BOSTON — As the Red Sox toiled in late June, two months after an April bloodletting failed to immediately jumpstart what looked like a lost season, further changes — and turmoil — seemed like a foregone conclusion. Chad Tracy was a pleasant person and well-liked stopgap manager but the Red Sox won just 22 of the first 51 games after he took over. Craig Breslow’s job security was a daily discussion topic.
Then, everything changed, with the team surging into postseason contention with a once-a-century midsummer run that was solidified with a champagne celebration Sunday. Two days later, the Red Sox rewarded the two men who engineered the turnaround, naming Tracy their full-time manager for at least three more seasons (through 2029, with a club option for 2030) and exercising a pair of club options on Breslow’s contract (2029 and 2030).
Advertisement
It looked, for months, like the firing of Alex Cora and a handful of coaches would begin a long stretch of instability and turnover for an organization that has experienced too much of it over the past decade. Instead, with Tracy and Breslow now both under contract for four more seasons, continuity won out.
“Craig and Chad are two exceptionally talented leaders who have earned these opportunities in very different ways,” team president Sam Kennedy said in a statement. “Over the last three years, we have watched Craig bring clarity, discipline, and conviction to the work of building our baseball operation. Chad was asked to step into a difficult situation with little notice, but the trust he immediately commanded at the major league level was earned through years of work across our organization. What this team has accomplished over the past several months has been historic.”
With the club sputtering to do much of anything in May and June, it seemed likely that Breslow, in just his third season with the club, would not make it through the end of the year. Guesses were made about who the next Red Sox baseball operations chief would be — and who he might bring in as manager. A total overhaul, much like the one that came after the 2011 season when Terry Francona and Theo Epstein both left town, seemed to squarely be in play.
But the Red Sox started winning, kept winning and, in a mediocre American League, showed the potential to be real contenders. It was enough to convince John Henry, Tom Werner and Kennedy that Breslow and Tracy were the right men to have led the club for at least the next four seasons.
Advertisement
“Results matter greatly in this business, but so do judgment, character, and the ability to bring out the best in others,” Kennedy said. “Craig and Chad have demonstrated all of those qualities, and they have earned our confidence in leading us forward.”
That the Red Sox announced their decisions on Tracy and Breslow together is no small thing, either, especially considering how recent relationships between their baseball operations leaders and managers had gone. In 2023, a rift between Cora and Chaim Bloom helped urge Bloom’s September ouster, with some in the organization feeling that Cora had won a power struggle. In April, Breslow — knowing full well of his predecessor’s fate — made the preemptive strike to fire Cora and keep power, at least temporarily. Ultimately, that decision helped him secure his own future in Boston.
There is no relationship in a major league organization more valuable and important than the one between the person building the roster and the person leading the group on a day-to-day basis. And unlike the pairings of Cora and Bloom and Cora and Breslow, there are no signs of any friction between Tracy and Breslow, who have worked in lockstep since late April (and, according to some, are even doppelgängers). To have a functional organization, the two men in the most important chairs must be rowing in the same direction. The Red Sox, after years of splintered pairings dating back to Dave Dombrowski and John Farrell, know that better than most.
“It’s a sacred relationship between the general manager (or the head of baseball operations) and the manager, being on the same page, having that trust and that confidence in each other,” Kennedy said.
Advertisement
When it comes to Tracy, the Red Sox deserve credit for not overthinking things, too. At the beginning of his tenure, one baseball person with knowledge of the Sox’ thinking said the 41-year-old — who had long been considered one of the top managerial prospects in the minors — would be exactly the type of person the Red Sox would look to hire if he wasn’t in their organization and they looked at external candidates. There was at least some concern that the owners, not realizing the strong option they had in front of them, would think the grass is greener elsewhere and start casting a wide net. Tracy’s personality, steadiness and record (74-55 since taking over) built an overwhelming case. Sources in the organization indicated, also, that a weak class of managerial candidates around the league helped speed along the process.
Breslow’s tenure has been rocky and peppered with big, bold decisions that have made him a polarizing figure in the eyes of many. There have been missteps, such as mishandling communication with Rafael Devers‘ camp and some poor trade deadlines and overeager extensions. But it can’t be ignored that Breslow has taken a team that was mired in mediocrity and taken it to the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time in nearly a decade. Many of his moves — including the offseason strikes for Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Crochet (at least in Year 1), Alex Bregman, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray and Caleb Durbin — have worked out.
The Red Sox, then, believe in Breslow’s talent evaluation like they do Tracy’s ability to successfully ride the wave of a major league season and communicate with players. Most importantly, they believe the two men complement each other well enough to do their jobs in tandem, a factor that has too often been missing on Jersey Street.
Since Francona and Epstein ended their successful run together in 2011, the Red Sox have had eight manager/baseball operations head combinations, including Ron Roenicke’s one-year stint alongside Bloom in between Cora stints in 2020. The longest of those pairings — the ill-fated Bloom-Cora marriage — lasted fewer than three years during Cora’s second stint, from the start of 2021 to September 2023.
Advertisement
“It’s something I’ve learned going back to my days at the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres and here, seeing successful versions of it and seeing unsuccessful versions of it,” Kennedy said. “Lord knows we’ve made mistakes in our time. Ensuring you have that relationship right is critical. It’s great to have that stability now.”
With Tracy and Breslow, the hope is for a much longer run. Tuesday’s news made that possible, just like all the winning they’ve done together since June.
“We haven’t achieved anything. We know that,” Kennedy said. “But I think we’re set up for success going forward.”
More Red Sox coverage
Advertisement
Read the original article on MassLive. Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
