Sonny Gray is taking the mound on Wednesday night for the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium to try and keep the season alive for the Red Sox.
It’s a tall task, because the Red Sox are taking on a New York Yankees team that won Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series, 9-0. And opposing Gray on the mound is star left-hander Max Fried.
This could be it for the Boston season, though. The Wild Card Series is best-of-three games, meaning that two wins is all it takes to end the series.
Boston is down 0-1 and will have to rattle off back-to-back wins, or that’ll be all she wrote.
It’d be a bummer ending to a season that included a historic turnaround and a record-tying 15-game winning streak.
Gray is the guy with the ball and the chance to save the day.
It could also be the last time Gray pitches in a Red Sox uniform.
Sonny Gray Contract
Gray’s contract comes to an end, sort of, when this season is over.
The 2027 year in his deal with Boston has what’s called a mutual option, and it’s worth $30 million.
A mutual option is what it sounds like — both teams have to agree to activate it.
So the Red Sox have to choose that they want to pay Gray $30 million to pitch for them in 2027, and Gray has to agree that his best path is a one-year pact for the 2027 season worth $30 million.
It’s probably a fair amount, but with the unusual offseason coming that will include a collective bargaining negotiation and a potential lockout, it’s a bit more confusing to decipher which direction the two sides might go on this mutual option.
Gray won’t be thinking about that when he’s on the mound in Yankee Stadium, but if he can’t get the Red Sox a win, it’ll be a question he has to answer soon.
Sonny Gray Stats
Gray, who spent two years of his career pitching for the Yankees, has been brilliant in his first season with the Red Sox.
The righty made 29 starts in the regular season and had an 18-5 record with a 2.72 ERA. It’s the best ERA he has had since his rookie season with the A’s in 2013.
Gray struck out 149 batters in 169 innings, a decline in that rate for him, but he limited damage anyway.
Now 36 years old and turning 37 in November, Gray is certainly on the tail end of his career. But the three-time All-Star remains near the top of his game, and the Red Sox are going to need everything he has on Wednesday night in Yankee Stadium, or else.
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