Oakland Athletics ace Sonny Gray has been scratched from his start against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday. Jesse Chavez will fill in for him today.
A’s manager Bob Melvin told Jane Lee of MLB.com this about Gray:
“He had some back spasms last night and was working hard to get them out of there. We wanted to at least wait until this morning to see how he felt, but we had a pretty good idea last night he wasn’t going to start. We’ll see how he feels in Baltimore, and we’ll get him in there when we feel it’s the proper time to get him in there, but at this point, not sure.”
Gray, 25, has been one of the best pitchers in the American League this season and is a front-runner to win the Cy Young Award. The righty leads the league in ERA (2.06), ERA+ (189), WHIP (0.96), shutouts (2) and hits per nine innings (6.4). Oakland definitely will not put their All-Star and best player at risk for long term injury, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go on the disabled list this weekend.
