Sonny Gray and Brian Cashman can't decide whether he wanted to be a Yankee or not

Gray said his time in the Bronx 'wasn't a good situation for me'

Two weeks ago, after being traded to the Red Sox for two young pitchers, veteran righty Sonny Gray endeared himself to the locals, saying he's happy to be in "a place where it's easy to hate the Yankees." Gray was traded to the Yankees at the 2017 deadline and spent a tumultuous season and a half in New York before being flipped to the Reds.

"It just wasn't a good situation for me," Gray said during his introductory Zoom call with the BoSox. "It wasn't a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place."

Aaron Boone, who managed Gray with the Yankees in 2018, said Monday at the Winter Meetings that "he's not supposed to like us anyway (because he's a Red Sox)," and if Gray wants to "spice up the rivalry a little, there's nothing wrong with that." Boone also said that, at the time, he didn't get the sense Gray hated being with the Yankees.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman peeled back the curtain a bit more this past Sunday, saying Gray told him "he hates New York" and "this is the worst place" after the 2018 trade deadline. Cashman also said Gray was told by his agent, Bo McKinnis, to say he wanted to be a Yankee because it would help him come free agent time. Here's MLB.com with the details:

"When he was with the A's," Cashman recalled, "he was telling our Minor League video coordinator, 'You've got to get me over to the Yankees. Tell Cash, get me over to the Yankees. I want out of Oakland. I want to win a world championship.' He was communicating that to a number of different people, and it was getting to us, that he wants to be a Yankee."

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During the closed-door conversation (after the 2018 trade deadline), Cashman said he confronted Gray about the discrepancy: "But you said you wanted to be traded here."

According to Cashman, Gray's response was: "My agent, Bo McKinnis, told me to do that. He told me to lie. It wouldn't be good for my free agency to say there's certain places I don't want to go to."

McKinnis shot back soon thereafter, saying it would have made no sense to tell Gray to lie about wanting to play for the Yankees. Here's what McKinnis told The Athletic:

"So, Brian is trying to make people believe I told Sonny to, in Cashman's words, 'lie' to the minor-league video guy to try to get Sonny to the Yankees -- even though, per Cashman, Sonny did not want to be with the Yankees -- to subsequently somehow help Sonny's free agency. This makes zero sense. … Further, the words, 'I want out of Oakland,' have never been said by Sonny. He loved his time with the A's."

There's definitely some he said, she said going on here. What's clear though is Gray did not like playing in New York and he told Cashman. It was a perhaps a little late -- Gray should have mentioned it before the 2018 trade deadline and not after -- but what's done is done. The Yankees traded Gray to the Reds in January 2019.

Some players don't like playing in New York or big markets in general and that's fine. It's not for everyone. Teams can do as much homework as they want, but until you put a player in that environment, you just never know how they'll react. If nothing else, Gray's admitted hatred of New York will add some juice to a Yankees/Red Sox rivalry that is starting to perk back up a bit.

Now 36, Gray had a 4.51 ERA with the Yankees in 2017 and 2018. He has a career 3.58 ERA, and a 3.51 ERA since the Yankees traded him away. That includes a second place finish in the 2023 AL Cy Young voting with the Twins.