{"id":119000,"date":"2026-04-15T14:02:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=119000"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:03:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:03:58","slug":"can-sonny-gray-continue-the-trend-of-boston-veteran-pitchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/15\/can-sonny-gray-continue-the-trend-of-boston-veteran-pitchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Sonny Gray Continue the Trend of Boston Veteran Pitchers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Red Sox in the 2020\u2019s have been up and down certainly, but there\u2019s one thing you can always count on for them. They have had a very good run with veteran pitchers \u201cpast their prime\u201d<\/a> coming in on short-term deals. In 2022, it was Michael Wacha<\/a>. 2023 (and to a lesser extent, \u201824) was James Paxton<\/a>. In 2025, it was Lucas Giolito<\/a>. And this year, the hope is that Sonny Gray<\/a> can become the next great in this streak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike the rest, Gray did not sign a deal with Boston. He was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals back in November. Last year with the Cardinals, he went 14-8 with 201 strikeouts. It proved there was still stuff left in the tank for the 36-year-old rightie. With Giolito becoming a free agent last year (and still somehow unsigned<\/a>), the Sox pulled the trigger and got Gray to be their number two starter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is Sonny Gray Boston\u2019s Best Starter?<\/h2>\n

So far this season, it\u2019s fair enough to make the case that Gray has been the Red Sox’s best starter. Before Tuesday\u2019s collapse against a <\/span>very <\/span><\/i>hot Minnesota Twins lineup, he was having a very good April. In his previous two starts (both of which were wins), he allowed two runs on seven hits in 12 \u2153 innings pitched.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, when you dig into the analytics, that\u2019s where the questions arise. He\u2019s got a six pitch mix<\/a>, of which the sweeper, curve, and changeup all have Whiff% of over 26%. But when looking at all his pitches combined, his Whiff% drops to 19.5%, the second lowest in Boston\u2019s rotation. As mentioned, he\u2019s not much of a strikeout pitcher through four starts this season, falling around the fifth percentile of all pitchers. However, he walks very few, falling in the 87th percentile as just 4.5% of batters faced get a ball four against him. The next closest in that area is ace Garrett Crochet<\/a>, who falls in the 68th percentile at 7.6%.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

Can Sonny Gray Sustain Success?\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

Gray\u2019s career has honestly been a weird one to look back on. He\u2019s had good seasons, and he\u2019s been able to be the ace of a staff. But he\u2019s never really had a dominant stretch that could be the prime of his career. It\u2019s more like he\u2019s had a few good stretches. There was obviously the first few seasons with Oakland, when he went 33-20. Then his start to his Cincinnati stint was pretty good, getting to the All-Star game for the second time in his career. But the run he\u2019s been on currently could be argued for his best years as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2023 with the Twins, not only did he have a 2.79 ERA and make his third All-Star appearance, but he also finished runner-up in the American League Cy Young<\/a>, losing out to Gerrit Cole<\/a>. Seeing as there were pitchers with better records and more strikeouts than him, it could be seen as controversial for an 8-8 pitcher to finish as the runner-up, but he did it regardless. In \u201924, he went 13-9 with a SO\/9 of 11. And in 2025, he led the National League in K\/BB ratio at 5.29. He\u2019s still a solid pitcher in this league and will come around in Boston eventually. Tuesday night was bad, but it was against a Twins lineup that has been on a tear recently. Gray continues to impress, and he may continue this trend for the Red Sox.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Boston Red Sox in the 2020\u2019s have been up and down certainly, but there\u2019s one thing you can always count on for them. They have had a very good run with veteran pitchers \u201cpast their prime\u201d coming in on short-term deals. In 2022, it was Michael Wacha. 2023 (and to a lesser extent, \u201824) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5767,"featured_media":119031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1071,35],"tags":[3614,611,1190,770,726,650],"class_list":["post-119000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redsox","category-mlb","category-news","tag-garrett-crochet","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-james-paxton","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-michael-wacha","tag-sonny-gray"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5767"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119000"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119034,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119000\/revisions\/119034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}