Sonny Gray Wastes No Time Addressing Yankees Comments

It didn't take long for Sonny Gray to endear himself with Boston Red Sox fans.

After the Red Sox acquired Gray from the St. Louis Cardinals, he shaded the club's biggest rivals in his first media appearance with the organization. Gray, who spent parts of two seasons with the New York Yankees in 2017 and 2018, acknowledged that coming to Boston feels good in part because it's "easy to hate the Yankees." On top of this, he also said he never wanted to go to New York in the first place, as transcribed by The Athletic's Jen McCaffrey.

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"New York, it just wasn’t a good situation for me. It wasn’t a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place," Gray said. "When I was there, it just didn’t really work for who I am. ... “What did factor into my decision to come to Boston, it feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees, right?” he said. “It’s easy to go out and have that rivalry and go into it with full force, full steam ahead. I like the challenge.”

The Red Sox hurler has had an eventful offseason

Sep 24, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray (54) delivers a pitch against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images | Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images

Gray's comments about his time in New York sparked a firestorm on social media. The comments led to a wide range of reactions, including from Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.

On Thursday, Gray spoke to the media and was quickly asked about his comments about the Yankees.

"I've also learned that no matter what I say and no matter what I do, people are going to take it and use it however they want to use it," Gray said, as seen in a clip shared to X by WEEI's Rob Bradford. "And I'm okay with that at this point. Like I learned a lot by going through all of the years that I've gone through this and I've learned to stay away from it to be quite frank and honest with you. I've learned to be myself, be open and not try to shy away from anything.

"But also don't follow it after that. I don't have the Twitter and I don’t have the apps that I have learned are just not genuinely healthy for me. There may be times in my career where I maybe got caught up in that too much ... It's not good for me. I don't feel like it's good or beneficial for my well-being just as a human being. I just stay away from it. ... Ever since I left New York, I've done a good job staying away from that stuff."

Now, that's probably the healthiest way to handle all of the noise. At the time, it was a big story that captured local and national media attention. Being able to put the phone away and not read the noise certainly is better for the health than the endless buzz.

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