The Boston Red Sox have already punched their ticket to the postseason and will spend the final days of the regular season jockeying for seeding.
Sonny Gray has been one of the biggest reasons they got there. The 36-year-old right-hander is 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA after 29 starts. He has thrown 169 innings, allowed 51 earned runs, struck out 149 and posted a 1.15 WHIP.
Gray is tied for the major league lead in wins and ranks among the American League leaders in ERA.
Boston acquired him from the St. Louis Cardinals last November and immediately slotted him into the front of the rotation. He responded with one of the strongest seasons of his 14-year career.
The Red Sox climbed out of a poor first-half start and finished the year at 85-74. They have clinched an American League Wild Card berth and are positioned as the likely No. 5 seed.
That setup would send them into a best-of-three Wild Card series against the New York Yankees.
Gray’s last scheduled regular-season outing came Wednesday, when he worked six scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over Cleveland.
Playoff baseball starts next week, but the front office is already looking past October. Gray is heading into free agency with a mutual option for 2027 that includes a reported $30 million salary and a $10 million buyout.
Several reports have said he could command a multiyear deal in the range of the three-year, $75 million contract Nathan Eovaldi signed with the Texas Rangers in December 2024. Retirement has also been part of the conversation.
Gray has said he would walk away immediately if his family wanted him home full time.
Bleacher Report analyst Zach Buckley surveyed the coming free agent class and projected that Gray will stay in Boston.
“It sounds like everything is on the table for the 36-year-old. Per Mass Live’s Chris Cotillo, Gray could fetch a similar deal to the three-year, $75 million deal Nathan Eovaldi inked with the Texas Rangers two years back. But Cotillo also noted that Gray relayed in a recent interview with The Boston Globe he would retire ‘in a heartbeat’ if his family indicated any desire for him to do so,” Buckley wrote.
“Only Gray knows what he’s thinking, and since he doesn’t need to make a decision right now, it’s very possible even if he isn’t sure. If he wants to keep playing, though, he has clearly set himself up to strike it rich in free agency.”
Buckley’s official prediction was a return to the Red Sox.
Boston would prefer to keep the veteran after he helped turn the rotation into one of the more reliable groups in the league. Gray has a 3.51 career ERA over 2,087 innings and 143 wins.
For now the club’s attention remains on trying to win a World Series. Any contract talks are expected to wait until after the postseason, and possibly later if a work stoppage arrives.
