It was on this date a year ago that the Reds made one of their best pickups in recent memory. Then desperate for rotation help, the Reds took a flier on former standout right-hander Sonny Gray, acquiring him and young reliever Reiver Sanmartin from the Yankees in a three-team trade that also included the Mariners. The Yankees received middle infielder/outfielder Shed Long and a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick in the swap, though they quickly flipped Long to the Mariners for outfield prospect Josh Stowers.
It was obvious entering last offseason that the Yankees would try to trade Gray, whose tenure in their uniform was a letdown. The Yankees paid what was then a high price to acquire Gray, who was coming off a strong run in Oakland, back in July 2017. But Gray wasn’t the same pitcher in New York, particularly struggling at Yankee Stadium, and the club left him off its playoff roster in 2018. After that, general manager Brian Cashman admitted that “it’s probably best to try somewhere else” for Gray.
Twelve months later, the change of scenery has been a godsend for Gray and Reds. For the team, not only has the trade paid off, but the three-year, $30MM contract Cincy gave Gray the moment it acquired him looks like a bargain.
In his first season as a Red, the 30-year-old Gray performed like one of the premier starters in the sport and earned his second All-Star nod in the process. Gray tossed 175 1/3 innings, his most since 2015, and turned in the third-lowest ERA of his career (2.87). He also notched a 3.42 FIP with a 50.8 percent groundball rate and fanned more hitters than ever. Gray’s 10.52 K/9 was easily a personal best, while he also posted his second-highest swinging-strike percentage (11.3). When batters did make contact, they seldom did much damage, as Gray ranked near the top of the league in hard-hit rate, exit velocity and expected weighted on-base average against.
Despite Gray’s efforts, the Reds endured yet another sub-.500 season in 2019. However, he’s still among the reasons they now look like a team on the upswing. Gray, Luis Castillo, Trevor Bauer, Anthony DeSclafani and Wade Miley now make up one of the game’s most formidable-looking rotations on paper. That’s a drastic 180 for a club whose starting staff was among baseball’s worst the season before it hauled in Gray.
The Gray-less Yankees, for their part, appear to have an even better rotation than the Reds at this point. That said, no one knows whether they’ll get anything from the players they landed for Gray. Both Stowers and lefty TJ Sikkema, whom the Yankees chose with the pick they received in the trade, are still a ways off from the majors. The 22-year-old Stowers isn’t far removed from going in Round 2 of the 2018 draft, though, and he was plenty productive at the Single-A level last season, hitting .273/.386/.400 with 35 steals across 460 plate appearances. Sikkema, 21, had a very brief but very dominant showing in low-A ball after the Yankees drafted him.
As for the rebuilding Mariners, it looks as if they did well to insert themselves into this swap. Long joined the team as a promising prospect and then lived up to the billing in his first major league action last season. The 24-year-old amassed 168 PA and batted .263/.333/.454, also gaining a solid amount of experience at second base and in the outfield. Long figures to see even more time in Seattle this year, when the team no doubt hopes he’ll further demonstrate that he’s capable of serving as a core member of its roster.
Thanks to this trade, the Reds have a core piece for their rotation in Gray. A year into Gray’s time in Cincinnati, he and the team are surely thrilled with how their union has worked out.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
If I’m not mistaken the Yankees asked for Tyler Stephenson in addition to/instead of Long
Sonny has been great for Cincy thus far. I hope it continues in 2020!
Who could have imagined the quality of the current Reds rotation back in 2018? Reds won’t be pushovers this season
That’s what they said last season.
They weren’t nearly as much pushovers last year as they were for awhile.
They won’t b pushovers, not again, 30 one run games & an a bad start..,won’t happen again!!
Reds are going to be good.
I hope to be saying the same thing in 2021-22 about the M’s rotation. Good luck Reds, don’t listen to the Nah sayers
Great move for the reds as an organization that was struggling to get Free Agents to sign.
That’s a deep rotation.
Sonny is great but he had a mental block in New York. Safe to say he would not have put up those numbers as a Yankee
So Gray had to Shed the NY pressure by moving a Long was away to Cincinnati where the Reds could Sikkema on NL batters. Meanwhile the Yankees are Stowers of talent in the low minor leagues.
Nice.
My hat’s off to you …
Definitley one of the best comeback seasons by a pitcher in recent years. Went from being pushed from the Yankees rotation to the pen, to the 10th highest fWAR in the NL, and recieveing a few Cy Young votes.
Shed Long Is a good deal for Seattle. The guy was a catcher, originally. I see him as a Matt Lawton type of player with more pop.
That’s actually right in line with his listed projection on Baseball-Reference at the moment.
Lawton (note age-24 season): baseball-reference.com/players/l/lawtoma02.shtml
Long (note the 2020 projection): baseball-reference.com/players/l/longsh01.shtml
BA/ OBP/ SLG/ OPS lines:
Lawton 24: .258/ .339/ .365/ .704
Long 24(p): .263/ .335/ .451/ .785
For reference, a nearly identical line from Long in his <200 PA was a 113 OPS+ — a 1B/ DH bat from a 24-year old 2B (scram Dee!)
This rotation, while potentially quite good based on last year’s performances, could very easily tank. No rotation member is close to a sure thing, and with defensive choices like Moustakas as 2nd and Akiyama as a question mark in center there is a lot of room for disappointment in the pitching numbers.
And 29 other teams.
I would disagree and say Castillo is a sure thing. Aside from deGrom, he has been the best starter in the NL for the past year and a half. His stuff is insane.
Hyun Jin Ryu would like a word with you, as would Walker Buehler, Max Scherzer, and probably a number of other guys. Castillo was good last year, but he was pretty much terrible in 2018 after the all star break. I’ll take each of these guys’ “past year and a half” over Castillo’s anytime.
Spinach, most if not all of the rotation have done it before, they weren’t one year 2019 wonders. Castillo is a stud sure thing, Gray is nearly so, and Disco and Miley have had multiple good years. When Trevor Bauer is the main question mark in your rotation, you have a strong rotation. As for the D, Galvis can pick it and Senzel, not Akiyama, is the everyday quality CFr.
You need 2 eat more of yourself, Reds pitching is still a strength & will b again, look @ the numbers
Shed Long really does look like a nice acquisition for the Mariners. Up until last offseason it seemed like every single infielder Dipoto traded for/away turned out to be worse/better (respectively) than ever. Long had some promising underlying stats in his MLB tenure, and if I were to guess, seems to fit the bill for some sort of long term cog in the Mariners infield. Hopefully it’s at second base and they don’t make him utility.
Hopefully they find something to do with Dee Gordon so Long can play everyday.
Dipoto’s trades prior to the rebuild came in at a net zero. The Haniger+Segura wins was absolutely huge and the only noteworthy trade losses were Chris Taylor and turning over Mallex Smith for the soon-to-be-injured-before-the-year-began Drew Smyly.
Even the trade people complained about the most, Gonzales for O’Neil has thus far been a major win. Even if O’Neill becomes the monstrous hitter his physical power potential may allow him to become, it could be considered an at-worst neutral in the context of what the rest of the Mariners roster looks like right now (O’Neill would likely be on the short-end of a LF battle with Lewis and there wouldn’t be a single league-average SP).
Hopefully CIN makes the playoffs. Votto has been toiling in obscurity for years now. It would be nice to get him some more playoff games. Only 9 playoff games in 13 years.
The last in 2013. Ouch.