Cashman says Green expressed a desire to play for the Yankees

Orlando, Fla. – Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says Sonny Gray admitted he wanted to play in New York at the behest of his agent so as not to hurt his free agency value and didn’t express his distaste for the Big Apple until after the 2018 trade deadline.

Gray was acquired by Boston in a trade from St. Louis last month and spoke about his 1 1/2 seasons during a Zoom news conference in New York on Dec. 2.

“New York was, it wasn’t a good situation for me, it wasn’t a great setup for me and my family,” he said. “I never wanted to go there.”

Green was traded from Oakland to the Yankees in July 2017 and went 15-16 with New York with a 4.52 ERA. He was removed from the rotation in August 2018 after he smiled as fans cheered him on as he walked from the Yankee Stadium mound in the third inning of a 7-5 loss to Baltimore. He was dealt to Cincinnati in January 2019.

“After the deadline, he asked to meet me. He said, ‘Hey, can we talk?’

Cashman recalled meeting Green in the clubhouse office with Chad Boehling, the Yankees’ senior director of organizational performance.

“He said, ‘I thought you were going to trade me,'” Cashman said. “I’m like, publicly I’m trying to get pitching, starting pitching and getting a bullpen. Why would I trade a starter when we need bad pitching? … And he says, ‘Well, I’m telling you, I never wanted to—’ then he told me he never wanted to be here. He hates New York. It’s the worst place. He’s just sitting in his room.

“I said, ‘Well, it’s a little late now,'” Cashman recalled. “Then I told him, I said, but you said you want to be traded here. And he said, ‘My agent, Bo McCinnis, told me to do it. He told me to lie. It’s not going to be good for my free agency to say there are certain places I don’t want to go.’

“And I told him: There’s nothing I can do about it now. I wish you’d told me better beforehand. I wish we’d known before we tried to get you that you never wanted to come here,” Cashman said. “We tried to do our homework. … And I said now we just have to play the year out and this winter I’ll do everything I can to move you and we moved him to the Reds.”

Cashman said the Yankees had a minor league video coordinator who was Gray’s roommate at Vanderbilt, and Gray told his former roommate: “Tell Cash, get me to the Yankees. Blah, blah, blah. Like I want to get out of Oakland. I want to win a world championship. Oh, that’s it. That’s what was coming to us with so many different people, that he wanted to be a Yankee.”

Now 36, Gray has become a three-time All-Star and is 125-102 with a 3.58 ERA in 13 seasons with the Athletics (2013-17), Yankees (2017-18), Reds (2019-21), Minnesota (2022-23) and Cardinals (2022-23). The right-hander waived the no-trade provision to accept the deal with the Red Sox.

“What factored into my decision to come to Boston, is it good for me to go to a place now where you know it’s easy to hate the Yankees, right? It’s easy to go out and it’s hostile and it’s full force, full steam ahead,” Gray said. “I like a challenge. I appreciate a challenge. I accept a challenge. But right now it’s about going out and being yourself. Don’t try to be anything but yourself and if people don’t like it, that’s it. I am who I am, and I’m fine with that.”