Making the case for Chad Tracy to win AL Manager of the Year over Will Venable

Sometimes good teams just need a reset. Alex Cora built a lot of goodwill in Boston — a 2018 championship, real relationships, memories nobody's trying to erase — and when the Red Sox fired him after a 10-17 start on April 25, there was genuine hurt attached to that decision, not just frustration. 

So, what Chad Tracy has done since then is remarkable on its own terms, and it’s way more than a reset. He inherited a last-place team that looked lost, but by mid-June Boston showed some life and crawled to 17-18. Then something clicked. The Red Sox ripped off a 27-3 stretch, winning nine straight series with a 15-game streak and a nine-game streak mixed in, and they've gone roughly 54-37 since Tracy took the job, firmly in a position to play in October.

MLB insider Bob Nightengale even reported that Tracy pulled ahead of Venable as the AL Manager of the Year favorite at one point, though the betting markets are still fighting it out — FanDuel and Kalshi have Venable ahead significantly, with Tracy behind him in second on nearly every board. 

Despite Red Sox's historic turnaround, Will Venable is still predicted to win Manager of the Year over Chad Tracy

Catching fire in the middle of a season and keeping it lit for months is its own skill, separate from simply winning games with a talented roster from Opening Day. It takes real feel to walk into a clubhouse that just watched its manager get fired, and win the room without overcorrecting. Tracy has let a young core, many of whom he knew from four winning seasons managing them at Triple-A Worcester (the first Red Sox affiliate skipper to do that since the 1930s), play loose and free. 

Even Cora has been in Tracy's corner since the firing, texting him advice throughout the season.

"We are a fraternity," Cora told The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. "You have to pay it forward."

That's not just a nice story — it's a real signal about how well-regarded Tracy already was around the organization before any of this turnaround happened.

None of that erases what Will Venable has built in Chicago. Taking a 102-loss team to first place in the AL Central in year two, with real energy back in that ballpark and a fan base that's bought back in, is a legitimate, admirable body of work. Plus, the front office armed him for the stretch run with real trade deadline additions to prove it. That's a going to be a tough case to run against.

But Tracy took over a team in crisis with zero grace period and simply made it disappear. He convinced a group of men and personnel who loved Cora, that he could continue Cora’s vision, and they bought in. At worst, he has put himself in the conversation to be manager next season. But, if Boston keeps playing anywhere close to the way it has since June, or somehow makes a run at the division, this should be a closer call in October — even if the odds boards are hinting it might not be.

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