Red Sox fans' jokes about 'Craig Breslow translator' are a lot less funny after realizing this

As summer and the midseason-mark near, the Boston Red Sox are officially in trouble. Fenway Park's winning drought continues as the Red Sox have won just one home series all season. With Boston stuck in the divisional cellar, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has become a frequent target of criticism.

Despite being a former major leaguer with the Sox, Breslow has faced growing questions about his ability to connect with players and staff. Those concerns resurfaced recently when Tim Healey of The Boston Globe suggested that "Breslow might benefit from having a translator" amid scrutiny over communication between the front office and clubhouse.

While Boston searches for answers to their front office crisis, a former Red Sox executive is drawing praise for his work elsewhere. MLB Network recently highlighted Paul Toboni as an early Executive of the Year candidate for his work with the Washington Nationals. Washington cleaned house in the middle of the 2025 campaign when it sacked president Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez. 

Martinez, much like Alex Cora, won a World Series but struggled to return to that prior level of success. Less than a year into his tenure as president of baseball operations, Toboni has become one of the youngest and fastest-rising executives in the sport.

For Red Sox fans, Toboni is a familiar name. The former assistant general manager spent a decade climbing through Boston's baseball operations department and was even viewed by many as a future general manager candidate within the organization. 

Toboni's path to the top looked very different from Breslow's. Before entering baseball operations, he turned down Ivy League opportunities to play baseball at USC before earning his master's degree at Notre Dame, where he was also a member of the boxing team.

He took that fight onto his professional career where he joined the Red Sox as a baseball operations intern in 2015 and quickly climbed the organizational ladder. During that rise to assistant general manager, Toboni helped oversee one of the most dramatic farm system turnarounds in baseball. 

Former Red Sox GM candidate Paul Toboni could've been the 'translator' Craig Breslow needs if he was promoted soon enough

From 2019-24, the Red Sox, under an aggressive Dombrowski front office, went from possessing one of the weakest farm systems in the sport to the consensus No. 1 system according to Baseball America and league executives. Boston drafted and developed prospects like Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, Tanner Houck and Jarren Duran during that period.

His success made him one of the leading internal candidates for Boston's future general manager opening before he departed for Washington following the 2025 season. Maybe the "translator" Breslow needs, and could've had if he promoted him a year before his departure, left to run the Nats.

Less than a year later, Toboni’s name is etched into every Executive of the Year discussion. The Nationals, led by their young core, currently hover around .500 as the highest-scoring team in the majors — the Red Sox, also dominated by young players, surely expected to find themselves in a similar position.

The contrast is difficult to ignore. While Toboni is receiving national praise for helping rebuild the Nationals, the Red Sox continue to battle questions about leadership, in-house fighting and direction within the franchise. 

With the dog days of summer approaching and Boston still searching for answers, Toboni's early success in Washington should leave a sour taste for Red Sox Nation, as one of the men who helped turn the Red Sox around is now doing the same somewhere else.

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