Red Sox exhaust Yankees with contrived drama after Willson Contreras comments

New York Yankees fans rolled their eyes back in November when Sonny Gray was traded to the Boston Red Sox and made an immediate point to bash the Yanks and say he never wanted to pitch for them. The PR stunt backfired on Gray soon after, with Yankees GM Brian Cashman revealing that the right-hander once lied to him by saying he totally loved New York. Nice one, Sonny.

The feeble and simulated Yankees animosity didn't end with Gray. During a Zoom media appearance on Wednesday, new Red Sox slugger Willson Contreras singled out the Yankees as a team he's pumped to play against (and defeat) more often. He also made a point to clarify his supposed dislike of the Yanks, merely in an attempt to appeal to Boston's fan base.

Willson Contreras just went full cringe-mode by pretending to hate the Yankees

"I’m not coming to Boston just to like the Yankees, because that’s not going to happen," Contreras said. "They’re probably going to start hating me whenever we play against each other, but I’m going to play with fire."

First Hunter Dobbins. Then Gray. And now Contreras. Yankees fans are growing tired of this act. It's not that the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is weakening, by the way; it's just that the expressions of said rivalry have grown soft and manufactured of late.

Gray and Contreras have forgotten that real rivalries are created and maintained on the baseball diamond in the heat of the moment, not in the press. Gone are the days of Don Zimmer getting dropped by Pedro Martinez, or Jason Varitek shoving A-Rod. These days, we have Gray thinking he's being risqué by donning a Red Sox hat he just bought on Amazon and trolling the Yankees through a laptop screen from the comfort of his bedroom.

There's no need to force things. The Red Sox and Yankees meeting in the ALWC this past season was an awesome development for the rivalry, even if there weren't any charged mounds or flying fists. With both clubs positioned to be fighting tooth and nail in the most competitive division in baseball in 2026, there should be ample opportunities for some competitive shenanigans at either Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium.

But this fake tough guy thing from Gray and the even less convincing remarks from Contreras simply ain't it. It almost feels like Contreras was reading from a script or otherwise felt compelled to talk trash about the Yankees because it's something Red Sox players are supposed to feel.

Enough with the contrived nonsense. A rivalry as old and sustained as this doesn't need try-hard energy to keep it flowing. This isn't Dodgers vs Padres. And by the way, maybe the Red Sox and Yankees should focus less on each other and more on the defending AL East champion Toronto Blue Jays.