Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

The first month of the season is complete. 31 games, 10 series, 3 series wins, 6 series losses, and one tie. Small sample size is in the rear view. We are not in Kansas anymore.

Alex Cora led the team to a 10-17 record before being fired along with a slew of coaches loyal to him. From all accounts they are all very happy to be free from the chains of Craig Breslow. It turns out the guy is not very well liked by people inside the organization. He’s not very well liked by people outside the organization either. John Henry allowed all of this to happen even though he is an Alex Cora fan. He put this decision on Breslow, and he will allow him to sink or swim, and might even provide him with a pair of cement shoes.

The Chad Tracy era has begun. One look at his first lineup and I was encouraged. For 27 games, these are the lineups Cora turned in:

At the start of the season, it made sense to put Roman Anthony in the leadoff spot given his high OBP from a year ago. That quickly faded as he struggled in the leadoff spot. Trevor Story didn’t make much sense in the 2-hole either. Typically, you put a good contact hitter there and he is anything but that. The 2025 Trevor Story is long gone. He is a strikeout machine currently hitting .197. Most critics thought Duran should be in the leadoff spot instead of the 3-hole. Caleb Durbin started out in the 6 spot but has been awful no matter where he’s hit.

Not only did the lineup not make sense, but there was no consistency. Duran hit anywhere from leadoff to the 7 spot. Rafaela was all over the map as well. And of course, “Masa needs to play” and hit as high as the 3 spot. Just crazy. Cora seemed to have a vendetta against some players. Let’s start with those bizarre comments about Marcelo Mayer in the preseason that everyone thought were just “motivational tools.” He only started in 19 of the first 27 games. Jarren Duran, who played 160 games in 2024 and 157 in 2025, only started in 21 of the first 27. What exactly was Cora trying to prove? Given what we now know about the relationship between Cora and Breslow, was this Cora’s way of demonstrating Breslow’s flawed roster?

Chad Tracy quickly installed Duran in the leadoff spot, Contreras second, Anthony third, and Abreu cleanup. Rafaela and Mayer followed. In the first two games, it worked. They scored five runs in each game including 2 doubles, a triple, and 2 home runs. In game 3 he subbed Yoshida for Rafaela, and in game 4 all hell broke loose as Anthony was back in the leadoff spot, Duran and Mayer were out, and the great Isiah Kiner-Falefa was in. They scored one run in two games and lost both.

The starting pitching has continued to be inconsistent. They got two good starts from Early and Suarez, a disappointing start from Tolle, and another disastrous start from Bello. Crochet is now on the IL and all of a sudden, the rotation is in tatters. Sonny Gray is expected back, and they may need Jake Bennett to make a start or two. It goes from bad to worse.

My favorite Twitter account, @redsoxpayroll, recently speculated that if the Red Sox wanted to get under the first CBT line, they would essentially need someone to take the full remaining contracts of Story, Yoshida, Chapman, Gray, and Contreras. Sounds crazy, right? Let’s put it this way, John Henry might be willing to pay CBT penalties for a winning squad, but for this pile of garbage? No way. He will salary dump until the cows come home. He will force Craig Breslow to do it, and then he will fire his ass too. 2027 might be a dead year, and Henry is probably fine with that. He’s got plenty of money coming from NASCAR, LFC, and his other businesses, plus he just sold the Penguins for a big profit.

The big question is what Red Sox fans will do with their summers now that watching Red Sox games is out of the question. Get out and explore. Here are some ideas:

• Take a drive up the Kancamagus highway

• Take the ferry over to the Vineyard and drive over the Chappaquiddick bridge

• Tour the Newport mansions and marvel at what you could never afford

• Head down to Coney Island for the July 4^th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest and see if you can eat 84 hot dogs in 10 minutes to beat Joey Chestnut’s record

• Stalk Mike Vrabel to see if you can catch him in the act again

• Head over to TD Garden and count the number of bolts in the parquet floor

• I hear the Moncton tidal bore is lovely this time of year

Whatever you do, don’t spend a minute on the Red Sox. Trust me, you owe it to your mental health.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

On the Bastards emergency podcast shortly after the firings were announced, Terry Cushman said “This will be remembered as the Saturday Night Massacre.” The Red Sox have rarely fired a manager mid-season. The last time it happened was when Dan Duquette fired Jimy Williams in August of 2001. Not even the horror show that was the 2012 season was enough to get Bobby Valentine fired mid-season.

The Red Sox also fired the bench coach, hitting coach, and reassigned “run prevention coordinator” Jason Varitek. I suppose he is too beloved a Red Sox personality to fire. They will probably stuff him somewhere in the front office. He sure wasn’t preventing any runs. Chad Tracy, who has been the AAA manager since the 2022 season is the interim big-league manager. No, he’s not the Chad Tracy we all remember playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but he is the son of former MLB manager Jim Tracy who managed 1,736 games for the Dodgers, Pirates, and Rockies. “Besides, if I ever need help, who’s a better Consigliere than my father?”

So, apparently John Henry and Tom Werner in attendance at Fenway for recent Red Sox games was not just two bros hanging out and cruising chicks after the game. I know I will never forget when NESN zoomed in on Henry as he realized the fans were chanting “Sell The Team.” The look on his face was priceless. If the team was somewhere around .500 that’s one thing, but even John Henry couldn’t tolerate the product on the field.

Sam Kennedy and Craig Breslow will sit and take softball questions from the Boston media tomorrow. They will say all the politically correct things. They will thank Alex Cora and mention that “the time was right to move on” and “the performance of the team was unacceptable.” Yadda, yadda, yadda. They will of course not mention the absolute dumpster fire of a roster that Craig Breslow handed him. Cora is not blameless, of course, but this is not totally on him. His lineups and in-game decisions have been bad for some time now.

I recently wrote that John Henry should completely clean house including Sam Kennedy:

While I certainly wouldn’t bet the ranch on this happening, I think Henry does have an appetite for more bloodletting if the team doesn’t turn it around. Craig Breslow is now 100% responsible for what happens from this point forward. John Henry is not dumb, but he must weigh his options. If he shit-cans Breslow, what then? He knows nobody wants this job. He may even suspect that nobody wants to work for liar and con man Sam Kennedy, but Sam makes money for his partners, including Redbird Capital, LeBron James, and Maverick Carter. Removing a topflight money manager of Sam’s caliber is a tough sell in the board room, but he could also be “reassigned.”

For the near term, it will be interesting to see what Chad Tracy can do. He knows many of these players as their AAA manager. Maybe he can get the most out of them. Maybe he will play Marcelo Mayer and Jarren Duran every day, even (gasp) against lefties. Let’s see how he manages a pitching staff. Will Greg Weissert always be his first call to the pen? Let’s hope not. I’m sure Andrew Bailey is not feeling that great about these developments. He’s Breslow’s guy, but that might not be as secure a position as it used to be. We know a good clubhouse manager can change the complexion of a team. A new voice is precisely what this team needs right now.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

On February 3, 2019, Boston was at the pinnacle of the American sports world. The Patriots had just won their sixth Super Bowl and a few months earlier the Red Sox won their fourth World Series since 2004. Robert Kraft and John Henry were the greatest owners in Boston sports history, and it wasn’t even close. Sure, Wyc Grousbeck and his ownership group would go on to win a second NBA title in 2024, but then they promptly sold the team. Nobody alive today probably remembers Walter Brown, who founded the Celtics, but his teams were the first dynasty of the NBA.

All of these owners did one thing right. They hired the right people to run the sports side of the business. That is truly the one job of an owner of a sports franchise. Unless you’re Al Davis or Jerry Jones, you’re not going to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the team. Most franchise owners have become billionaires in the business world. You don’t get to that point by hiring ineffective leaders. However, once these same people own sports franchises, they make all sorts of dumb decisions. Making money with a sports franchise and having success on the field are two different things. Most owners excel at the former and fail at the latter. Why is that?

Robert Kraft had been a Patriots fan since their days in the American Football League and like many New Englanders, didn’t have a football team to root for until 1960. Through a series of moves, Kraft bought the land, stadium, and eventually the team in 1994. He inherited Bill Parcells as coach and went to a Super Bowl in 1996, which they lost. Kraft’s first coaching hire was Pete Carroll, but his master stroke was luring Bill Belichick away from the New York Jets. He gave Belichick total control of the team, including scouting, drafting, and player personnel. The rest is history.

When John Henry bought the Red Sox in 2001, he was a billionaire hedge fund manager. He partnered with Tom Werner, who was a television executive. Even though Henry had owned a stake in the Florida Marlins, he was not a “baseball guy.” His master stroke was bringing in Larry Lucchino to the ownership group. Larry had been in baseball operations since 1988 with the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres. He had mentored these two Brookline kids named Theo Epstein and Sam Kennedy since the mid-90s. He installed Epstein as the general manager, and again, the rest is history.

So, as you can see, it’s all about hiring the right people to run your team. Post 2018, both the Red Sox and Patriots fell on hard times. Tom Brady left after the 2019 season and Belichick struggled to win. Kraft had a hard decision to make but he made the right one, letting Bill go. After one disastrous decision to hire Jerrod Mayo as head coach, he realized his mistake and shifted gears quickly, hiring Mike Vrabel. That is the sign of a smart owner, correcting bad decisions. Even though they lost the Super Bowl this year, the team is obviously on the right track.

For the Red Sox, something happened in 2019. Major League Baseball authorized the investment of private equity firms in MLB clubs. Henry moved quickly to sell minority shares of FSG to Redbird Capital. This is very well documented in a recent Joon Lee piece:

Joon Lee

Why Baseball Teams Gave Up On Winning

A few months ago, the team at More Perfect Union — one of my favorite YouTube channels — reached out. They wanted to do something on sports, specifically on what’s happened to sports fans as the business has been transformed by the same financial forces reshaping housing, healthcare and retail…

Read more

a month ago · 28 likes · 5 comments · Joon Lee

Most people think this is where John Henry stopped prioritizing winning and shifted his focus completely to making money. FSG now owned several sports clubs across the globe and was raking in the dough.

After leading the Red Sox to a championship in 2018, Dave Dombrowski was fired in 2019 while the team had a winning record. I document what happened next in an article I wrote last year:

Sam Kennedy became the guy that John Henry trusted with the team. Sam was now fully in charge of all team operations. Sam was allowed to find a replacement for Dombrowski and created a new title, Chief Baseball Officer, reporting directly to him. Sam has made two CBO hires, both disastrous in my opinion. In six full seasons under Chaim Bloom and Craig Breslow, the Red Sox are 442-428 with two playoff appearances. 2026 is starting out in a devastating fashion and the problems are all directly related to Breslow’s mismanagement of the roster. The Red Sox have not fielded anything close to a championship caliber team since Dombrowski left.

John Henry, you have one job, and that is to change the leadership of the baseball team. I’m sure Henry’s first instinct will be to have Sam Kennedy lead the search for a third CBO, but that would be a bad decision. Kennedy has shown that he does not have what it takes to hire an effective leader of a baseball team. In the business world, if one of your leaders makes two terrible decisions, do you give them a third? Last year, I made the case for Theo, and I think that case remains strong today:

Theo Epstein has proven that he can not only build an effective front office, but that he can also provide a vision for the organization. This organizational philosophy reaches all corners of the club, including scouting, drafting, and minor league development. The Red Sox have failed in all these areas since Kennedy took over the team. Surely, this must be clear to Henry now, but the question remains does John Henry care about winning? He and Tom Werner have attended many games at Fenway this season. I don’t think this is a coincidence. Something is brewing. He obviously did not take kindly to those “Sell The Team” chants.

So, what’s up John? You are the greatest owner the Red Sox have ever had. It only took Bob Kraft one year to recognize his mistake and course correct, and the results speak for themselves. It’s been 8 years. It’s time to show Red Sox Nation you give a damn. If not Theo, find another effective leader to rebuild the front office and the team. Otherwise, as the fans have been saying, “Sell The Team.”

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

We are still in the very early part of the season, but the Red Sox have played better in the last 10 games (6-4). They are now closer to being a .500 team. The internal numbers still don’t look very good, especially on offense.

They are still bottom third in most offensive categories. They continue to hit their fair share of doubles. I have been pleasantly surprised with Ceddanne Rafaela. He has only walked 4 times but has an OBP of .369. His plate appearances have been much better, and he’s only struck out 12 times, as opposed to team leader Trevor Story with 29. Wilyer Abreu has (predictably) cooled off from his red-hot start, but Willson Contreras has improved to become the team’s best hitter.

The lack of power is still evident. The Red Sox are 26^th in slugging percentage and 30^th in home runs, both well below their pace last year. Yes, you read that right. The Red Sox have hit 12 home runs in 20 games, 6 by Abreu and Contreras. Those of us who criticized Craig Breslow’s failure to acquire a power hitter were shouted down by the most optimist faction of Red Sox Nation, especially after the WBC. “Don’t worry, the power will come!” they said. OK, we’re still waiting. One bright spot is situational hitting. They are hitting a very respectable .263 with RISP, good for 12^th in the majors. They are also leaving fewer runners on base.

We have now been through the starting rotation 4 times. All 5 starters have been healthy and made all their starts, which is a good thing. Connelly Early leads the starting staff with a 2.29 ERA and has been very consistent. The other four, not so much. Crochet started out OK but had a disastrous 11 run start against the Twins. He claims he is healthy, but that is a possible red flag. He has not looked as dominant as last year so far, but he can still turn it around and have an effective season. Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray have essentially had 2 good starts and 2 bad ones, but Suarez’s last 2 outings were outstanding, 14 innings pitched with no runs allowed. That’s good news for him going forward. Bello has been mostly bad and has not been able to pitch deep into games.

As expected, the back end of the bullpen has been very good. Aroldis Chapman is not as dominant as he was last year, but he is still one of the best closers in the game with a 1.29 ERA, 9.0 K/9, and 3 saves. Danny Coulombe and Jovani Moran have been good, but the rest of the middle has been shaky, especially Ryan Watson, Greg Weissert, and Zack Kelly. Craig Breslow has some work to do, otherwise the bullpen could cost them more games. Overall, the staff is top half in runs allowed, and the bullpen has risen to 11^th in the majors.

As for fielding, the Red Sox have not made an error in the last four games, and are out of the cellar in errors, currently 23^rd in MLB.

Prior to the start of the season, once Craig Breslow failed to add a power hitter, he announced that the 2026 Red Sox would be all about pitching and run prevention. That is evident now more than ever. They have struggled to score runs, and many of the games they won have been because the pitching has been good. I see no reason for this trend to stop. The starters will need to go deeper, which has been a problem. Brayan Bello has averaged only 4.7 innings per start, and Connelly Early 4.9. The staff average is 5.0. This has taxed the middle part of the bullpen, and they have not responded well. Bullpen overuse has been a recent trend for the Red Sox over the course of the last few years. Cora and Bailey will need to find a way for the starters to go at least 5 innings, preferably 6, so that the bullpen only has to worry about the last 2 or 3 innings.

Alex Cora has experimented with many different lineups and none of them have been particularly effective. Even though it doesn’t seem like it, they have cut down on strikeouts and improved situational hitting overall. I think game one against the Tigers typified the Red Sox offensive situation. They did not score a run in nine innings. With the ghost runner on third in the 10^th, Masataka Yoshida hit a ground ball to second base, which he does often and is typically an out, but with the infield drawn in it was a walk off hit. In game 2 of the Tigers’ series, they once again scored only one run against Tarik Skubal and the Tiger bullpen.

Cora is grasping at straws at this point, and there are not many signs that the situation will improve any time soon, but the path to a winning season will need to go through the pitching staff and the defense, as “envisioned” by Craig Breslow. His lame attempt at adding offense in the offseason has led us to this. The starting five will need to go deeper into games and allow fewer runs. The defense will need to be solid. Unfortunately, when you have little to no pop in your lineup, this is how you must win games. This leaves them with a razor thin margin for error. Good luck with that.

Subscribe now

Subscribe now