Whatever optimism Boston Red Sox fans had coming into the season and even through a rollercoaster April has all but completely dissipated. Tuesday's rainy loss to the Texas Rangers dropped Alex Cora's team to 18-19, falling below .500 and 2.5 games behind the rival Yankees in a weak AL East. Unfortunately, Cora doesn't seem to understand the urgency of the situation with a far too laissez-faire reaction to the lifeless 6-1 loss at Fenway Park to put the Red Sox in this spot.
"I’m not concerned," Cora said to Sean McAdam of Mass Live ($). "It’s part of the season. Are we happy with what’s going on? Of course not. We believe we’re better and it hasn’t happened. But we’re going to keep working. We’re going to be better, we know that, hopefully sooner rather than later."
At least Cora isn't happy with where the team is, which is a stark change from just a week ago when the team, sitting at 17-14 entering the final game in April, preached patience as he said he liked where the team is and where they're heading. That messaging has changed, certainly, but both the manager and general manager Craig Breslow aren't in a position to make action-less excuses.
In reality, as these costly early-season losses pile up and put the Red Sox more behind the 8-ball, fans want some concern and, subsequently, want changes. They don't want Cora to "keep working", they want him and Breslow to "start changing".
Alex Cora's excuses won't be what turns the Red Sox around
In regard to changes that need to be made, Cora could certainly start with his bullpen management. It's been head-scratching over the past couple of weeks and has directly cost this team multiple games. It's not a coincidence that the Red Sox lead baseball in one-run losses because Cora has managed the margins created by the bullpen quite noticeably and awfully to this point.
Beyond that, though, Boston simply needs to start fielding the best 26-man roster in the organization. Frankly, they haven't done that all year. But with the Triston Casas injury, despite his struggles at the plate to begin the year, the Red Sox now need answers more than ever.
How the team can justify decisions like optioning Luis Guerrero back to Triple-A despite him not having allowed an earned run in the majors since the end of last season, not inserting Hunter Dobbins into the rotation amid injuries after a stellar start to his MLB career, or most notably keeping stud prospects like Roman Anthony and/or Marcelo Mayer in Triple-A when both appear ready for the call up is baffling. To fans, it feels like the team simply isn't trying to win.
That's amplified when their first-base solution is Abraham Toro, a player who has less than 100 career games at the position at any level. Fans are further frustrated when, despite his elite-tier defense in centerfield, Ceddanne Rafaela has a .586 OPS but is considered an everyday player. None of this feels like it's in the interest of the Red Sox contending.
Perhaps that would've been acceptable in the frustrations of recent years when the organization was mildly rebuilding. That's no longer the case. The Red Sox traded for Garrett Crochet, signed Walker Buehler, signed Alex Bregman, signed Aroldis Chapman, and so on. This is a team that was aggressively built to contend. Now, it seems like Cora and Breslow aren't letting them.
It might not be the actual breaking point for fans yet, but it's getting dangerously close. Cora certainly is trying to convey his confidence in the roster within the clubhouse. Publicly, however, it comes off as making excuses and having a lackadaisical reaction to what fans perceive as a crisis. Hopefully, there are actions soon that contradict that sentiment, because the Red Sox might not survive if that's not the case.