More and more details are coming out in the aftermath of Alex Cora's shocking dismissal from the Boston Red Sox, and the more we learn, the less sense it all makes. Craig Breslow has now spoken, and as is usually the case when he speaks, we have more questions than answers.
Per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, Breslow apparently told Cora that he knew he was saddled with a tough roster to manage. He acknowledged that the position player group, in particular, is problematic, and said, "Ultimately the accountability for the roster falls on me."
Breslow said he acknowledged with Cora yesterday he it was a challenging roster to manage, particularly the position player group. "Ultimately the accountability for the roster falls on me"
— Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) April 26, 2026
The question now is, if that's true (and it is), why dismiss Cora? Furthermore, is the goal still to try to compete in spite of the rough start? Because if Boston still wants to make the playoffs, wouldn't Cora and his wealth of experience be a better option to try to lead a lacking roster to October than Chad Tracy?
Tracy may have a good track record at Worcester, and he may already have a relationship with the young players, but what about the veterans who could benefit from a seasoned skipper to guide them through the ebbs and flows of the marathon season? Tracy has no experience managing at the big league level, which makes putting him in charge of a flawed roster all the more curious.
Craig Breslow's comments indicate the Red Sox's season is already over
It's very difficult to determine what the plan is here, so let's focus on what we know. Breslow is completely right; this is a flawed roster. And it's his fault.
Going into the offseason, one of the main priorities for Boston was adding a serious power threat to the heart of the order. Outside of an unserious offer to Pete Alonso, Breslow did nothing to solve that roster woe. Instead, he constructed a roster where the team home run leader was projected to finish 2026 with a paltry 18 homers.
Breslow couldn't resolve the outfield logjam. He showed little interest in clearing the bottleneck and using the surplus of assets to address weak spots elsewhere on the roster. He also refused to pull out all the stops for Alex Bregman and had no clear fallback plan.
Breslow then waited until the last minute to address third base, and his solution, Caleb Durbin, was a cheap strike that didn't really solve the need in the lineup that only the hot corner was poised to solve.
So maybe Cora wasn't wrong when he spoke about teaching the young guys the game. Maybe Breslow and the rest of the Boston brass decided that, 27 games in, they can't actually compete so now it's time to focus on the youth. Through that light, it makes sense to ditch Cora for Tracy, who is more accustomed to managing for development rather than contention.
That philosophy is still confusing, but at least there's some semblance of logic to follow. That is, unless John Henry gets tired of losing and comes to the realization that Breslow already vocalized: the chief baseball officer dropped the ball building the roster, and the manager was just the fall guy.
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