How Fenway Park Is Key To Unlocking New Red Sox Ace Sonny Gray

The Boston Red Sox landed a starter that very well could fit in well at Fenway Park on Tuesday.

That is, of course, in reference to new Boston starting pitcher Sonny Gray. The Red Sox acquired him from the St. Louis Cardinals. Any time you see a trade of this size, there are always going to be a wide range of opinions.

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One thing that should give Boston fans solace, though, is that Gray's built to pitch at Fenway Park. Red Sox Stats on X shared a spray chart of well-hit balls off Gray over the last two seasons from Baseball Savant that shows the vast majority are towards right field, which is actually the most difficult place to hit at Fenway Park.

Sonny Gray Blockbuster Looks Even Better Now For Red Sox

Well hit balls against Gray the last two years pic.twitter.com/5KVP31mrWk
— Stats (@redsoxstats) November 25, 2025

Red Sox Stats tossed the photo of Wilyer Abreu on the graphic because Boston arguably has the best defensive right fielder in baseball out there in the young slugger. Abreu is the two-time reigning American League right field Gold Glove Award winner.

Down the line to right field is short with Pesky's Pole 302 feet down the line. But, then right field quickly gets significantly deeper, extending to 380 feet. Mix elite defensive play from Abreu with a deep right field and Gray should have plenty of room out there.

From the heatmap above, Gray limits hard-hat balls to left field. That's especially good with Green Monster being as big as it is. So you have a soft contact against a massive wall, and a deep right field limiting an area where he has shown weakness over the last two years. All in all, this should be a very good sign for the three-time All-Star.

Gray made 32 starts for the Cardinals in 2025 and pitched to a 4.28 ERA and 201-to-38 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 180 2/3 innings pitched. The ERA number doesn't sound great, but his FIP was actually 3.39. That is a metric that essentially removes defense from the equation and measures how a pitcher limits homers, walks, and hitting batters, while causing strikeouts.

So, essentially, Gray had some bad luck from an ERA perspective last season, and his underlying metrics tell a better story. And now, he's going to be pitching in a ballpark in which he should be even better at. All in all, a good day.

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