As trade deadline looms, Sonny Gray shares the wisdom of his past experiences on the block
LOS ANGELES — Sonny Gray, trade deadline veteran, knows how it goes this time of year.
He has been on teams that have added. He has been on teams that have subtracted. He even has been the big prize amid a contender’s postseason push, when the Athletics sent him to the Yankees in 2017.
He has lived through enough of these to have developed well a certain mental muscle: Don’t try to play general manager.
“I feel like I’m at a point where I can honestly say no [he doesn’t do that anymore],” Gray said before Saturday night’s 3-2 win over the Dodgers. “I just find myself — if I’m in a conversation with teammates and the conversation starts to go down that road, there’s a trigger inside of me that just immediately wants to change it. Hey, it’s nothing that we control. That’s not up to us. Let’s just do what we do.”
What the Red Sox have done well lately is win. They went 21-4 in July, the best month in franchise history, saving their season and putting themselves in position to be buyers ahead of the trade deadline at 6 p.m. Monday.
The Sox’ possibilities remain vast, including bringing in a new shortstop and/or catcher or adding pitching depth.
For players, particularly those in the Red Sox’ spot, “it’s definitely an exciting time,” Gray said.
It’s an opportunity for the front office to send a message to the clubhouse — the kind of here’s-some-help, go-get-’em sentiment the Yankees expressed when they acquired Gray on the way to a postseason run (which ended in the ALCS against a scandal-tarnished Astros club).
“The most important thing for winning teams and winning organizations is that it’s not just the guys in the clubhouse that expect to win. It’s not just the coaches and the players,” said Gray, whom the Sox got via trade with the Cardinals over the offseason. “It’s the organization as a whole that expects to win and does everything in their power to try and put together a winning group, a winning team.
“The decisions and everything that is done is on the forefront of winning. Whatever ends up happening at the deadline, as long as it is made with the anticipation and the mindset of winning, then I think it is and will be well received [by players].”
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However it sorts out for the Sox, this is a long way from Gray saying in late June that he would be open to waiving his no-trade clause, in the event the organization was considering moving him.
Now, Gray isn’t going anywhere. He likes this version much better.
“Absolutely,” he said. “When I did waive my no-trade to come here this year, this is the expectation that I had.”
Trade check-in
With two days until the deadline, the Sox continued to face a significant asking price from the Angels in their ongoing talks about shortstop Zach Neto. The Angels seek shortstop Franklin Arias, a source said, to headline a package that would include other prospects.
Neto, 25, has hit .247/.320/.450 — solidly above-average — over the past three seasons but rates poorly on defensive range statistics. He comes with an additional three years of contractual control, through 2029, so the Angels are under little pressure to trade him — unless a club gives them what they want.
Arias, 20, ranked by Baseball America as the No. 3 prospect overall, has hit well over a week-plus since being promoted to Triple-A Worcester. He started at second base for a second game in a row Saturday.
Contreras update
Willson Contreras was absent from the lineup Saturday, a day after getting hit in the head with a pitch, but interim manager Chad Tracy said he continued to fare well in concussion protocol testing.
“He’s doing better. Woke up feeling good. He still got to do a bunch of activity, and he’ll run around today,” Tracy said before the Sox’ second game against the Dodgers. “He’ll swing and do all of his work, and then obviously we’ll see how he feels [with] that, and then after he cools off today, just keeping him out. It’s precautionary.
“He’s got to go through all that, and then as he cools off, we just keep seeing throughout the day if anything pops up. But we keep at least taking steps in the right direction.”
Emergen-C
On Wednesday, Tracy pulled his catcher for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning, which was unusually early. What would have happened if he needed an emergency third backstop? Enter Anthony Seigler, who was drafted as a catcher and worked behind the plate as recently as last year. “He probably could in a pinch,” Tracy said. “But I’m not always looking to be as aggressive as I was the other day in Sacramento” . . . Tanner Houck, almost a year removed from Tommy John surgery, continues to throw multiple bullpen sessions per week, per Tracy. Houck’s next step would be to face hitters, though Tracy didn’t say when that might happen. Tracy said it was “possible” that Houck might pitch this year . . . The Red Sox sent lefthanded pitcher Jojo Ingrassia to the Tigers as the player to be named in the Jahmai Jones trade. Ingrassia, 24, had a 3.27 ERA and 33 percent strikeout rate in High-A Greenville this year . . . The Dodgers designated for assignment Cole Irvin, who toiled in taking the 9-4 loss against the Red Sox on Friday night, and put Will Klein (right elbow discomfort) on the injured list. Klein hit Contreras in the head. They called up righthanders Kyle Hurt and Wyatt Mills.
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