Sonny Gray is in the final year of his contract with the Minnesota Twins and based on what he said during All-Star Game festivities in Seattle, it could very well be the last contract of his MLB career.
Gray, who struck out Mookie Betts and Ronald Acuna Jr. in a scoreless inning of work in Tuesday’s All-Star Game, said retirement after the season hasn’t been ruled out.
“Wouldn’t shock me if I didn’t play any more after this year,” Gray told Twins MLB.com reporter Do-Hyoung Park. “Wouldn’t shock me. Do I want to? Do I think I can? Absolutely. And I can at a very, very high level. It’s not about the money. It’s whether you still enjoy it, and does your family still enjoy it.”
Gray and his wife have two sons: Gunnar, 8, and 4-year-old Declan. His future in the big leagues may be tied to whether the lifestyle is still good for his family.
“Does it still work with your family? Do your boys still enjoy it? Do they still want you to do it? Do they want dad to be home?” Gray told Park. “You think about it every now and then, just being real. But they love it, they enjoy it, they think it’s cool. It gives them a little bit of street cred at school. So we’ll see how it plays out.”
Gray is in the final year of his contract with the Twins and is due to become a free agent after the season. The 33-year-old is earning $12.7 million this season. If he finishes this season among the best starters in the game, he could command far more money as a free agent this winter.
His 2.89 ERA ranks 10th in the majors, just behind Luis Castillo’s 2.85 ERA. Castillo, who was Gray’s teammate in Cincinnati, was traded last summer to the Mariners and signed a five-year, $108 million contract. Castillo is three years younger than Gray so a five-year deal probably won’t be on the table for Gray this offseason, but an annual rate similar to Castillo’s $21.6 million annual average value seems realistic if he finishes the season strong.
