Reds' Gray: Yankees 'wanted me to be Tanaka and I'm way different'

Warning: Story contains coarse language

Sonny Gray believes his pitching performance with the New York Yankees last season was disappointing because he threw too many sliders.

The former All-Star, now with the Cincinnati Reds following a January trade, revealed Tuesday that his time in pinstripes saw the team pushing him to pitch like another right-hander in the Bronx.

"They love sliders," Gray told Eno Sarris of The Athletic. "Sliders are a great pitch. The numbers say slider is a good pitch, but you might not realize how many shitty counts you're getting in while throwing all those sliders. They wanted me to be (Masahiro) Tanaka and I'm way different from him."

Gray admitted he can't command that pitch very well.

"I don't have that type of slider, like Tanaka's slider," he said. "His slider, the catcher will catch it, and the batter will swing and miss. If I get a swing and miss, the catcher is blocking it in the dirt. When I try to throw sliders for a strike, I get around it and it's just a shitty spinning pitch.

"I don’t know how people throw sliders for strikes that are still tight, good pitches."

Yankees manager Aaron Boone responded to Gray's comments, saying the frustration was mutual.

"We tried as best we could to try to get him to be successful, so I think we all kind of shared in the frustration at times," Boone said, according to Kristie Ackert of New York Daily News. "I know he was frustrated, we were, but we just tried to get him to be the best he could be and as successful as he could be.

“I don’t know if I'd characterized it … I mean he throws a slider."

Gray, 29, went 9-9 with the Yankees in 2018, authoring a 5.26 ERA and 1.49 WHIP in 23 starts before being sent to the bullpen after New York traded for J.A. Happ and Lance Lynn to fortify the starting rotation.