There weren't many highlights for the Boston Red Sox in their ugly, two-game Wild Card series loss to the New York Yankees, but Sonny Gray was one of them. And he knows it.
Gray pitched 4.2 stellar innings, letting up two runs on six hits with five strikeouts. He limited hard contact except on an unlucky home run from Luis Garcia Jr. Any time he let up a hit, he worked himself out of it quickly.
Yet, Chad Tracy gave him the early hook, then everything fell apart. He did the same to Payton Tolle the night before. The starting pitching was the only thing holding the game together, since the offense never showed up, but anything to get the right matchup in the second half of the game.
Before the postseason, Gray left room for speculation about whether he would retire before 2027. After the Wild Card, he swiftly ended any retirement speculation by saying, "I got a lot of baseball left in me" (subscription required). But he made it pretty clear he probably won't be coming back to Boston to play out the rest of his career.
Sonny Gray makes it clear he isn't returning to the Red Sox next season after indefensible Wild Card hook
Gray emotionally expressed his disappointment over being taken out of the game early. He wished the Red Sox trusted him as his body of work showed they should, and Red Sox fans with the same. He posted one of the best seasons of his 14-year career with Boston, but expressed little interest in returning following the playoff blowout — when reporters asked if he'd consider pitching with the Red Sox again, Gray only said, "I don't know."
Gray showed this season that he still has a lot in the tank. He posted a 2.72 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 149 strikeouts and 46 walks over 169 innings. The Red Sox played exceedingly well around him and he racked up a career-high, league-leading 18 wins. But the Sox blew any chance they had at a reunion by bailing on their veteran starter while he was dealing, when they needed him most.
Other Red Sox veterans, namely Willson Contreras, after the Wild Card loss disparaged the organization's reliance on models for decisionmaking. Chad Tracy and those in charge in Boston's dugout had zero feel for either of those games. If they did, Gray never would've come out while he was pitching well — he his job well and he's right to feel wronged.
Gray was the only righty in the Sox's rotation and reuniting with him would've made a lot of sense. Now, Boston will have to look elsewhere for righty pitchers after alienating its ace in the biggest moment of the season.
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