{"id":736875,"date":"2026-06-27T12:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T12:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/736875\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T12:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T12:27:14","slug":"red-soxs-craig-breslow-era-is-set-to-end-with-a-whimper-talk-sox-front-page-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/736875\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox’s Craig Breslow Era Is Set to End With A Whimper – Talk Sox Front Page News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAt the risk of sounding like a broken record as of late, the Boston Red Sox are awful in 2026. It\u2019s a shame coming off a postseason appearance in 2025 that should have pointed president of baseball operations Craig Breslow<\/a> in the right direction. Even the free-agent signings believed they were coming into a situation where they would \u201cbreeze to get to the playoffs<\/a>,” at least\u00a0according to Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a>. He even went on to say that his goal with signing in Boston was to be a bench player for a championship team, so even those who weren\u2019t with the organization last year saw the direction the team should have been headed.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShould\u201d is the operative word in that sentence.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re now no longer in \u2018well it\u2019s still early\u2019 territory, and the Red Sox are what they are as we approach the halfway point of the season. In an effort not to mince words: They are a sub .500 team that struggles at home and seems to be allergic to hitting with runners in scoring position. It\u2019s the end of June and the season already feels lost. The team can\u2019t keep up in a middling American League Wild Card race and, even if they somehow managed to limp their way into that third spot, they\u2019d be certainly eliminated in short order.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWith all of that being said, the most obvious path forward for the Red Sox is to let Craig Breslow go sooner than later.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBreslow is an excellent pitching coordinator. He\u2019s drafted and developed some of the best arms that the organization has seen in years, but that\u2019s about as far as his credentials go. He terminated most of the scouting department during the first 18 months of his tenure and the big-league club has suffered mightily from it. The team that is on the field day in and day out for the Red Sox can\u2019t function properly as a major-league team. There\u2019s far too many utility players with everyday roles, there\u2019s almost zero power outside of Willson Contreras<\/a>, and the bullpen has been incredibly leaky outside of Aroldis Chapman<\/a> and Garrett Whitlock<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m not going to sit here and rehash the firing of Alex Cora<\/a> and the majority of his coaching staff, but that gave us a bit of a peak behind the curtain as to the true feelings of Fenway Sports Group\u2019s opinion of Breslow. The morning after the firings, Breslow sat at a table next to Sam Kennedy and said that the decision to move on from Cora and crew was a mutual decision. Within seconds, Kennedy pinned the decision solely on Breslow. Ownership signed off on it, of course, but they essentially looked at Breslow and said, \u201cOkay, you can do this, but just know there\u2019s no one else to be the fall guy if things don\u2019t get better.\u201d To absolutely no one\u2019s surprise, things have arguably gotten worse. Garrett Crochet<\/a> and Roman Anthony<\/a> have spent significant time on the injured list, Jarren Duran<\/a> looks like a shell of himself at the plate, and the catching situation is maybe the most confusing roster dilemma in all of baseball.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of the catching situation, it paints a clearer picture for how Breslow didn\u2019t learn anything from the drama that surrounded Rafael Devers<\/a> last season. It was reported time and time again that Devers wasn\u2019t spoken to about his changing roles, then when he was approached about possibly moving to first base he was combative because he felt he had been disrespected and blindsided. Now, Carlos Narvaez<\/a> has spoken to The Athletic\u2019s Jen McCaffrey about how his playing time has been diminished<\/a> but he hadn\u2019t been told anything by either Chad Tracy<\/a> or someone in the front office. Breslow recognizes that communication isn\u2019t a strong point of his, but it\u2019s gotten to the point that, according to Boston Globe\u2019s Tim Healey, multiple officials within the organization<\/a> believe that Breslow would benefit from having a \u201cbaseball interpreter\u201d to convey his overall message to the players.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis shouldn’t need to be said, but the freaking President of Baseball Operations shouldn\u2019t need someone else to convey his message and vision to the team. If Craig Breslow can\u2019t effectively communicate, then he doesn\u2019t need to be in a position of leadership with the team.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat should be the final nail in the coffin for Breslow is the fact that his past two trade deadlines have been absolutely abysmal. I took at look at those deadlines<\/a> to see if we could figure out what direction Breslow is going to take in 2026 and came up with the following: He struggles to pick a lane and ends up putting the team in a much worse position because of it. To add onto that, ESPN\u2019s Buster Olney went so far as to say that \u201csomeone in ownership<\/a>\u201d was picking up the phone to talk trades with other clubs. While it shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that ownership has to be involved to sign off on any big trades that occur, they shouldn\u2019t have to be the ones making the calls to get conversations started. Ownership should only be involved at the finish line of a trade, since they need to approve the money moving in each direction. If they don\u2019t trust their front office chief enough to let him negotiate his own trades, why does he still have a job? If he can\u2019t handle one of the most important aspects of his role, he doesn\u2019t need to occupy space in the front office anymore.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFenway Sports Group has publicly backed Craig Breslow so far this season, and they pretty much have to publicly. They can\u2019t come out and say that they are considering firing him; that\u2019s not practical nor the way you run a business. Remember, they made similar comments around this same time about both Chaim Bloom and Dave Dombrowski during their eventual final seasons with the team. It finally seems like John Henry is frustrated<\/a> with the direction<\/a> of the Red Sox if both Sean McAdam and David Ortiz<\/a> are to be believed. If that\u2019s the case, then the difficult decision needs to be made to move on from Craig Breslow now. If they wait much longer, they run the risk of a trade deadline that is mishandled and delay the ability to start looking for his replacement prior to the 2027 lockout. The time to act is now.\n<\/p>\n

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