Sitting in front of a Baltimore Orioles-themed backdrop, Boston Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy and head of baseball operations Craig Breslow explained on Sunday morning why manager Alex Cora and several members of his staff were fired Saturday.
“It really comes down to the belief that we have in the players,” Breslow said. “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.”
The Red Sox have not enjoyed a deep postseason run since 2021, when they lost the ALCS to the Houston Astros in six games. They won their last World Series in 2018, which doubled as Cora’s first year as manager.
Cora finished his tenure with a 620-541 record (.534) in seven-plus seasons. Breslow, with the support of Kennedy and owner John Henry, decided Saturday morning to fire Cora along with 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 be reassigned within the organization.
“Ultimately, responsibility for the performance on the field, it falls on me as the leader of the baseball operation,” Breslow said. “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.”
“Craig leads our baseball operation and he has made several bold decisions and recommendations,” Kennedy said. “This was one of them and we fully support it. That’s why we took the action that we took yesterday.”
Tracy, who has served as manager for the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox since the start of the 2022 season, has been promoted to interim manager. He inherits a squad that ranks tied for 20th in runs per game (4.15), tied for last in home runs (18), tied for 27th in OPS (.665), 20th in ERA (4.43) and 26th in defensive efficiency.
Most important, the Red Sox enter Sunday’s game against the Orioles with a 10-17 record. That brings up the rear in the AL East – eight games behind the division-leading New York Yankees – and tied for the fourth-worst record in MLB.
Pitching coach Andrew Bailey was among the handful who were retained, though the top of the Red Sox rotation has underperformed. Garrett Crochet owns a 3-3 record and a 6.30 ERA. Ranger Suarez, who signed a five-year, $140 million free-agent deal in the offseason, sits 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 said. “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.”
