Sonny Gray’s dominant start takes a lot of pressure off Brian Cashman
Sonny Gray took a big step forward for the Yankees today. His dominating outing against the Royals lessens the pressure on Brian Cashman to replace him.
No New York Yankee needed a good performance more than Sonny Gray. Thankfully for the enigmatic right hander, he got just the sort of outing he needed today against Kansas City.
His domination of the Royals will take a lot of heat off Yankees GM Brian Cashman. One more bad start could have forced Cashman to swing a deal for a new starting pitcher.
Gray looked like a completely different pitcher out on the mound today. He confidently used his fastball to control the count against the Royals. Gray made it through eight innings and only gave up one run. He scattered four hits and struck out five in what was clearly his most effective starter of the year.
On one hand, Yankees fans shouldn’t get too wound up about one good start. He didn’t shut down the Red Sox. There’s a reason Kansas City dropped to 14-32 with today’s loss. On the other hand, Gray’s outing could have a big impact on the Yankee front office’s short-term plans.
If Gray had gone out and gotten shelled by the Royals, pressure would have intensified on Cashman and company to get him out of the starting rotation. The Yankees currently have the best record in baseball but they’re locked in a tense battle with Boston for the AL East crown. Trotting a below average starter out once every five games is not an acceptable strategy for defeating the Red Sox.
Gray’s performance today looked a lot like how he’s pitched previously in his career. We’re talking about a pitcher who put up an ERA of 3.72 in 11 starts for the Yankees after coming over from Oakland. That wasn’t too different from the 3.43 mark he posted for the A’s before the trade.
Those facts hadn’t done anything to calm fears around the Yankees clubhouse that Gray didn’t have the mental capacity to bounce back from his recent slump. In fairness, he did enter today’s game with an ERA of 6.39. This season did represent the roughest stretch of his career. Even so, the social media noise about his performance to date was largely overblown.
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Now the challenge for Gray will shift. Instead of proving he can make one dominant start against an inferior opponent he’ll need to prove he can be a consistent pitcher for the team. If he can do that, he’ll let Cashman focus his energies on issues other than upgrading the rotation. That could be bad news for Boston and the other teams looking to keep New York away from the World Series.