Brewers Rumors: Crew Among 6 Teams In ‘Ramped Up’ Sonny Gray Talks

In Brewers rumors, Milwaukee is reportedly still in trade talks with the Yankees for starting pitcher Sonny Gray.

The Sonny Gray saga has been in an interesting one over the course of the offseason. The Yankees seemed dead-set on trading him but tried to create some leverage with the CC Sabathia surgery, but to no avail. And now Gray puts back into motion what had been a stale Brewers rumors mill over the past couple days.

Jon Heyman had the scoop this morning about Gray and the teams involved.

According to Heyman, the Reds, Padres, Brewers, A’s, Mariners, and Braves are the teams that have been linked to Gray in the past that are likely still talking with the Yankees.

Sonny Gray Rumors

The Yankees desire to trade Sonny Gray is the worst-kept secret of the offseason. They’ve been trying to get rid of him all winter, but they’ve been asking for the moon in return. They want a top tier prospect from the acquiring team in return, despite Gray’s 4.90 ERA last year.

There are unconfirmed reports that the Yankees asked the Reds for Taylor Trammell, a top-50 prospect in all of baseball, in return for Gray. There are other reports that they asked the Brewers for Corey Ray, the Crew’s second-best prospect. Those are very high asking prices, and unsurprisingly, the Reds and Brewers balked at those prices, if that was indeed the request.

CC Sabathia had an angioplasty back in December, which put his spring training in question and allowed the Yankees a little bit of leverage. But now that Sabathia has been cleared to pitch, that leverage is gone, and the Yankees once again have none.

Gray is coming off a season where he pitched terribly at home, with a 6.98 ERA, but dominated on the road to the tune of a 3.17 ERA. At Yankee Stadium, Gray had a 5.98 FIP, but on the road, he had a 2.65 FIP. Simply get the guy out of Yankee Stadium and he’ll be a high quality pitcher.

Some may look at the hitter-friendly nature of Yankee Stadium and think that Miller Park would not help Gray at all, but that’s not entirely accurate. Gray, despite his struggles, did not give up home runs at a level you would think with his struggles. He only allowed 14 homers in 2018, which was a career-low.

For Gray, it appears to just be New York that’s his issue. Being a Yankee just isn’t for everyone apparently, and the atmosphere just wasn’t for him. He thrived in a “small-market” organization like Oakland. He could do so again with another small-market team like Milwaukee.

Gray would make a ton of sense for the Brewers to go after, but there are other teams after him. Talks are heating up according to Heyman, and he could be traded by the end of the week.

The Milwaukee Brewers won’t need to send one of their top prospects to acquire Gray, but likely someone from the Top 30 will be needed.