After an uninspiring 28-31 start to the season, Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged that some things will have to change in order to get the club back on track. Manager Alex Cora's job security, however, is not one of them.
“We have a lot of confidence in Alex’s ability to lead this group,“ Breslow said Saturday (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com). ”That doesn’t mean that we don’t have conversations every day about what we might be missing or what more we can do. We obviously made a commitment to Alex. We’re gonna see that through. Right now, it’s about making sure that we’re doing everything we can to enable the 26 guys on our roster to help us win as many games as possible."
Admittedly, this isn't all that surprising. The Red Sox signed Cora to a $21.75 million contract extension last summer, and it's going to take more than a disappointing two-month stretch to justify a managerial change. With more than 1/3 of the season already behind us, though, we can safely say this is more than just a "rocky start" for the Red Sox – and Breslow knows that.
Craig Breslow says Alex Cora's job with Red Sox is safe, but doesn't rule out other changes
While firing Cora may not be in the cards for the Red Sox at this point, Breslow did not fully rule out the possibility of making other changes – including changes to the coaching staff.
“That urgency to try and find a solution is something that I feel and something that our group feels,” Breslow said. "So if there is an opportunity to pull a lever or pull a string that that we think will impact our success on the field, we need to do that. But again, I wouldn’t want some move to paper over a more deeply rooted problem."
The only substantial changes that the Red Sox have made so far this season have been out of injury-related necessity. Evidently, being three games under .500 doesn't prompt the same level of urgency as Triston Casas' blown knee or Alex Bregman's strained quad.
Essentially, Breslow doesn't want to make change for change's sake. That's understandable, to a degree. But until the Red Sox can start stringing together some wins, though, all this talk about "urgency" is going to be just that – talk.
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