Sitting on a shelf in Sonny Gray’s locker in the corner of the Boston Red Sox clubhouse is a small black notebook. It holds many of the secrets of the most successful season of Gray’s 14-year career.
When the Red Sox added Gray as their No. 2 in the rotation behind Garrett Crochet, many thought it a tall ask for a starter in the backend of his career.
Still, Gray has anchored the staff, which has been without Crochet for most of the season. Gray has a 2.78 ERA over 21 starts and has thrown at least six innings in all but six outings.
The 36-year-old has implemented a method over the years that has made him successful. Writing things down — his schedule for the day, his workouts, how to attack hitters, notes on his performances — is the key.
The process started in 2019 at the suggestion of Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson, who also coached Gray at Vanderbilt University.
“DJ always carried a little book with him, taking notes,” Gray said. “He would always just be like, ‘Need to get you one of these.’”
Gray initially used index cards and would throw them out at the end of the day. Then he realized organizing in a notebook would be more beneficial. He estimates he has 20 at his house.
“You have a reference that you can go back to when you feel like you may get off-tilt,” Gray said. “What did my days look like when things are good?”
Gray has tweaked his method over the years, and while he doesn’t know how many notebooks he uses a season, he has a library detailing the second half of his career.
It’s likely no coincidence some of his best seasons have come since he began taking notes. In 2019, he posted a 2.87 ERA in 31 starts and finished seventh in National League Cy Young Award voting. He landed second in voting for the American League Cy Young in 2023, after posting a 2.79 ERA in 32 starts for the Minnesota Twins.
Over his career in baseball, Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey, 42, has worked with few pitchers as detail-oriented as Gray.
“He’s definitely cerebral,” Bailey said. “He’s well-prepared. He knows what he wants to do, what he does really well and his identity as a pitcher.”
Another piece of Gray’s success has been working with bullpen catcher Charlie Madden, who works with Gray between starts while Gary’s de facto personal catcher, Connor Wong, manages the rest of the pitching staff.
“It’s been good because our brains are similar,” Gray said of Madden. “He understands my quirkiness or my structure and attention to detail that is important to me. I think his brain is similar, so he knows where I’m coming from when I get a little weird.”
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Time and again throughout his career, Gray has reinvented himself. This year is no different. He has his lowest strikeout rate since 2018, and while his walks are up compared to the last two years, he has limited the damage. His hard-hit rate is his lowest in six years, and he’s allowed his lowest barreled ball rate since 2022.
Although Gray was left off the AL All-Star roster last month, his performance is viewed favorably across the league.
“Sonny Gray has reinvented himself,” said one National League evaluator who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about other teams’ players. “It’s so impressive to watch at his age. For hitters, it must feel like trying to hit a butterfly with a shovel.”
Wong has caught all of Gray’s starts since May 30 as the two have found a rhythm, adjusting on the fly in-game when Gray doesn’t have a pitch or recognizing when batters are sitting on another one. Their dynamic is a product of their pre-start meetings.
“He almost does it in the third person, like when he’s explaining how he wants to attack someone, he says, ‘you,’” Wong explained. “I actually don’t know if that’s him talking to himself or if he wants us to feel like we are throwing the pitches, but it’s pretty interesting in that aspect.”
Gray shares only so many details of the routine documented in his little black book.
After finding what works for him, the Red Sox hope he can keep it up deep into October.
