The Boston Red Sox are still waiting for their dramatic turnaround after firing manager Alex Cora and six of his coaches.
“I certainly wouldn’t look back at our win-loss record over the last month and say it was this incredible success,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic.
“But I think we’re starting to more consistently put together good at-bats. Definitely going into the series with Minnesota, we had pitched consistently well and played good defense. We have to put all aspects of the game together to make sure we’re winning more games.”
Boston was 10-17 to start the season when it decided to move on from Cora. It is 12-14 since, and its 22-31 record is good enough for last place in the American League East.
McCaffrey relayed some of the offensive numbers, which tell a mixed story. The Red Sox were averaging 4.14 runs per game when they made the changes and have averaged just 3.38 runs in the aftermath.
However, their batting average of .233 and OPS of .667 before the firings improved to .247 and .702 in the next 26 games.
While making up the 12.5-game deficit on the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the division may be too daunting of a task, the nature of the American League means the Red Sox are just one hot streak away from being in the thick of contention.
After all, there are just three teams in total above .500. The wild-card race figures to be a battle of mediocrity unless something drastic changes in the season’s second half, which opens the door for Boston and others to make a run.
Yet it could also lead to a tricky trade market with so many teams technically still in contention.
“Another way (to improve) is additions from outside the organization, and we’re having conversations every day about those,” Breslow said. “At the same time, I think there are a bunch of other teams that see themselves in a similar position, where they’re probably underperforming relative to where they thought they would be in a league that is pretty compressed and not looking to give up on 2026 just yet, which makes it a lot harder to line up on trades.”
That means the Red Sox may need to improve within if they are going to make a playoff push this season.
