The Saturday Night Massacre

“There's two kinds of coaches, them that's fired and them that's gonna be fired" – Bum Phillips

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.