Sonny Gray (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

On Monday, prior to the MLB Trade Deadline, the New York Yankees acquired starting pitcher Sonny Gray from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for three top minor league prospects. Adding Gray provides the Yankees with an immediate upgrade to a starting rotation that already consists of Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, CC Sabathia, and Jaime Garcia.

New York enters play on Tuesday with a half game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. It’s a tight race and one that is expected to last well into September. The expectation is that adding Gray makes the Yankees the favorite to win the division and make a deep run into the playoffs. However, that’s no given.

When you look at the career numbers of Gray, while overall impressive, there is a major red flag – the AL East.

In 23 games against the Yankees AL East rivals, Gray has a career record of 8-9 to go along with a 4.00 ERA. The Yankees will see plenty of their rivals in the final two months of the 2017 regular season. Gray will need to improve on his career numbers if the deal comes to truly benefit the Yankees.

He has performed the worst against Baltimore. Gray is 1-3 in his career against the Orioles with an ERA of 5.57. In 21 innings, he’s given up 13 earned runs. Gray is 1-2 with a 5.16 ERA against the Yankees biggest rival, the Red Sox.

His numbers are better against Tampa Bay and Toronto, however. Despite the Rays having hit more home runs (nine) off Gray than any other team in baseball, the right-hander is 3-2 with a 3.93 ERA against them in his career. He should be good if the Yankees can throw him out there against Toronto as often as possible. Gray is 3-2 with a 2.54 ERA against the Blue Jays in his career.

Gray will likely make his Yankees debut some time in the teams’ next series, in Cleveland.