A win over the Atlanta Braves on Friday was not enough to cover up the ongoing disappointment with this Boston Red Sox team. Now 3.0 games below .500 and 8.5 games behind first-place New York in the AL East, the Red Sox are running out of time to turn this ship around. We're a third of the way through the season. That is why Craig Breslow's latest comments feel so notable.
Boston's GM was blunt with reporters about the state of the team. The Red Sox aren't performing up to expectations, with injuries piling up and the core veterans struggling to achieve at their usual standards. Breslow expects the Red Sox to leave no stone unturned ahead of the trade deadline.
"The simple answer is it’s not good enough,” Breslow told reporters, via MassLive. "It’s not the performance we expected in the offseason. I think we could point to a number of things. We haven’t really been able to sync up offense and defense. We have been sloppy in the field at times. We’ve run into to mistakes on the bases. We’re going to have to play clean baseball. We’re gonna have to start getting big hits and making big pitches if we want to rattle off the wins that we need."
Perhaps more alarming, however, are his comments about Alex Cora. When given a chance to heartily endorse Boston's manager, Breslow took a far more evasive approach.
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Craig Breslow sets the stage for Alex Cora's eventual departure as season sprial continues
"We have a lot of confidence in Alex’s ability to lead this group,“ Breslow said. ”That doesn’t mean that we don’t have conversations every day about what we might be missing or what more we can do."
That seems like a pretty damning comment. He expresses "confidence" in Cora, but then immediately undermines with a classic "but, still" comment. Breslow is clearly irritated with the product on the field. The Red Sox loaded up the cap sheet in free agency and have called up two of their top three prospects already, with Roman Anthony's arrival right around the corner. Boston cannot afford a mediocre season.
"We obviously made a commitment to Alex," Breslow said, alluding to his recent three-year extension. "We’re gonna see that through. Right now, it’s about making sure that we’re doing everything we can to enable the 26 guys on our roster to help us win as many games as possible
So, Breslow does commit (on the surface) to seeing things through with Breslow. It's not uncommon for teams to stick with underperforming managers for financial reasons. That said, we can read between the lines. The context clues are right on the surface, frankly. The Red Sox are getting ansty, and Cora wouldn't be the first coach fired early in his contract after the front office publicly expressed their "commitment."
Alex Cora can't rely on Alex Bregman excuse to save his job
The Alex Bregman injury probably buys Cora some time — or at least an excuse — but Boston needs to get sharper on the field and in the batter's box. This team is too talented on paper to toil below .500, even in a competitive division.
The American League looks much stronger than anticipated with breakout teams like Seattle and Minnesota shooting up MLB power rankings. Boston cannot wait for Bregman to return to get better. And really, the product wasn't good enough even when Bregman was raking. These are deep, foundational issues, and a lot of it circles back to Cora at the end of the day.
Tick, tick, tick goes the clock...