Sonny Gray Has Turned Into An Unmitigated Disaster For The New York Yankees
Takes a deep breath
Well, this fucking sucks. The Sonny Gray experiment has been nothing short of a disaster for the New York Yankees. He can’t pitch at home whatsoever, and his starts on the road have become unwatchable as well. I was one of the bigger advocates for acquiring Sonny during last season’s trade deadline and I was so excited to see him pitch in pinstripes. Sure he had a few down years in Oakland prior to the trade, but I really thought the Gray from 2013-2015 (where he was 3rd in the Cy Young in ’15) would come back with a new change of scenery. I was wrong. He stinks.
What’s the reasoning behind it? I wish I could tell you. He could just be a mental midget and be terrified of pitching in the brights lights of New York. Whatever it is, something needs to be done. Boone said he’s going to make his next start, which will come in Baltimore next week. I think that’s a mistake. I’d rather David Hale, who came in for Gray yesterday after just two non-competitive innings, and gave the Yanks a fighting chance to claw their way back against the Jays. They were unable to do so, but Hale’s five and a third innings of one run ball should not go unnoticed.
Sonny on the other hand was terrible. Just like his start against Boston, he retired the first two men of the game. Gray then walked Solarte and Smoak before giving up a base hit to Pillar through the right side. Solarte should have scored on the hit, but was held up by his third base coach and not reading Judge’s bobble in right correctly. Sonny got out of the inning with a strikeout, but was very lucky to do so. In the second he was not so lucky.
Double, ground out, RBI single, wild pitch, RBI single, strikeout, single, three run homer, hit by pitch, strikeout. Thanks for coming out you bum. What a fucking joke.
Now I’m not going to dance around criticism for my own player like Carrabis does because someone shouted his name out in a press conference. Gray fucking sucks and it’s hurting this team. Over his last five starts he has an ERA of 9.00 giving up 21 runs in 21 innings. Opponents are batting .368 against him in those five starts with a collective OPS of 1.006. Most importantly, the Yankees are 1-4 in those games. He has shown spurts of brilliance on the road this year, but as a whole he’s just about the most frustrating and inconsistent pitcher the Yankees have had in quite some time. Names like Carl Pavano and Jeff Weaver are being tossed around in the same sentence as Gray which is never a good sign. I think Sonny a is a genuinely nice dude, but it’s not working out in New York. I hope he finds a future maybe back in Oakland or wherever, but it’s not going to be here as much as I want it to turnaround.
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So what do the Yankees do? Well a trade is certainly going to be in the cards. Their opposing pitcher today is reportedly a main target, J.A. Happ. I’m personally not the biggest Happ guy, who is 35 years old and is a 2 or 3 at best in any given rotation. Sure anyone is an improvement over Gray, but I’d love to get a legit stud if we’re going to deal some good prospects. Cole Hamels is a name I’ve said in the past that I would welcome, but he also fits in the same boat as Happ in terms of moving the needle. Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell would be AWESOME, but trading within the division for a dominant 25 year old lefty would likely cost all of King Midas’ silver. I would guess that BOTH Sheffield and Florial would have to be involved in that kind of trade. I’m not sure Cashman wants to part with both of those guys, never mind just one of them. The shitty NL West will hurt the Yanks since neither the Giants or Diamondbacks will part with any of their arms with how close everyone is in the division. Michael Fulmer is a name being thrown around but I personally don’t see anything special from that guy. That probably means he’ll win the CY Young next year.
The other and cheapest option would be to promote Justus Sheffield from AAA Scranton. Over his last five starts the southpaw has an ERA of 1.78 in 30.1 innings. Control has been the big improvement area for Sheffield and in that span he’s struck out 30 and walked 10. Opponents are batting .209 during those five starts. I’m pretty sure the plan is to keep him in the minors until August or even September, but the plan also wasn’t to have Sonny Gray turn into a borderline fifth starter either. I’d personally love for this to be the next move instead of trading for an aging veteran. Either way, something has to be done with Sonny Gray. He cannot continue to keep hurting this team and giving them no chance to win every five days.