As the Boston Red Sox approach the two-week mark since the organization fired its former manager Alex Cora, things are seemingly beginning to change for the better. The Chad Tracy Sox have begun a transformation on all sides of the ball — the team's pitching staff posted a collective 1.67 ERA during their three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers, their first sweep of the season, and they're slashing .266/.356/.382 as a team in the past week.
Finally, Boston has started performing at a level close to what was expected from it during the offseason, spring training and the World Baseball Classic. The Red Sox will have to maintain this level of play, or something close to it, for the rest of the season to assert themselves as a buyer at the trade deadline and eventually as a playoff team.
Craig Breslow thinks they can pull it off. During his May 7 appearance on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show," Boston's chief baseball officer explained how.
“Our hope and our expectation is that over the next two and a half months that we have leading up to the deadline, we’re going to play quality and consistent baseball that’s going to end up with us winning a bunch of games, and we’re going to be in a position to make moves that improve our outlook in 2026,” Breslow said. “That was the expectation all offseason. That’s what we talked about all spring."
A lot will have to go right in Boston for Craig Breslow's playoff hopes for the Red Sox to come true
The Red Sox's success is so recent that there's no history of them maintaining such a performance this season, but things are starting to change for a few players. Jarren Duran still isn't producing to the best of his ability, but he's started hitting home runs. Caleb Durbin is finally delivering numbers closer to his 2025 output with the Milwaukee Brewers. Trevor Story has cleaned up his defense and he's trending up offensively, but he needs to break out for Boston to be the best team it can be.
If the Red Sox can maintain their current offensive pace (or even improve upon it), they still have a decent chance to assert themselves in the American League. Before games started on May 7, there were just two teams in the AL that had winning records: the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, both division rivals of Boston.
The AL has underwhelmed so severely this season that a winning season the rest of the way could make the Red Sox a real threat. But given how difficult the beginning of their season was, that will be easier said than done. The pitching will have to keep it together, too, but the Red Sox have so much talent in their rotation and so much depth that it will take a lot of bad luck to fully derail the pitching staff.
At least Breslow is confident (although, it is his job to be, and without Cora to lay any blame on, his job is certainly on the line). The Red Sox finally have some momentum on their side and they need to make the most of it while they can, especially when the rest of the AL is struggling.
Add us as a preferred source on Google