Brian Cashman cleared up Yankees-Sonny Gray nonsense and outed a big problem

It's been years since Sonny Gray was a Yankee, and New York's GM Brian Cashman just took full advantage of the assumption that Gray will never be a Yankee again. Amid the recent emergence of conflicting reports about Gray's tenure in the Bronx, Cashman used Sunday's MLB Winter Meetings Day 1 to clear the air on Gray and expose the right-hander for allegedly lying.

Per The Athletic's Brendan Kuty, Cashman revealed on Sunday that Gray came to him after the 2018 trade deadline and admitted to him in a private conversation that he never wanted to join the Yankees in the first place.

Cashman said that Gray expected to be traded at the 2018 deadline due to his poor performance in pinstripes, and when he wasn't, he decided to come clean to Cashman.

This story from Cashman actually verifies Gray's recent remarks during a Red Sox introductory interview that he "never wanted" to join the Yankees, but it also makes Gray look fake for pretending to love his move to the Yankees back in 2017 (Yankees fans have already destroyed Gray for this).

Brian Cashman just outed Sonny Gray as a liar at Winter Meetings, but Gray's alleged sins might actually belong to his agent

This is where further details from Cashman's Winter Meetings reveal come into play, though. While Cashman outed Gray for his admission about always disliking New York, he also revealed to the media that Gray told him that he only originally professed a desire to play for the Yankees because his agent, Bo McKinnis, instructed him to do so.

Per Kuty, "Cashman said Gray told him McKinnis 'told me to lie' because 'it wouldn’t be good for my free agency to say there’s certain places that I don’t want to go to'."

Okay, so the Gray-Yankees feud has been settled (everyone take a deep breath)! With McKinnis emerging as the true culprit, Cashman's betrayal of Gray's trust is balanced out by Gray hating on the Yankees in the press. All is well.

Of course ... McKinnis didn't take this lightly, lashing back out at Cashman for his characterization. “So, Brian is trying to make people believe I told Sonny to, in Cashman’s words, ‘lie’ to the minor-league video guy to try to get Sonny to the Yankees — even though, per Cashman, Sonny did not want to be with the Yankees — to subsequently somehow help Sonny’s free agency," McKinnis told The Athletic. "This makes zero sense. … Further, the words, ‘I want out of Oakland,’ have never been said by Sonny. He loved his time with the A’s.”

Tell us how you really feel! The battle rages on.

Cashman was in a revealing mood on Sunday, no doubt. Besides the Gray stuff, he also outed the Yankees for having a pressing roster issue: their lineup is lefty-heavy.

"We are too left-handed right now, without a doubt," Cashman said, per MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.

Yankees fans were quick to flood the timeline with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ketel Marte mock trades, while pointing out the hilarity of Cashman making these comments during an offseason in which he's offered a qualifying offer to Trent Grisham and reportedly continues to prioritize Cody Bellinger.

Say what you want about Cashman; he was an open book on Sunday and provided lots of good entertainment with his remarks. If he's in a similar sort of temper on Monday during Winter Meetings Day 2, Yankees fans will want to have their popcorn ready.