Red Sox pitcher Sonny Gray apparently is looking forward to taking on his new team’s biggest rival, saying he’s happy to be in “a place where it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”

The Red Sox acquired the well-traveled Gray in a trade with the Cardinals last week, adding the durable pitcher to a starting rotation that was thin on options during Boston’s postseason ouster in New York.

Gray already is familiar with the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry after spending parts of two seasons in the Bronx earlier in his career, and the three-time All-Star didn’t mince words when discussing his experience in New York.

“It just wasn’t a good situation for me,” Gray told reporters Tuesday. “It wasn’t a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place.”

That clearly wasn’t the case for Gray with the Red Sox, who needed the right-hander to waive his no-trade clause in order to complete their deal with the Cardinals.

“What did factor into my decision to come to Boston — it feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees,” he said. “It’s easy to go out and have that rivalry and go into it with full force, full steam ahead. I like the challenge.”

Gray struggled to a 4.51 ERA — nearly a full run higher than his career numbers — during his 41-game run with the Yankees in 2017 and 2018. New York acquired Gray in a blockbuster deal with the Athletics only to trade him less than 18 months later to Cincinnati, where he began reviving his career with the Reds.

“When that was happening, and we were in Oakland and getting traded — that was a long time ago — I never wanted to go (to New York),” Gray said. “So then I was there, and it just didn’t really work for who I am. … I just wasn’t myself. I just didn’t feel like I was allowed to go out there and be Sonny.”

Gray, 36, has a 3.58 ERA over a 13-year career with the Athletics, Yankees, Reds, Twins and Cardinals. He joins a Red Sox rotation that is led by ace Garrett Crochet but also features a handful of unproven candidates after right-hander Brayan Bello.

Gray is the latest Red Sox pitcher to publicly say that he didn’t enjoy playing for the Yankees.

Star closer Aroldis Chapman said earlier this offseason that he would “retire on the spot” before playing for New York again, adding that he “dealt with a lot of disrespect” from Yankees management.

Gray, who is 66-50 with a 3.51 ERA in seven seasons since leaving the Yankees, acknowledged that he learned a great deal from his time in New York.

“I’ve been a better baseball player, husband, everything from having that experience and going through that,” he said.

Boston’s first series with the Yankees next season will be April 21-23 at Fenway Park. The Red Sox play their first series in Yankee Stadium from June 5-7.

If he ends up pitching for the Red Sox in the Bronx, Gray hinted that things will be different.

“This time around, it’s just go out and be yourself,” he said. “Don’t try to be anything other than yourself. If people don’t like it, it is what it is. I am who I am, and I’m OK with that.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — City officials in St. Petersburg showed off the newly enclosed dome at Tropicana Field on Wednesday and said they are confident the ballpark will be ready for the Tampa Bay Rays‘ home opener April 6 against the Chicago Cubs following work to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Milton last year.

“We have no concern about being open or ready for Opening Day,” said Beth Herendeen, managing director of City Development Administration. “We hope we keep it that way.”

Some seam work remains on the final panels to close small gaps at the top, and interior repairs are well underway.

Tropicana Field sustained extensive damage on Oct. 9, 2024. High winds ripped sections of the original roof, allowing rain to fall into the stadium bowl for months. Water caused mold and damage to electrical, sound and broadcast systems.

The city contracted ETS, AECOM Hunt and Hennessy Construction to lead the repairs and brought back Geiger Engineering, the dome’s original designer, to help reengineer the roof. The synthetic membranes of Polytetrafluoroethylene are thicker and built to current wind-load codes.

“The roof that was replaced had to be designed to today’s codes,” city architect Raul Quintana said. “It’s a much stronger material than it was 35 years ago, and it’s going to last.”

The Rays played 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

Installation of the new roof began in August, and the final panel was put in place Nov. 21. Some triangular panels still show color variation, with newer pieces beige and earlier ones already bleached white, but Quintana said they will eventually match.

“It took about three months to bleach out the ones that were first installed,” he said.

The air-conditioning system has been reactivated, and contractors are focused on electrical work, seating and sound equipment. The team is upgrading the luxury suites and stadium videoboard.

“Drywall is being hung, seats are being painted, and the catwalk electric is being installed,” Herendeen said. “The new stadium sound system will be installed this month and tested in January.”

New artificial turf is scheduled to arrive in mid-January. Other final updates include new home plate club seats, clubhouse carpet and lockers, and flooring on the outfield deck.

Tampa Bay starts the season with a nine-game trip to St. Louis, Milwaukee and Minnesota.

Left-hander Anthony Kay and the Chicago White Sox are in agreement on a two-year, $12 million contract with a club option for a third season, sources told ESPN on Wednesday, bringing the veteran back to Major League Baseball after a successful two-year run in Japan.

Kay, 30, posted a 1.74 ERA over 155 innings for the Yokohama BayStars this year, featuring a new cutter, an improved changeup and a fastball that still sits at 95 mph years after he was one of the game’s best pitching prospects.

The White Sox are aiming to replicate their success with domestic pitchers returning from Asia two years after signing Erick Fedde to a two-year, $15 million deal.

Kay’s deal will pay him $5 million each of the next two seasons and will include a $10 million club option for 2028 with a $2 million buyout, sources said. He can earn another $1.5 million in incentives.

He will slot into a White Sox rotation that includes young right-handers Shane Smith, Davis Martin and Sean Burke. Chicago used 18 starters this year, when it went 60-102 — a 19-game improvement over 2024, when the White Sox set a major league record with 121 losses.

Kay’s return comes after a five-year major league career in which he posted a 5.67 ERA in 85⅔ innings with the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs and New York Mets, who took him in the first round of the 2016 draft out of UConn. Kay cruised through the minor leagues and was dealt to the Blue Jays along with Simeon Woods Richardson for Marcus Stroman at the 2019 trade deadline.

Following a return to the Mets in 2023, Kay departed for Yokohama, where he threw 136⅔ innings of 3.42 ERA ball in his first season.

While Nippon Professional Baseball features a depressed offensive environment, Kay still ranked fifth in the league this year in ERA and allowed only eight home runs in 155 innings while striking out 130 and walking 41.