In his first season with the Boston Red Sox, veteran starting pitcher Sonny Gray has proven one thing. He can still be very valuable to a team contending for the playoffs.
Gray has a 2.69 ERA in 26 starts and over 150.2 innings. He has a 1.162 WHIP and 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings. He also has a career-high and league-leading 17 wins so far this season. Despite all of that success, the 36 year old has shared that he’s more than open to potentially retiring at the end of this season.
It doesn’t seem like a time to retire, but as Gray recently told Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, he’s open to his career coming to an end. In particular, if his family asked for him to be home more, Gray said, “I’ll be done in a heartbeat.”
That doesn’t mean Gray isn’t focused on this postseason run with the Red Sox. He is. It’s just that if this is the end of it, then Gray is ready for that possibility.
“We’ll see what the future holds for me,” Gray said. “But if this is it, no better way to go out and try to do something special here the next couple months.”
It’s Been an Excellent Career for Boston Red Sox SP Sonny Gray
Sonny Gray was a first-round pick of the Athletics back in 2011, going just before the Red Sox took Matt Barnes. That was a draft that also included pitchers like Jose Fernandez, Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer, and Blake Snell. However, smaller in stature at 5-foot-10-inches, Gray was unique from them.
“The prototypical big league pitcher was [thought to be] 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-4, threw the ball downhill, blah, blah, blah,” Gray said. “The knock on me was my size. If it wasn’t for that, I easily should have been a top-five pick. I outperformed all those dudes.”
In many respects, Gray was on the fast track to the majors. He’d break in with the Athletics in 2013 at the age of 23. By 2015, he was an All-Star who finished with a 2.73 ERA. That’s a mark he hasn’t done better than until 2026, with his 2.69 ERA, though the season isn’t over yet.
Prior to the 2017 season, the Athletics sent Gray to the New York Yankees, but that wasn’t a great fit for him, and he struggled as a starter. With a 4.90 ERA in 2018, he lost his spot in the rotation. From there, he’d go on to the Cincinnati Reds, where he reinvented himself immediately and was an All-Star in 2019.
By this time, Gray was a veteran in his 30s. He’d also have stops with the Minnesota Twins, earning another All-Star appearance in 2023, and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the Cardinals who ultimately traded him to the Red Sox for Richard Fitts, Brandon Clarke, and Patrick Galle.
Throughout Gray’s career, there were ups and downs, but he’s been able to stay largely healthy. That’s allowed him to throw 2,068.2 innings and counting with a 3.52 ERA. It’s not quite Hall of Fame, but a 37.3 career bWar is still a great career. He is missing a World Series, though.
“No one stays around this game without being just an elite competitor at everything. That’s a cliché thing, but that is real,” said Gray. “Without that, you don’t make it anywhere.”
What is the Contract Situation for Sonny Gray?
One major question for both Sonny Gray and the Boston Red Sox is going to be his contract. The three-year, $75 million deal that he signed going into the 2024 season is going to be up.
That deal does include a mutual option for the 2027 season. If both Gray and the Red Sox accepted that option, it would pay him $30 million for next season. However, it’s doubtful that the Red Sox would pick up that option, particularly with questions about the new CBA.
Gray and the Red Sox could still negotiate a new contract, even without picking up the option. Then, Gray could sign somewhere else. Of course, he might also decide it’s time to walk away from baseball.
Red Sox Veteran SP Sonny Gray on Potential for Retirement