Presser: Craig Breslow Explains How Sonny Gray Trade Went Down
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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 the whiff rates and the chase rates on the sweeper and say like this this is the foundation of a really strong arsenal and i think he will uh he'll be a great match for bales and the rest of the pitching group and uh you know the philosophies that they have in terms of uh you know leaning into strengths potentially pitching away from slug and often that meaning pitching away from from fastballs when you have secondaries as your best pitches
Craig in Vegas, you said, you know, you want a guy who can slot in behind crochet and be that, you know, one B or two, obviously kind of the same question that Jen asked, but do you feel like you could still add a very high end starter via trader free agency?
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?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
How did the trade for Sonny Gray come about?
0:00–2:52
2
What metrics influenced the decision to acquire Sonny Gray?
2:52–5:17
3
How does Sonny Gray fit into the Red Sox starting rotation?
5:17–8:11
4
What are the potential future moves for the Red Sox after this trade?
8:11–8:56
5
What was Sonny Gray's pitch mix and why is it significant?
8:56–17:22
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