New York Disaster Sonny Gray Finally Traded To The Reds (Official This Time!)

Bumping this blog up to today because the trade finally went through just now. For a little bit it looked like I jumped the gun on the blog and it was going to fall apart. PHEW!  

Our long national nightmare is over, Sonny Gray has been traded away from the New York Yankees. It’s a move we’ve been told was close for what seems like months. You knew it was going to happen ever since Brian Cashman took to the podium for his end of the year press conference in October and told the media that the Sonny Project was not going to last any longer in New York.

I feel bad for Sonny for how these last few months have gone and the feeling of being unwanted running through your brain.

At the end of the day this is best for both sides. We don’t have to deal with his nibbling bullshit anymore, failing to beat good teams, getting booed off the mound into oblivion, and Sonny can try to restart his career in Cincy.

I was so excited when Brian Cashman traded for Sonny during the 2017 trade deadline. The Yankees ever so desperately needed a number two behind Luis Severino and in front of Masahiro Tanaka. Sonny seemed like the perfect man for the job, although it obviously ended in disaster. I picked this fucking guy to win the cy young. He was out of the rotation by August. Now I think the part of the trade that people will forget is that the Yankees really gave up nothing. James Kaprielian used to be a big pitching prospect, but injuries have completely derailed his career. He just started pitching in instructional league games this past year for the first time. Infielder Jorge Mateo, who had no path to the big leagues with New York, really only has speed to his name. I’ll be shocked if he develops into a major league player. Dustin Fowler cracked the majors for Oakland this past year but didn’t really do much with the opportunity. Even if he does pan out to be a serviceable player, he wasn’t a key cog for the Yanks outfield plans. By no means were the Yankees robbed in this trade, they just got nothing out of Sonny and it cost them games.

Sonny’s big buggaboo was that he could never pitch well in Yankee Stadium. In 15 games last year (11 starts) Sonny pitched to the tune of a 6.98 ERA at home allowing an opponents batting average of .318 and an OPS of .932. Yes, this is the same guy I predicted to win the Cy Young. The good thing is that I cannot possibly make a worse prediction for the rest of my life, so it’s only going up from here! Sonny’s numbers were much better on the road, posting a 3.17 ERA holding opponents to a .226 batting average and a .614 OPS. Those splits would lead you to believe he’ll fare much better somewhere else, like Cincinnati. The part people aren’t talking about is that most of those road starts that went well came against far inferior opponents like Baltimore.

So what did the Yankees get back? Shed Long, a top 10 prospect in the Reds organization, is a 23 year old infielder. His nickname is Shlong which is incredible. He actually started out as a catcher but has since transitioned into a second baseman. Maybe he could eventually crack the roster as a utility guy because the starters aren’t leaving anytime soon. The Yankees also look like they got out of here with a draft pick. If you asked me what Sonny was going to fetch after the season ended I would have taken a used dishwasher. Best of lucky to Sonny. He’s a good guy who just could not handle New York. I’m sure he’ll win the Cy Young in Cincy one of these years and make my head explode.

Update: We already traded Long to Seattle for Josh Stowers, who was a second round pick last year. He’s an outfield prospect and won’t have to go on the 40 man roster which is nice.

I do wonder if this marks the end of the Yankees offseason. They could maybe add one more reliever in theory? Position player wise I think they’re done. It’s been a successful offseason, attacking every need and strengthening it, but also underwhelming based on the hype going into it. I like this team a lot heading into 2019 and I like our chances of taking that AL East title back from Boston. That has to happen this year, I’ve had enough of this bullshit.

P.S. Shoutout to Uncle Chaps who had this one a month ago. Ken Rosenthal who?