Before this week’s series against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Red Sox’ stock was reaching peaks of GameStop proportions after the team won four series in a row.
Fans were further whipped into a frenzy when the team completed a late-game comeback against Toronto on Monday, a game where the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics were in attendance.
Then came Brayan Bello's brutal seven-earned-run start on Tuesday and a 9-4 loss at home against Toronto. Then, Wednesday night’s game was suspended after a thunderstorm broke out in the second inning.
As the Red Sox have vaulted themselves into the middle of the American League wild card race, the same old questions about the trade deadline and Alex Cora’s long-term status as manager have resurfaced. Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow joined The Greg Hill Show on Thursday morning to answer questions about both topics. Listen to the full segment above.
When asked if he shared the same sentiment as Cora about wanting the team to get “greedy,” Breslow responded, “Greedy, meaning play really good baseball, continue to move our way up the standings, of course. I think that’s what everyone wants from this team.”
When told that Cora seemed to be talking more about the trade deadline and not just continuing to play good baseball, Breslow tried to shift the focus away from the deadline.
“Look, I think we’re a month away from the deadline,” Breslow said. “I certainly understand the line of questioning, but I think what we focus on right now is the fact that we’ve got a number of players who are playing incredibly well, who are making progress, who are guys like Duran and Devers and Wong and Houck who should be All Stars.
“I think it’s a really exciting brand of baseball that we’re playing that our fans have embraced. So, I’m excited for that to continue and I think the rest of us are as well.”
When Breslow was asked whether players in the clubhouse inquired about the team’s intentions at the deadline, he said, "Those conversations between players and me have not taken place.”
“I think I can go back to when I was in a clubhouse and the reality is I was very much focused on the 24 other guys that were in the clubhouse and what we could do to win a game tonight. I kind of recognized that that was my responsibility to the team and it was somebody else’s responsibility to figure out who those 24 other guys would be.”
Breslow also said that this season’s strategy at the deadline would be one with conviction when responding to comments about the team’s half-in/half-out strategy of deadlines past.
“Obviously, I wasn’t here in the past, but I do think there are lessons to be learned from how other teams have behaved around the deadline,” Breslow said. “It’s really difficult to try to balance trying to add while also trying to maybe move some guys, and obviously when you try to chase both, you end up with neither.
“I think the most important thing we can do over the next month is kind of pick a lane, commit to it, understand that there are costs to either decision, but bank ourselves to what is best for the Boston Red Sox.”
Regarding Alex Cora’s long-term status as manager of the Red Sox, Breslow wouldn’t definitively say whether he intends to bring back the manager many regard as one of the best in MLB.
“I think those conversations are going to take place between Alex and me,” Breslow said. “I think that we’ve got a strong relationship, it’s growing. I think we feel very comfortable having very honest conversations with each other and I think neither of us is interested in this becoming a distraction to what’s happening on the field. If you look at what is happening on the field, we’ve done a pretty good job of ensuring that that doesn’t become the case.”
The Red Sox will next face off against the NL wild card contending San Diego Padres on Friday night. It will be Xander Bogaerts’ first visit to Fenway Park since signing with San Diego in the 2022 offseason, although he won’t be playing due to an injury.
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