ORLANDO — It’s not often the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry flares up in mid-December, but comments exchanged between new Boston starter Sonny Gray and New York general manager Brian Cashman have led to an interesting mid-winter subplot in recent days.

A week after being acquired in a trade with the Cardinals, Gray — on an introductory Zoom call with the Boston media — said he “never wanted to go (New York) in the first place” when he was traded by the Athletics to the Yankees at the 2017 trade deadline and spoke of his excitement of coming to a place where it was “easy to hate” the Yankees. Gray did not fare well with New York, as he was not seen as a good fit for the big market and went 15-16 with a 4.51 ERA in 2017 and 2018 before being traded to the Reds.

On Sunday, as the Winter Meetings

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