Well, that was a little bit better of a week for the Red Sox, I suppose?
I mean, 3-3 still isn’t great or anything, but I feel slightly better on the heels of a weekend road victory. I guess The offense is coming around a bit (how sticky that is, who’s to say), guys like Connelly Early and Sonny Gray pitched well, and the team heads into a pivotal week against divisional foes with a pep in their step. Feel like we’ve already seen multiple instances of this team taking a step back (or two…or three) after taking a step forward, so I guess I’m not holding my breath, but we gotta take what we can get.
We especially need to take what we can get as the summer begins. There about 100 games left this season, sure, but we’re not going to have the luxury of talking about how many games are left forever. That’s a nice runway into the big topic I want to dive into through the MMBB today, folks.
It’s Monday Morning Brushback time, y’all.
I can’t help but thinking that Craig Breslow’s time as Boston’s Chief Baseball Officer could be slipping away as the calendar turns to June.
When the decision was made to fire Alex Cora and company a few weeks back, I had sort of assumed that Breslow was going to be given a significant amount of time to figure things out and build the organization fully within his vision. I figured he’d be given some grace continue his methods of building the roster, going through his own process of hiring a full-time manager if Chad Tracy wasn’t going to be the answer, all that fun stuff. If that drastic of a call were to be made, I figured it was an endorsement within the walls of Fortress Fenway that Breslow could more or less dictate where the organization would be going moving forward. Regardless of how you felt about the decision—and still feel—Breslow’s running point now, for better or for worse.
I’m not as convinced that he has a ton of time left, though. The results of this roster’s construction has been underwhelming, unacceptable, weak, whatever adjective you want to use. Fielder’s choice. Fifty-eight games is no small sample size. Even if the bats have been pretty good in the past week or so, that doesn’t excuse this team having one of the worst offenses in the league when they play more than half of their games in significant hitter-friendly settings. The team’s really bad at home, too; there’s that iconic Fenway experience for ya.
Point is: John Henry, Sam Kennedy, and the leadership of the club could make a move sooner than I had initially anticipated.
Alex Cora was fired on April 25, after the Red Sox’s 27th game of the season. The molly-whopping they gave Baltimore on that day brought their record to 10-17, eight games back in the division race and 3.5 games out of the final wild card spot. Now, after 58 games, the Red Sox stand at 25-33 and a trio of games back of the final wild card position. Same as it ever was, to quote a wise talking head.
This club’s going nowhere fast as things currently stand, but that still hasn’t really changed what Breslow has been talking about in public as of late, according to an article posted in the Boston Herald over the weekend. From what he’s saying, the goal of playing October baseball is still on the table.
“It probably goes without saying but people are working really hard to do everything we can to get this turned around and I’m still very confident that we’ll do it,” Breslow said. “It’s taken longer than we hoped, this is not the start that we expected, but we have really good players and fortunately the baseball season is long enough that typically really good players perform really well over the course of the season, and we’re going to do everything we can to help them get there.”
While having that sense of belief is all well and good, I do feel compelled to ask if we’re prepared to move off of this mindset moving forward, given the situation the team finds itself in, and given that the trade deadline will be here before we know it. Bres is talking like we’re just on the outside looking in in spite of a solid record. Yes, the difference between having a wild card slot and not right now isn’t massive, but the Sox still have to jump five other teams to get in right now. For what it’s worth, FanGraphs is giving us a roughly 27% chance to make the playoffs. With the amount of money that’s Breslow’s been permitted to utilize, that certainly isn’t gonna cut it. With the managerial question still left to be answered, does FSG just opt for a clean slate sooner rather than later?
Barring a huge run, this team is still going to be in a hole come July. Boston’s gonna have to win about 60 games from here on out to even have a chance at sniffing the playoffs. Maybe 85-or-so wins could get you into a wild card slot considering how bad the AL has been, but it’s certainly no guarantee. You’d be asking a team with a winning percentage below .450 to play roughly .570-to-.580 ball just for a shot at the postseason. Do you foresee that happening? I’m pretty sure I don’t.
If June isn’t a kind month for us, then why would we want to push more chips into the table and buy at the trade deadline? On the surface, I don’t think it would make sense to do that, but would Breslow feel compelled to do so as a way to try and preserve his own job? Not that other sports are a complete apples-to-apples comparison, but we’ve heard horror stories about NFL front offices making decisions in an attempt to put band aids on an already-maligned product instead of punting for the future. Would it be more worth it to move on before the deadline and start completely from scratch?
Unless things change drastically, buying at the deadline would be a mistake—but there’s a chance Breslow tries to do something like that anyways in a bid to preserve his own employment…That is, unless Breslow’s already been assured that he’ll be safe in this position at least through season’s end? I don’t want to get too far into speculation land, but maybe he’s sticking around regardless of how the year ends up. If that’s the case, then I’m not sure I’d want the guy who built a ship that appears to be sinking to build, well, another ship.
Ultimately, none of us knows how long of a leash Breslow’s got here. Making the decision to cut him loose is a massive one that shouldn’t be rushed, but I’m wondering if the initial plan of giving Breslow a longer runway in the post-Cora era is changing given the fact that they’re eight games below .500 at the start of June. I’m just starting to question what the direction is here, and I can absolutely foresee myself continuing to question where exactly we’re going if the architect of this team is going to be here until further notice.
This month could be quite telling for the future of this organization. More struggles at home against Bal’mer and a nasty weekend in the Bronx could provide that clarity, though not in the way that I’m sure Craig Breslow would appreciate. Let’s find out—and let me know what you think Breslow’s timeline is below.
Song of the Week: “Life After Wartime” by Talking Heads
Made a reference to David Byrne earlier, so let’s go with this.
Same time and same place next week, folks! Go Sox.
