Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Sonny Gray will turn 37 years old in November but just finished one of the best seasons of his 14-year MLB career. Despite winning a career-high and American League-leading 18 games during the 2026 campaign, Gray's successful season came to a screeching and disappointing halt on Wednesday night following the Boston's 9-2 loss against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card series. Red Sox manager Chad Tracy controversially lifted Gray from Wednesday's contest with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Yankees leading just 1-0.
Boston's bullpen then imploded for the second consecutive night, putting the final nail in the coffin for the Red Sox's 2026 season. The veteran right-hander is set to hit free agency this winter and admitted after the loss that he wasn't sure what his future holds. Gray told reporters, including Mac Cerullo of The Boston Herald, that he wasn't ruling out retirement.
"I don’t know what the future holds for me," the three-time All-Star said. "I do know that I walked off that mound with my chest back and my chin up, and I can definitely be proud that I left it all out there until the ball was taken out of my hands." Gray's final line on Wednesday included just two runs allowed on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts across 4 2/3 innings pitched. With 2025 AL Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet sidelined for most of the year due to injury, Gray became the ace of the Red Sox's pitching staff in what may end up being his only year in Beantown.
The 2011 first-round pick was asked if he could return to the Red Sox in 2027 and said, "I don't know." That uncertainty doesn't mean that Gray isn't proud of what Boston accomplished in a season where they recovered from being 14 games under .500 at one point early in the summer. "We were left for dead there for a while and I’ll definitely remember that run that we went on and what that felt like, I’d never experienced anything like that in my career," he said, per Cerullo. "To dig ourselves out of that hole and to put ourselves in this situation, that was a lot of fun." Gray combined his 18-5 record with a sparkling 2.72 ERA in 169 innings pitched covering 29 regular season starts.
If he does decide to hang up his cleats, it will be to spend more time with his family, not because of a loss of passion for the game. "I’ve got a lot of baseball left in me," Gray said.
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