Sonny Gray has inked a new three-year deal with the Cardinals, cashing in on a 2023 season in which he was a finalist for the American League Cy Young award.
Gray has enjoyed a quality MLB career up to this point, save for his stint with the Yankees, which included the righty being booed off the mound in 2018 before eventually being traded to the Reds, where he became an All-Star immediately.
On a recent episode of the Foul Territory podcast, former Yankee catcher Erik Kratz looked back on times when former Yankee pitching coach Larry Rothschild forced Gray into a pitching profile that he was not used to, and once he left New York, he was able to get back to what he did best and thrive.
That didn’t surprise Boomer, who knows from experience that the right coach is vital to a player’s success.
“This is why pitching coaches and hitting coaches have a profound impact on teams, and they do matter,” Boomer said. “From personal experience, if you have the right coach in your ear, he can get the best out of you…you gotta have the right coach getting the most out of you, and know what you do best.”
CC Sabathia has also said that Gray wasn’t properly utilized in New York, and that was his issue far more than dealing with the New York market was.