FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Gunnar Gray had spent nearly half his life cheering for the Cincinnati Reds by the time his father, right-hander Sonny Gray, was traded to the Twins on Sunday.
The deal seemed like a win on all sides, with Cincinnati taking Chase Petty, the Twins' first-round selection in the 2021 MLB Draft, and Minnesota finally reeling in the big veteran name it had sought to lead the rotation.
But the Twins are certainly not the Reds, so how to explain the business of baseball to a brokenhearted 7-year-old?
After a quick meeting -- while simultaneously canceling travel plans to Cincinnati's Spring Training facility in Arizona and booking arrangements for Florida -- Sonny Gray and his wife, Jessica, came up with the perfect solution for Gunnar and his 4-year-old brother Declan.
Movie night.
"We got to thinking on the flight down [to Florida], and we downloaded the movie 'Little Big League,'" Sonny Gray said. "We watched the movie as a family, and it was Twins, it was kids, it was baseball -- it was awesome. We started getting a little excited."
For those unfamiliar with the tale, it revolves around the owner of the Twins bequeathing the team to his grandson Billy. The 12-year-old quickly flexes his newfound power by firing the manager (no one liked George anyway) and appointing himself the replacement. Most importantly for Gunnar Gray though, the movie painted the Twins as just the kind of team a kid could root for, and he was all in shortly after.
Good thing, because the Twins are all in on his dad. Two-time All-Star Sonny Gray owns a 3.61 career ERA across nine MLB seasons with the A's, Yankees and Reds and will now anchor Minnesota's rotation. Manager Rocco Baldelli hinted before Gray even set foot in camp that he was a candidate for an Opening Day nod, slotting in ahead of Dylan Bundy, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober.
Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey also hopes Gray will provide a polished veteran's influence to back-end guys like Randy Dobnak and Lewis Thorpe and prospects Josh Winder, Drew Strotman and Jhoan Duran.
"This is an elite guy, as a pitcher and as a person, to join our group in our clubhouse," Baldelli said Tuesday. "You couldn’t ask for anything more from an addition. He’s going to bring everything to the table for us. He leaves it out there every day."
And as soon as Gray had secured everyone's blessings that mattered and arrived at the park, he was free to step out on the backfields on Tuesday morning at Hammond Stadium, take a deep breath, fully appreciate the whirlwind that was the past 48 hours and prepare to leave it all out there for a new club.
"It was a big sigh of relief when I could get out there and pick up a baseball and smell the grass and do the things I really love to do," he admitted. "The Twins seem to be pushing more chips in, 'Let's try to really improve the team in order to win.' That's kind of where I'm at in my career, and that's just what it's all really about to me, is winning. I want to win."
The Minnesota faithful who assembled at the park to welcome the club's newest addition were in for a treat: Gray posed for several pictures and signed even more autographs as the city gathered to embrace him, even from 1,700 miles to the north.
Reflecting on the heartwarming movie night with his family prior to his first day in camp might have been the icing on Gray's cake. Sitting in the dugout during his first official media scrum after workouts on Tuesday afternoon, a smile spread across his face as he looked out over the field.
"It's so exciting coming here, and you see 'Twins', and I keep going back to Little Big League and the Twins," Gray said, gesturing to various signage in the right-field corner. "And for me, I'm looking at it, like, 'OK, this is going to be an exciting new chapter.'"