Boston Red Sox leadership addressed the media Sunday morning in Baltimore to explain their decision to dismiss manager Alex Cora and multiple coaching staff members the previous day.
Baseball operations head Craig Breslow emphasized the organization’s confidence in their roster during the announcement alongside CEO Sam Kennedy.
“It really comes down to the belief that we have in the players,” Breslow stated. “And the belief that we have in the group to accomplish what we set out to accomplish. By acting today, it gives us 135 games ahead of us.”
“We’ve got almost a full season’s worth of run to take advantage of this fresh start and ultimately to compete for a division and a deep postseason run in the way that we talked about it and envisioned and believed heading into spring training,” he continued.
Boston hasn’t advanced far in the playoffs since their 2021 ALCS loss to Houston in six games. Their most recent championship came in 2018, which marked Cora’s inaugural season as skipper.
During his time leading the team, Cora compiled a 620-541 record (.534) across seven-plus seasons. Saturday morning’s decision by Breslow, backed by Kennedy and owner John Henry, also resulted in the termination of hitting coach Peter Fatse, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin, bench coach Ramon Vazquez and third-base coach Kyle Hudson. Game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek will receive a new role within the organization.
“Ultimately, responsibility for the performance on the field, it falls on me as the leader of the baseball operation,” Breslow acknowledged. “But so, too, does the responsibility for doing everything that I can – and everything that the organization can – to find solutions. And right now, we feel like this change, these changes, were warranted. And we’re really excited about the chance for Chad (Tracy) to come in and be a consistent, stabilizing voice – and one that the majority of our player group is familiar with.”
Kennedy expressed full organizational support for the baseball operations chief’s decision-making.
“Craig leads our baseball operation and he has made several bold decisions and recommendations,” Kennedy remarked. “This was one of them and we fully support it. That’s why we took the action that we took yesterday.”
Chad Tracy, who has managed the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox since early 2022, will step into the interim manager role. He takes over a struggling team that sits tied for 20th in scoring average (4.15 runs per game), tied for last in home runs (18), tied for 27th in OPS (.665), 20th in ERA (4.43) and 26th in defensive efficiency.
More significantly, Boston enters Sunday’s matchup with Baltimore carrying a 10-17 record. This places them last in the AL East – trailing the first-place New York Yankees by eight games – and tied for the fourth-worst mark in Major League Baseball.
Andrew Bailey remains as pitching coach despite struggles from the rotation’s top arms. Garrett Crochet holds a 3-3 record with a 6.30 ERA, while Ranger Suarez, who inked a five-year, $140 million contract during the offseason, stands at 1-2 with a 4.00 ERA.
“It is true that we have fallen short in terms of the performance across, you know, hitting, pitching, defense, baserunning,” Breslow admitted. “But as it relates to the staff and trying to tease out exactly what’s driving that, I have confidence in the pitching group’s ability to turn that around. I think we’ve seen evidence of that with Ranger (Suarez) and with Garrett (Crochet). Have the full confidence in that group to be able to get us on track.”
Kennedy emphasized the importance of on-field results moving forward.
“Ultimately what matters is the performance on the field at the major league level,” Kennedy concluded. “And a new beginning starts today.”
