Brewers could land Sonny Gray?

The market for Sonny Gray is heating up, but one dark horse team may be lurking in the shadows.

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports, one of the most plugged-in reporters in the business, says on Friday that the Milwaukee Brewers could land the Oakland A’s righty. Heyman appears to base his conjecture on Gray’s close connection with Brewers pitching coach Derek Johnson from back in his Vanderbilt days.

smart $ says brewers could be team for sonny gray. crew pitching coach derek johnson was gray's coach at vanderbilt. the 2 r VERY close.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 15, 2017

Of course, Gray has no shortage of other (mostly American League) suitors, and an old coach would likely be completely irrelevant to the A’s, whose first priority is to secure as strong of a return package as possible for Gray.

But the NL Central-leading Brewers have a rather thin rotation (currently led by the likes of Zach Davies and Jimmy Nelson). Baseball America also ranked their farm system eighth-best in the MLB before the season. Thus, it wouldn’t be too implausible to see Milwaukee gear up to pursue the Oakland ace.