A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

31 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

i've already seen one hit-piece on Cora, stating he stayed drunk ALL THE TIME.

Let's get this out of the way right now:

(from my pal, Al): "Buster Olney is generally viewed as an institutional reporter who acts as a direct conduit for information from front offices, team executives, and the league office, placing his reporting reputation closer to the owners' or league's side rather than that of the players."

... and today, he tweets the Sox crap offense can be blamed on the new rule restricting base coaches from leaving coach's boxes.

These new limits insinuate they couldn't pay quite as close "attention to details" to help batters -- because that's where we knew Boston's latest smear campaign would go.

[mvp 78]

14 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Let's get this out of the way right now:

(from my pal, Al): "Buster Olney is generally viewed as an institutional reporter who acts as a direct conduit for information from front offices, team executives, and the league office, placing his reporting reputation closer to the owners' or league's side rather than that of the players."

... and today, he tweets the Sox crap offense can be blamed on the new rule restricting base coaches from leaving coach's boxes.

These new limits insinuate they couldn't pay quite as close "attention to details" to help batters -- because that's where we knew Boston's latest smear campaign would go.

Huh, that doesn't make any sense. Last year, the Sox coaches were getting called out for being out of position and stealing signs. It has more to do with that them not paying attention to the details. It's more excuse making than smearing. 

[mvp 78]

43 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Maybe Big Baby Bello will get better with a trade.

Let him.

[mvp 78]

42 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

My opinion of Breslow is in a nosedive.

I wasn't super high on him to begin with. I don't think he's doing anything to earn an extension that's for sure. Right now, he's a lame duck CBO. He's never had a good trade deadline. He doesn't communicate well. I can excuse the mixed bag trade/FA moves since that's every CBO. At least the pitching dev seems headed in the right direction. The best prospects seem to be also trending up. He's basically Chaim if Chaim spent more time churning the top of the MLB roster. 

[Jean-Sébastien Blouin]

Wouldn't it be the right time to rebuild this team's culture? To bring in players like Ortiz, Pedroia, and Pedro? Breslow is struggling. We need to bring back a certain culture and a workable environment for everyone.

[Jean-Sébastien Blouin]

I know who's no longer playing, but I meant bringing Pedroia in. Pedro and David Ortiz in the organization as coach and possibly as GM. My English isn't great.

[mvp 78]

Just now, Jean-Sébastien Blouin said:

I know who's no longer playing, but I meant bringing Pedroia in. Pedro and David Ortiz in the organization as coach and possibly as GM. My English isn't great.

Just because a guy was a great player doesn't mean they'd be a great coach or GM. I think Pedroia is happy coaching his son's little league team. Ortiz is sort of around the team as  part of the ownership group. Pedro is brought out in Spring Training the same way Luis Tiant was every season. I think Breslow is happy leaning on Driveline and internal metrics to move the team forward rather than having former players mentor the current players. Why not both? Even if you don't have guys like Ortiz and Pedro physically coach the players or teach them mechanics, you can at least have them talk to the younger guys about getting through a long season and dealing with adversity. Maybe the Red Sox don't see any value in it? 

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I wasn't super high on him to begin with. I don't think he's doing anything to earn an extension that's for sure. Right now, he's a lame duck CBO. He's never had a good trade deadline. He doesn't communicate well. I can excuse the mixed bag trade/FA moves since that's every CBO. At least the pitching dev seems headed in the right direction. The best prospects seem to be also trending up. He's basically Chaim if Chaim spent more time churning the top of the MLB roster. 

Brez is definitely a piece of work. He’s made player moves that most likely Bloom wouldn’t have made like trading Sale, and trading for Crochet giving up some good prospects. Unfortunately like Bloom he looks for that third option in the fork in the road at trade deadline time. Not communicating well, and creating a bad work environment seems to be his motto. He definitely has more power than Bloom ever had as evidence by Cora at least for the moment anyway.

[notin]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Brez got mad that Hammy got better than Durbin and blamed the Red Sox coaches? 

Ok, but why does Bailey get to keep his job, when every pitcher they trade gets better elsewhere: Sale, Priester, Harrison, Pivetta, Elmer. Actually, another test for the pitching system might be how the pitching prospects they traded this winter develop, like Clarke.

 

That feels selective.

Don’t the Sox have their fair share of players that have done better after acquiring them? Chapman, Whitlock, Romy, Narvaez, Slaten, Abreu, Weissert, Kelly, Samaniego…

[notin]

34 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I wasn't super high on him to begin with. I don't think he's doing anything to earn an extension that's for sure. Right now, he's a lame duck CBO. He's never had a good trade deadline. He doesn't communicate well. I can excuse the mixed bag trade/FA moves since that's every CBO. At least the pitching dev seems headed in the right direction. The best prospects seem to be also trending up. He's basically Chaim if Chaim spent more time churning the top of the MLB roster. 

Even if Breslow survives this year, it will probably feel more like a political move than a baseball one, barring any miracles the rest of the way.  But even if he does survive another bad Sox season, his seat just gets hotter for 2027. 
 

The Sox don’t seem to let CBOs finish out the season, either.  Most seem to get replaced before the final game gets played.  If they finish at or under .500 this year and don’t show marked improvement in early 2027, he will be gone by mid-August at the latest…

[mvp 78]

 

[notin]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

 

I wondered why they even recalled him

Can you do one where they DFA Watson and call up Braden Ward?

[mvp 78]

20 minutes ago, notin said:

Even if Breslow survives this year, it will probably feel more like a political move than a baseball one, barring any miracles the rest of the way.  But even if he does survive another bad Sox season, his seat just gets hotter for 2027. 
 

The Sox don’t seem to let CBOs finish out the season, either.  Most seem to get replaced before the final game gets played.  If they finish at or under .500 this year and don’t show marked improvement in early 2027, he will be gone by mid-August at the latest…

The next CBO search is going to be brutal for the Sox. They couldn't get anyone in the door last time. Now they are seen league wide as a complete mess. f you like scouting, all those guys are gone. There's no year to year commitment to spending or competing. Your job will possibly not last the full contract you sign. You're surrounded by legions of EVP's that survive by winning favor with ownership. Who would take that job? I

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

I wondered why they even recalled him

Can you do one where they DFA Watson and call up Braden Ward?

I think they called him up because they weren't sure about the timing for the pitchers going on and off the IL and needed someone to get up to TOR to fill out the roster. They could easily call up Eaton and then send him back to WOO for 10 days without worrying about needing him. 

[notin]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The next CBO search is going to be brutal for the Sox. They couldn't get anyone in the door last time. Now they are seen league wide as a complete mess. f you like scouting, all those guys are gone. There's no year to year commitment to spending or competing. Your job will possibly not last the full contract you sign. You're surrounded by legions of EVP's that survive by winning favor with ownership. Who would take that job? I

All right.  You talked me into it…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

34 minutes ago, notin said:

That feels selective.

Don’t the Sox have their fair share of players that have done better after acquiring them? Chapman, Whitlock, Romy, Narvaez, Slaten, Abreu, Weissert, Kelly, Samaniego…

It's absolutely selective. I was talking about Andrew Bailey and all the starting pitchers they selected to trade who became better after they left (though Sale probably didn't work much with him since they were basically passing each other in and out the door).

But we all know why Bails didn't lose his job -- Brez hired him... maybe even with the intent someday of promoting him to manager.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

All right.  You talked me into it…

Every time you make a trade or sign a big FA, you should put the Wally head on and strut around the office getting high fives. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

9 minutes ago, notin said:

I wondered why they even recalled him

Can you do one where they DFA Watson and call up Braden Ward?

Is Ward still suspended for throwing a bat at a pitcher who threw a ball at him?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

Every time you make a trade or sign a big FA, you should put the Wally head on and strut around the office getting high fives. 

But don't light a cigar like Henry, or the head might catch on fire!

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

It's absolutely selective. I was talking about Andrew Bailey and all the starting pitchers they selected to trade who became better after they left (though Sale probably didn't work much with him since they were basically passing each other in and out the door).

But we all know why Bails didn't lose his job -- Brez hired him... maybe even with the intent someday of promoting him to manager.

Priester - 1 G, 5 IP with Bailey (1.80 ERA)

Harrison - 3 G, 12 IP with Bailey (3.00 ERA)

Bailey didn't have that much time with either of these two pitcher. I think they used these pitchers as trade bait, not because they couldn't get anything out of their performance, but because they had depth to trade from. I think Brez is happy with the Priester trade. Not sure what he thinks about the Harrison trade. 

Elmer Rodriguez didn't throw one pitch for Bailey. If there's a fault there, it lies much further down the pitching dev line. Bailey is in charge of the pitchers throwing in Boston, not the guys throwing all over the org. That was Justin Willard at one point. 

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Is Ward still suspended for throwing a bat at a pitcher who threw a ball at him?

No. Went 0-3 last night.

[notin]

Just now, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

It's absolutely selective. I was talking about Andrew Bailey and all the starting pitchers they selected to trade who became better after they left (though Sale probably didn't work much with him since they were basically passing each other in and out the door).

But we all know why Bails didn't lose his job -- Brez hired him... maybe even with the intent someday of promoting him to manager.

But even then, how many really pitched better after being traded?

Sale? Did he really pitch better or just stop getting hurt? Before all the injuries kicked in and kept him on the shelf for 4 seasons, he was pretty damned good in Boston.

Pivetta wasn’t traded and left via free agency.  Sox did offer a QO, which you can argue was only for the draft pick, but realistically any team offering a QO - especially for a player like Pivetta - has to be prepared for him to accept.

Harrison-  A case of 23 IP in Milwaukee vs 12 IP in Boston.  That shouldn’t count

Rodruguez-Cruz - He has 4 IP in his career.  This is list bulking.

Priester - Did pitch very well in 2025, outperforming his own metrics. Yet to pitch in 2026.

So is the list really just Priester?

And really, he’s the one whose trade was the most confusing…,

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, notin said:

Crochet hasn’t been the monster he was last year, but thats also crazy to expect every season.

But this year, the Sox started off with 5 easily named pitchers in the rotation.  They really never had that last year.  Hunter Dobbins was only wuth them briefly and still ranked among the top 5 in GS among pitchers…

We looked fine on paper for the rotation, and maybe the idea was to have our starter depth help the pen out, but we've already had to resort to E Rivera starting a game, and a pen game seems right around the corner.

I don't really blame Brez & Co for this, as they seemed to over focus on pitching rather than big bats, so I'm not going to complain there.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

But even then, how many really pitched better after being traded?

Sale? Did he really pitch better or just stop getting hurt? Before all the injuries kicked in and kept him on the shelf for 4 seasons, he was pretty damned good in Boston.

Pivetta wasn’t traded and left via free agency.  Sox did offer a QO, which you can argue was only for the draft pick, but realistically any team offering a QO - especially for a player like Pivetta - has to be prepared for him to accept.

Harrison-  A case of 23 IP in Milwaukee vs 12 IP in Boston.  That shouldn’t count

Rodruguez-Cruz - He has 4 IP in his career.  This is list bulking.

Priester - Did pitch very well in 2025, outperforming his own metrics. Yet to pitch in 2026.

So is the list really just Priester?

And really, he’s the one whose trade was the most confusing…,

The pitching turnover has been astounding since Brez took over- from farm to MLB to a large uptick in focus on adding pitchers via the draft and other ways.

As you pointed out, only Priester and Sale stick out as pitchers that have done well, at times they were  healthy.

I'm glad we focused heavily on pitching- top to bottom.

Oh, and by the way, we not have Holobetz, Phillips and Ziehl via the Sale/Grissom>Ziehl and Priester deals.

[Nick]

28 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

The pitching turnover has been astounding since Brez took over- from farm to MLB to a large uptick in focus on adding pitchers via the draft and other ways.

As you pointed out, only Priester and Sale stick out as pitchers that have done well, at times they were  healthy.

I'm glad we focused heavily on pitching- top to bottom.

Oh, and by the way, we not have Holobetz, Phillips and Ziehl via the Sale/Grissom>Ziehl and Priester deals.

Jake Bennett, a 25 year old lefty appears to be the starter tomorrow. A 6-6. 235lb guy Bres loves as a starter, he has pitched 21 innings in AAA, 12 hits, 16 K's and only 3 BB with 0 HR and 2 earned runs given up.

I'm over Bello, but I am excited over Tolle (23), Early (23) and now Bennett (25). I have to look for a silver lining and this maybe it for the 2026 season.

[mvp 78]

12 minutes ago, Nick said:

Jake Bennett, a 25 year old lefty appears to be the starter tomorrow. A 6-6. 235lb guy Bres loves as a starter, he has pitched 21 innings in AAA, 12 hits, 16 K's and only 3 BB with 0 HR and 2 earned runs given up.

I'm over Bello, but I am excited over Tolle (23), Early (23) and now Bennett (25). I have to look for a silver lining and this maybe it for the 2026 season.

I have lower expectations for Bennett than for the other two. Bennett is a pitch to contact guy who really needs to locate to do well. On his best day, he's a 4. 

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Every time you make a trade or sign a big FA, you should put the Wally head on and strut around the office getting high fives. 

I do that already without making trades.  I could finally explain myself!!

 

Weird looks count as high fives, right?

[notin]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

I have lower expectations for Bennett than for the other two. Bennett is a pitch to contact guy who really needs to locate to do well. On his best day, he's a 4. 

A change of pace to give ‘em a lefty for once.