Sonny Gray went from a last-place team to a club that’s in the middle of a playoff race, so needless to say, he’s excited.
The starting pitcher was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the Yankees at Major League Baseball’s non-wavier trade deadline, and he’s set to make his debut with New York on Thursday against the Cleveland Indians. And Gray penned a piece for The Players’ Tribune to get Yankees fans pumped up.
“The pennant race … that’s something I’m especially excited about,” Gray wrote. “I’m not much for talking about myself — but if there’s one thing I could say as an introduction to Yankee fans, I think it would be this: I’m a competitor. I love to compete. And when I get on the mound, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to compete, and I’m going to come at guys.
“I’m going to challenge guys, straight-up — with my best stuff against their best stuff. … Both on my good and on my bad days — I’m going to compete all the same.”
Gray made sure to take the time to thank the A’s, too.
“I’ll always be grateful for the trust that (A’s manager Bob Melvin) placed in me, and for the honest way that he treated me, both as a player and as a person,” Gray wrote. “He’s someone who I felt like I could really talk to — about baseball and even beyond baseball, about life. And at this point I would just consider him a friend. I’d consider a lot of people in Oakland friends — and those friendships are definitely some of the things that you’re going to miss the most, anytime a trade happens.”
The right-hander joins the Yankees with a 6-5 record and 3.43 ERA.
Thumbnail photo via Gregory J. Fisher/USA TODAY Sports Images
