Sonny Gray Wife, Salary, Age, Height, Trade, Bio, Other Facts

Sonny Gray, like many other athletes before him, started with more than one sport in mind. He was a baseball and football player who won titles in college. His professional career began with the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball in 2011, but it took a while before he was eligible for a place on the Athletics squad.

Since then, North American Tennessee has won awards like the American League Pitcher of the Month. In 2015 he was nominated for the MLB All-Star Game. In 2017 he was taken over by the New York Yankees.

Sonny Gray’s Bio (Age) 

The Yankees pitcher was born Sonny Douglas Gray on November 7, 1989, in Nashville, Tennessee. He grew up in Nashville and later in Smyrna.

ALSO READ: Ender Inciarte Biography, Stats, Contract, Salary, and Other Facts

Sonny’s high school start was, to say the least, brilliant. He played several positions in his first year and was awarded the Freshman of the Year in District 9AAA. After his second year of limited physical activity due to injury, he recovered and helped his team win the 2007 state tournament, earning him a nomination for National Player of the Year and a place in the AFLAC All-American High School Baseball Classic.

His last year of high school was again interrupted by injury, but he achieved an ERA record of 0.79, held a 4-0 record, and beat a .500 average at home plate.

Sonny Gray also turned out to be the quarterback for his school’s football team, which won successive 5A state titles in 2006 and 2007. The Tennessean named Sonny Gray Gatorade Player of the Year for two consecutive seasons (2007 and 2008) in recognition of his overall sporting achievements.

Career and Trade

After high school, Gray honored his verbal commitment to Vanderbilt University by rejecting the Chicago Cubs in the 2008 MLB Draft.

He focused on his college pitcher game and earned his starting spot until late in the season. Over the years, he continued to improve his ERA with each season played, recording the highest number of strikeouts (113) on the team for 2010, and in his third year, he beat his own record of 132 strikeouts, helping the team reach a place in the College World Series for the first time in their history. They also made it to the semi-finals of the tournament.

After his junior year, Sonny Gray left college to join Oakland Athletics when he was voted 18th overall in the 2011 MLB Draft. Soon after signing for Oakland, he switched to the Texas League’s double-A rated Midland RockHounds. This led to a side trip to the Sacramento rivers.

He played his first game for the team in the 2013 season against the Pittsburgh Pirates, after which he played again before being nominated for a minor league team again. His first start in the big league came on 10 August against the Toronto Blue Jays, and eventually, he became a permanent fixture in the team as the team’s fifth starter. He ended the campaign with 67 strikeouts, 64 innings, and an ERA of 2.67 in 12 outings.

Gray made it onto the opening day schedule for the first time in the 2014 campaign. In April, he rewarded his coach’s playing time with an outstanding contribution and scored his first full game without conceding a goal. Sonny was named pitcher of the AL month in April and July. With a win over the Texas Rangers on the final day of the season, he brought the team into the playoffs for the third time.

Sonny Gray was again named pitcher of the month in his second game on an opening day in a row. He finished the season with a 14-7 record, an ERA of 2.73, and was rewarded with a spot in his first all-star game. He did not participate in the game, however, as he had started a game for Oakland the Sunday before the All-Star game. At the end of the campaign, Gray was the second runner-up for the Cy Young Award.

Sonny’s 2016 was a disastrous year considering the results of the previous campaign. In 2016, he landed on the disabled list twice and finished the season with an ERA score of 5.69 and a 5-11 record.

His time with Oakland finally ended on July 31st, 2017 when the pitcher was sold to the New York Yankees, with Jorge Mateo, Dustin Fowler, and James Kaprielian heading in the opposite direction.

Does Sonny Gray have a Wife?

Gray was with his girlfriend Jessica Forkum for a while when they welcomed their first child, a son they called Gunnar Carmack Gray. Jessica was born in Smyrna, Tennessee, on July 7, 1988, as the daughter of her parents Patricia and Gregory Forkum.

On November 12, 2016, Sonny and Jessica entered into the bonds of marriage in his home state of Tennessee. Present were some of his former and current teammates, including Josh Phegley, Billy Burns, Stephen Vogt, and Scott Kazmir.

ALSO READ: Corinne Bailey Rae Bio, Husband, Family Life and Other Facts You Must Know

Salary and Net Worth

The ace pitcher earned a whopping $1.54 million signature bonus when he joined the Oakland Athletics in 2011. He also earned $527,500 for his efforts in the 2016 season and $3.6 million for 2017, his first season with the Yankees, and has only climbed higher since.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, the net worth of the pitcher is $7 million.

Height, Weight and Other Facts about Sonny Gray

• Grey stands at a respectable height of 1.78 m (5 feet 10 inches) and weighs 87.1 kg (192 lbs).
• He knew tragedies early in his life. As a young boy still trying to start his career in sports, he lost his father in a car accident. This happened early, in the first year of high school. He had just started playing baseball for high school in Smyrna when the tragedy happened.
• Turns out the pro pitcher in high school wasn’t just about sports. He was involved in other extracurricular activities such as theater plays. He was cast in the lead role as Troy Bolton in the stage adaptation of the popular Disney movie High School Musical at his school.