What a mess this has been. This kind of coaching staff turnover is often unprecedented over the offseason, let alone at the end of April. Alas, the Boston Red Sox find themselves overhauling their entire dugout operation less than 30 games into the season.
There's so much to say about Alex Cora's tenure in Beantown that its hard to know where to start. He's a World Series winner, a key part of the Houston Astros and Red Sox's sign stealing scandals, and now, a scapegoat to a problem Craig Breslow has created.
In case it wasn't clear before: Whatever struggle for power there was inside the organization, Breslow has won it.
Alex Cora fired less than halfway into a three-year, $21.75 million deal he negotiated in the summer of 2024. Jason Varitek dumped in April, in his 30th year affiliated with the Red Sox. Other coaches let go. This is unequivocally Craig Breslow's organization.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) April 25, 2026
The fallout of this decision figures to be huge and wide-reaching, but the most immediate impact is also the most obvious. For better or worse, ownership has given Breslow the keys to the car with no backseat driver.
Craig Breslow's Red Sox legacy is on the line after coaching staff upheaval
There are reasons to believe Breslow was in the right for his decision to part with Cora and company. The team has had some struggles developing (or maintaining) the production of players in recent years, including Jarren Duran, Masataka Yoshida, and Carlos Narváez. When you see someone like Kyle Harrison thrive the moment he gets to Milwaukee while Caleb Durbin struggles mightily in Boston, there's no question that the coaching staff shoulders some blame.
When David Hamilton returned to Fenway this month and played well against the Red Sox, the front office again began questioning the coaching staff's developmental process with younger players, per @byJulianMack. pic.twitter.com/UGkHMWKUg1
— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) April 27, 2026
But Cora isn't the one who traded Durbin for Harrison. Nor is he the one who botched the third base situation so badly that both Alex Bregman and Rafael Devers are now playing elsewhere. Breslow is infamously a terrible communicator, so it's no surprise that long festering issues in the organization have led to this kind of Red (Sox) Wedding.
Amid all the chaos, it's worth remembering that Breslow inherited Cora. He came aboard to finish out the rebuild that Chaim Bloom started, working with a coaching staff that wasn't his. It's not unreasonable to give him a chance to pick his own people, be it beloved WooSox manager Chad Tracy or somebody else.
That being said, this is one heck of a bet by ownership that Breslow is the right guy to be calling the shots. Cora is a proven winner who is adored by his players. The team's chief baseball officer has no such track record of success nor camaraderie.
If he can't locate a proper managerial replacement and this upheaval goes belly up, Breslow won't only lose his job — he'll be one of the most reviled front office executives in Boston sports history.
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