MLB trade rumors: Why Yankees didn’t deal Sonny Gray

by Felix Pantaleón

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman explains why he didn’t trade struggling starting pitcher Sonny Gray despite having chances to do it before the deadline on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018.

BOSTON — The Yankees could have traded Sonny Gray.

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Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN Radio on Thursday that he fielded offers on Gray, whom the team kicked from the rotation Thursday before a game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The problem: None of them made sense for the Yankees, Cashman said.

Cashman said teams approach Gray from a “buy-low” stance. Which makes total sense, by the way. Gray, who was so effective for years in Oakland, has been a terrible disappointment since the Yankees acquired him from the A’s last trade deadline.

Gray gave up seven earned runs in 2 2/3 innings to the lowly Orioles on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. It was probably his worst big-league start.

In 32 starts with the Yankees, Gray has a 4.85 ERA. This season, he’s 8-8 with a 5.56 ERA in 21 starts.

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Here’s Cashman’s full explanation as to why he didn’t trade Gray:

“In fairness, there’s no question that Sonny Gray, I think teams look at and say, ‘All right, we have somebody who’s struggling in this environment, in New York, which has happened,’ and they have gone on elsewhere to pitch effectively or return to form. We understand and see that time and time again.

“So I had definitely teams that were in contention and teams that were not in contention because of his control year next year that asked about Sonny Gray because they know what his capabilities are and that his stuff is still the same. But the approached it in a buy-low situation where it did not make any sense, especially when you saw what he was doing for us in July in those more recent four starts as well as June.

“So, in his June and July, it looked like he was bending momentum, turning the corner. Did he have some bad starts during those two months of June and July? He did. But they were nothing like how it was in April and May and it looked like he was going in the right direction, especially in his four starts in July.

“So I was not presented with anything that would make me feel like I missed an opportunity or I should have done something.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.