Source: Reds get pitcher Sonny Gray from Yankees for prospect, pick

The Yankees have traded starting pitcher Sonny Gray to the Cincinnati Reds, a source familiar with the deal told ESPN, finalizing a days-in-the-making deal that ends Gray's topsy-turvy stint with New York.

The sides had agreed on a deal that sources said hinged upon Gray reaching a contract extension with the Reds. That extension is for three years and worth $30.5 million and includes a $12 million club option for 2023, according to the source.

Second-base prospect Shed Long and a high draft pick were the agreed-upon return should Gray sign the extension, sources said.

Cincinnati had hoped to buy out the free agency of the 29-year-old Gray, who reconnects with his college pitching coach, Derek Johnson, moves closer to his Nashville home and brings a career 53 percent groundball rate to the bandbox of Great American Ball Park.

The deal is nonetheless a decided risk for Cincinnati, as it tries to transition from rebuilding to contending and banks on Gray after his difficult year-and-a-half stretch in the Bronx. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman publicly stated his intention to deal the former All-Star after the team's season ended with an AL Division Series loss to the Red Sox. While it took more than three months, Cashman found a willing partner in a Reds team that has remade its roster via trade this winter.

This is the Reds' third significant deal, after acquiring starter Tanner Roark from Washington, then sending Homer Bailey's dead-money contract and a pair of prospects to the Los Angeles Dodgers for starter Alex Wood, outfielders Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp, and catcher Kyle Farmer.

Gray was a prized acquisition when the Yankees dealt prospects James Kaprielian, Dustin Fowler and Jorge Mateo to the Oakland A's for him at the 2017 trade deadline. After pitching reasonably well down the stretch despite a 4-7 record, Gray posted an egregious home-road split in 2018 that grew severe enough he eventually lost his rotation spot and didn't make the team's postseason roster. In 15 games away from Yankee Stadium, Gray struck out 78 and walked 22 in 71 innings, with hitters registering a slash line of .226/.295/.320. Their numbers against him in the Bronx were staggering: .318/.406/.527, leading to a 6.98 ERA in 15 games.

Cincinnati believes enough in Gray to pursue an extension -- and to give up a well-liked prospect in Long, 23, and a draft pick that will wind up in the late 30s and is seen in the industry as being worth around $10 million. Gray could headline a rotation in far better shape than the one that finished 2018 with a 5.02 ERA, including Roark, Wood, Luis Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani, with Tyler Mahle, Sal Romano and Cody Reed also capable of starting.

While the Reds have yet to sign a major league free agent this winter, the additions through trade have pushed their payroll above $120 million, which would be a franchise high. Following a 67-95 season, the Reds felt close enough to start moving toward contention, even with a loaded National League Central that includes three potential playoff teams in Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis as well as a Pittsburgh team that finished above .500 last season.

Gray arrived in Oakland in 2013, a little more than two years after the A's chose him 18th overall in the draft out of Vanderbilt. He slipped to the middle of the first round because teams feared his height (5-foot-10) would limit his effectiveness. His 93-mph sinker and hammer curve ensured that would not be the case, and in 2015, his second full season, Gray finished third in Cy Young voting and looked primed to become one of the best pitchers in the AL. Then came a disaster of a 2016 season, which preceded the trade to the Yankees the following season. The Yankees believed they would get more of the 2015 version of Gray than 2016, and the Reds are hoping the same after outflanking the San Francisco Giants and others interested in acquiring him.