 4: What are the potential future moves for the Red Sox after this trade?
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was great for us while he was here. He came over in a trade a couple of years ago, um, and was completely bought into what we were, uh, hoping that, that he would do in terms of getting bigger and stronger and adding velocity and leaning into his secondaries.
Chapter 5: What was Sonny Gray's pitch mix and why is it significant?
Um, you know, and then with, uh, with Brandon guy that we drafted really, really exciting stuff. Uh, and you know, they're both easy guys to root for. And, and, you know, you hope that when you have these trades, like it works out for both sides, you know, and so it will, we'll hope that each of those guys goes on to successful major league careers.
And we hope that Sonny is everything that we, we need him to be in 2026 for us.
Right. Have you got a better idea how the free agent bat market is shaping out or has it changed at all since the GM meetings?
Still feels pretty early in terms of getting to understand, you know, interested teams, interesting, interested players. And, you know, I think it's often overlooked in these in these processes that, you know, you need to have mutual interest. Right.
This isn't just about, you know, the the teams that have interest in particular players, players often for the first times in their careers get the opportunity to choose where they want to call home for the next, you know, one to 12 years at times, you know, and so there's a bit of a feeling out and getting to know each other type process. And I think it's still pretty early in that.
Good. After you acquire the number two starter, what's your next your priority from now?
Sure. We've been pretty transparent about our desire to add to the rotation and our desire to add a bat on the position player side. It's impossible to know exactly what the order of operations will be. So we'll continue to look for opportunities to improve the team. But, you know, I wouldn't say we're going to exclusively focus on one thing at the expense of the other.
We want to be open minded. And, you know, so I don't think this is a, you know, close off all opportunities and look exclusively at position players. But I also think that, you know, there's a chance that that comes into focus now over the next couple of weeks.
Craig, what are the advantages of, you know, checking a box for one of your two major needs this relatively early in the off season before free agents start coming off the board before, you know, we've had a couple of trades in the last couple of days, but there hasn't been a lot of movement to sort of get what you need pretty early. What advantages come with that?
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