According to MLB insider Ken Rosenthal, the Boston Red Sox will fire Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow in the near future.
The Red Sox are having an absolutely terrible year, as the team holds a 32-46 record as they near the halfway point in the season. They are dead last in the American League East and are 15.5 GB of the division-leading New York Yankees. They are tied with the Los Angeles Angels for the worst record in the AL, and only the Colorado Rockies have a worse record than Boston in all of baseball.
It’s no wonder, then, that Rosenthal feels like it’s only a question of time before Breslow will be fired by the Red Sox, as it’s just a matter of when, not if, that he gets canned.
Craig Breslow’s Time is Running Out in Boston
Writing for The Athletic on Thursday, Rosenthal made it clear that Breslow is going to be fired soon by the Red Sox, joining former manager Alex Cora as casualties of the horrible and downright embarrassing season that the Red Sox are enduring.
“The first sentence of the column I wrote after the firing of Alex Cora was, ‘Craig Breslow is next.’ Nothing that has transpired since has changed my opinion. The Sox were 10-17 under Cora. They’re 22-29 under interim manager Chad Tracy, sitting on the worst record in the AL. CEO Sam Kennedy recently said during his weekly radio appearance on WEEI that the removal of Breslow was ‘not on the table.’ But he also called the team’s season ’embarrassing.’ It’s obvious where this is heading, particularly with an ownership that is forever in search of someone to blame,” Rosenthal wrote.
“Breslow is in third season. His predecessors — Ben Cherington, Dave Dombrowski and Chaim Bloom — all were fired in their fourth. When assessing Breslow’s body of work, it’s doubtful ownership would determine he warrants one more shot. The deadline is five and a half weeks away. Breslow is not yet ready to give up on the season. And even when he does, Sonny Gray, Aroldis Chapman and Co. will bring only so much. Breslow is next, all right. The only question is when.”
Craig Breslow’s Moves Have Backfired
There is no doubt that many of Breslow’s moves as the Red Sox’s top executive have completely backfired.
One of the biggest mistakes he made was trading veteran pitcher Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves for nothing, only to see Sale turn back the clock and win the Cy Young and Triple Crown in Atlanta. To make matters worse, he also wasted money signing Walker Buehler to replace Sale, as he turned out to be a bust for the Red Sox.
Another mistake was not re-signing Alex Bregman to be the team’s third baseman, as he was a good fit in Boston. This could also be on ownership, as they may not have wanted to pay Bregman a lot of money in his late 30s, but either way, Breslow didn’t give him a new deal, and he went to the Chicago Cubs in free agency.
Trading Rafael Devers and his declining bat to the San Francisco Giants has worked out somewhat, as Devers is not the player he once was, but the Red Sox didn’t get much in return for Devers besides salary relief.
Firing Cora was supposed to help the team, but his replacement, Chad Tracy, looks like he wasn’t the right man for the job, either, so the decision to let go of Cora doesn’t look good.
In the end, it’s all about wins and losses, and the Red Sox haven’t won anything under Breslow, which is why he will inevitably be fired.
MLB Insider Says Red Sox Firing Craig Breslow is Inevitable