How to fix 2026 Red Sox?

[iortiz]

Craig Breslow.

Going into his tenure as POBO for the Sox, he had Devers, Sale, Story, Whitlock, Pivetta, Martin, Yoshida, Casas, Duran, Abreu, Houck, Crawford, and Bello.

He also had the third ranked farm system ITL with names such as Mayer, Anthony, Rafaela, Teel, Campbell, Yorke, Fitts and more.

He had so much talent to build around, instead, most of these guys are gone, or not optimized because of his horrible roster construction or bad coaching hires.

It was simple, you develop the guys that you had, and build around those guys with outside talent who can produce. Instead, Breslow has done the opposite, put together awful rosters, and alienated players, execs, and coaches.

Unfortunately firing would lead to no one wanting to take the job, as they would fear they would only have it for a few years, but at this point you have to.

Eddie Romero has played second fiddle since Dave Dombrowski and I believe it is his time to shine. Let him build this team from the ground up, he deserves it and I think he would do an amazing job.

Breslow sucks, simple as that. Hopefully his employers realize that soon

[Duran Is The Man]

10 minutes ago, iortiz said:

Craig Breslow.

Going into his tenure as POBO for the Sox, he had Devers, Sale, Story, Whitlock, Pivetta, Martin, Yoshida, Casas, Duran, Abreu, Houck, Crawford, and Bello.

He also had the third ranked farm system ITL with names such as Mayer, Anthony, Rafaela, Teel, Campbell, Yorke, Fitts and more.

He had so much talent to build around, instead, most of these guys are gone, or not optimized because of his horrible roster construction or bad coaching hires.

It was simple, you develop the guys that you had, and build around those guys with outside talent who can produce. Instead, Breslow has done the opposite, put together awful rosters, and alienated players, execs, and coaches.

Unfortunately firing would lead to no one wanting to take the job, as they would fear they would only have it for a few years, but at this point you have to.

Eddie Romero has played second fiddle since Dave Dombrowski and I believe it is his time to shine. Let him build this team from the ground up, he deserves it and I think he would do an amazing job.

Breslow sucks, simple as that. Hopefully his employers realize that soon

and fire Cora and the gawd-awful hitting coaches. 

[moonslav59]

45 minutes ago, iortiz said:

Craig Breslow.

Going into his tenure as POBO for the Sox, he had Devers, Sale, Story, Whitlock, Pivetta, Martin, Yoshida, Casas, Duran, Abreu, Houck, Crawford, and Bello.

He also had the third ranked farm system ITL with names such as Mayer, Anthony, Rafaela, Teel, Campbell, Yorke, Fitts and more.

Keeping all these guys we'd still suck.

[Hitch]

16 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

he's a hall of fame GM that has won 2 world series and took the Sox to three straight AL east titles. i'd take him all day every day over the ******** we've had since he was fired. i guess you'd rather have Last Place Bloom or Last Place Breslow, neither of whom has won a f***ing thing, instead. 

What I'd rather is you calm down and remember even when your baseball team is losing it's still okay to joke every now and then.

It's not the end of the world. 👍

[notin]

8 hours ago, iortiz said:

Craig Breslow.

Going into his tenure as POBO for the Sox, he had Devers, Sale, Story, Whitlock, Pivetta, Martin, Yoshida, Casas, Duran, Abreu, Houck, Crawford, and Bello.

He also had the third ranked farm system ITL with names such as Mayer, Anthony, Rafaela, Teel, Campbell, Yorke, Fitts and more.

He had so much talent to build around, instead, most of these guys are gone, or not optimized because of his horrible roster construction or bad coaching hires.

It was simple, you develop the guys that you had, and build around those guys with outside talent who can produce. Instead, Breslow has done the opposite, put together awful rosters, and alienated players, execs, and coaches.

Unfortunately firing would lead to no one wanting to take the job, as they would fear they would only have it for a few years, but at this point you have to.

Eddie Romero has played second fiddle since Dave Dombrowski and I believe it is his time to shine. Let him build this team from the ground up, he deserves it and I think he would do an amazing job.

Breslow sucks, simple as that. Hopefully his employers realize that soon

1.  Hes only moved Devers and Sale from your list of MLB talent.  Pivetta left via free agency, which happens.

2. From your minor league list, he’s only moved Teel and Yorke.  Well, he moved Fitts, but he also acquired him in the first place…

[notin]

16 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

You know it's bad if we're at the "bring back David Hamilton" portion of the year. 

Hamilton wasn’t a bad player.  Most people that wanted him gone was so “Cora wouldn’t be able to keep starting him.”

Thats just bad logic.  If that was indeed the issue, Hamilton is not the problem.  Cora is…

[notin]

The big issue with this team is a CBO who tried to build a lineup for “run prevention” and a manager who clearly doesn’t give a s*** about that.

Fire them both.  I’m almost positive Cora is trying to get Breslow fired anyway…

[notin]

19 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

he's a hall of fame GM that has won 2 world series and took the Sox to three straight AL east titles. i'd take him all day every day over the ******** we've had since he was fired. i guess you'd rather have Last Place Bloom or Last Place Breslow, neither of whom has won a f***ing thing, instead. 

Dombrowski eould be useless here.  His powers come from being able to soend lots and lots of money, which Henry didnt want to do anymore. And it’s not like his Phillies are any better right now.  They started out 6-4 and are 2-14 since, and have dropped behind the Mets, who’ve had their own 11 game losing streak already.

First division ever with two 10-game losing streaks in April?

[Randy Red Sox]

23 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

We are not middle third in spending. We are 6th.... just one away from your call for being top 5 in spending.

Granted, moving to 5th would mean spending $25M more.

While I agree we should spend more and don't want to sound like I'm defending JH, facts are facts:

We were 11th in spending in 2024 at $220M. We are 6th now at $267. Here are the top 6 teams in 2026 spending and their percent increase in spending since 2024:

1. LAD +18% (353>416) Lost of hidden deferred money

2. NYM + 9.6% (348>381)

3. NYY +6.6% (316>337)

4. PHI +20% (264 #7 to 314)

5. TOR +24% (234 #10 to 291

6. BOS +21% (220 #11 to 267)

It will be interesting to see if the uptick in spending increases, but it appears that how we spend the money seems like a bigger issue than not spending enough.

There is much uncertainty and falsehood about where the Sox rank in payroll but all I will say is  1} the majority of our recent spending {since DD} have been for the most part wasted money mostly on broken down P and bad contracts like the most recent Suarez and Gray additions. I would have NEVER signed Suarez !

. How much money did we waste on all the rehabbing P of which 90% never made a contribution in Boston ??  Didn't you say that Sandavol would be in this rotation?? Then we replace a guy like Bregman with a Durbin. I don't care that Bregman has had a bad start but you know given his track record that he will come around. He was also a positive influence in the clubhouse. Not saying I would have paid the contract he got but Durbin was a weak replacement AT BEST.

Spending stupid money like we have done makes no sense at all but I personally don't believe we are 5th in payroll. I came into this year optimistic but that is long gone now. This team is horrid and not likely to get much better. The only decent thing Breslow has done is improve the young P.

 

[moonslav59]

13 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

There is much uncertainty and falsehood about where the Sox rank in payroll but all I will say is  1} the majority of our recent spending {since DD} have been for the most part wasted money mostly on broken down P and bad contracts like the most recent Suarez and Gray additions. I would have NEVER signed Suarez !

. How much money did we waste on all the rehabbing P of which 90% never made a contribution in Boston ??  Didn't you say that Sandavol would be in this rotation?? Then we replace a guy like Bregman with a Durbin. I don't care that Bregman has had a bad start but you know given his track record that he will come around. He was also a positive influence in the clubhouse. Not saying I would have paid the contract he got but Durbin was a weak replacement AT BEST.

Spending stupid money like we have done makes no sense at all but I personally don't believe we are 5th in payroll. I came into this year optimistic but that is long gone now. This team is horrid and not likely to get much better. The only decent thing Breslow has done is improve the young P.

 

Brez has certainly shifted the focus to pitching, and he's made dozens and dozens of moves to add or swap out pitchers. He was bound to get some wrong, but as of now, it seems he was wrong on way too many, especially the ones he paid the most for, except Crochet & Chapman, maybe.

Some moves like Sale and Priester (traded and not the traded for deal) looked real bad, at first, but might be hard to judge at the time of the trade (Sale) or in hindsight (Priester.)

I think if blame must be assigned, and in this culture, it is unavoidable, it seems JH, Brez, Cora and others all share in the blame.

JH's cut in spending set us so far back, that recent spending upticks seem like a drop in the bucket.

Brez has not spent much of that uptick spending wisely. He's made some good and some bad deals, but has built up the farm pitching outlook, which is speculative value and not actual value, yet.

Cora has let his favoritism/loyalty cloud his judgement and actions.

DD left us with some serious budget issues and a pretty lowly ranked farm, although the prospects he did not trade turned out to be better than the higher ranked ones he traded away to give us those 3 very nice seasons. Bloom did some good building back up the roster depth but failed at adding the right mix of star power with the too few chances he did get to spend more (Story & Yoshida.)

Add this all up and we get the perfect storm of futility.

[Hitch]

4 hours ago, notin said:

  I’m almost positive Cora is trying to get Breslow fired anyway…

I must admit, I've been having the same feeling.

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, Hitch said:

I must admit, I've been having the same feeling.

By bringing himself down, too?

[notin]

44 minutes ago, Hitch said:

I must admit, I've been having the same feeling.

They’ve been on completely different pages for two years now.  Last year they differed on Bregman and Devers.  This year Breslow wanted “run prevention” so Cora counters by starting Story at SS every day.  Breslow won’t or can’t pay for big bats, so Cora makes sure to use utility infielders in platoon roles.  Breslow does almost nothing for the bullpen, so Cora makes his daily go to guy Danny Coulombe, who missed all of Spring Training…

[Hitch]

30 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

By bringing himself down, too?

He's been laying this at the feet of the roster construction, and has been routinely (and correctly) laying that at Brez's feet.

[iortiz]

6 hours ago, notin said:

1.  Hes only moved Devers and Sale from your list of MLB talent.  Pivetta left via free agency, which happens.

2. From your minor league list, he’s only moved Teel and Yorke.  Well, he moved Fitts, but he also acquired him in the first place…

He "only" moved Devers and Sale? LOL! That's a lot. Sale won a CY and Devers somehow someway is playing 1B in SFG. BTW where is the center pice Grissom? Hitting 800 in LAA. Useless Hamilton? Looking like MVP caliber player in MIL.

They let walk Pivetta and Bregman. They are experts on that, I give you that. They also gave Password for a bum who is already in the IL. Add Montgomery and Meidroth who are doing well in Chicago while extended Campbell who is in oblivion and probably won't see a MLB AB again. 

It's beyond me why he's still here. 

[moonslav59]

29 minutes ago, Hitch said:

He's been laying this at the feet of the roster construction, and has been routinely (and correctly) laying that at Brez's feet.

Brez is setting himself up for the shortest tenure at Sox GM in a while.

Cora is setting himself up for an end to his tenure with the Sox.

Sure, he's playing the guys Brez gave him. but many are under performing everyone's expectations, and that is something the manager usually gets heat for.

They both might be on their way out.

[moonslav59]

27 minutes ago, iortiz said:

He "only" moved Devers and Sale? LOL! That's a lot. Sale won a CY and Devers somehow someway is playing 1B in SFG. BTW where is the center pice Grissom? Hitting 800 in LAA. Useless Hamilton? Looking like MVP caliber player in MIL.

They let walk Pivetta and Bregman. They are experts on that, I give you that. They also gave Password for a bum who is already in the IL. Add Montgomery and Meidroth who are doing well in Chicago while extended Campbell who is in oblivion and probably won't see a MLB AB again. 

It's beyond me why he's still here. 

The way Devers looks, since the trade, it was a fantastic deal to dump that salary.

Sale has predictably missed every October since the trade.

How is DHam looking like an MVP? NHe's got a .604 OPS and the team has gone from first to last placee.

[iortiz]

Just now, moonslav59 said:

The way Devers looks, since the trade, it was a fantastic deal to dump that salary.

Sale has predictably missed every October since the trade.

How is DHam looking like an MVP? NHe's got a .604 OPS and the team has gone from first to last placee.

Devers was red hot when he left. Sale had freaking injuries not related to baseball. You had to bet. You wish for DH's todays production in this anemic offense which speaks volumes of the coaches. 

[JoeBrady]

7 hours ago, notin said:

Hamilton wasn’t a bad player.  Most people that wanted him gone was so “Cora wouldn’t be able to keep starting him.”

Thats just bad logic.  If that was indeed the issue, Hamilton is not the problem.  Cora is…

He started Hamilton as a platoon with Romy.  That made perfect sense.

[moonslav59]

28 minutes ago, iortiz said:

Devers was red hot when he left. Sale had freaking injuries not related to baseball. You had to bet. You wish for DH's todays production in this anemic offense which speaks volumes of the coaches. 

Okay, Devers waas red hot, when he left: apply the same principal to Sale when he left.

[moonslav59]

Just now, JoeBrady said:

He started Hamilton as a platoon with Romy.  That made perfect sense.

I was fine with that idea, despite DHam's off season in '25.

I'd still rather have Durbin than DHam.

It's Harrison that may be missed.

Monasterio may be the sleeper in the trade, much like Holobetz might be in the Priest

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, iortiz said:

Add Montgomery and Meidroth who are doing well in Chicago

Meidroth has a 0.0 bWAR this year, and Monty is in AA.

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Meidroth has a 0.0 bWAR this year, and Monty is in AA.

...and Teel has yet to play in 2026.

[JoeBrady]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Okay, Devers waas red hot, when he left: apply the same principal to Sale when he left.

Devers was almost always going to look good for a couple of years.  But he's only had 1.0 bWAR in 2/3 of a season.

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, JoeBrady said:

Devers was almost always going to look good for a couple of years.  But he's only had 1.0 bWAR in 2/3 of a season.

That's the scary part about the Devers value. If the SFG are not happy, why are we so angry?

[JoeBrady]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

That's the scary part about the Devers value. If the SFG are not happy, why are we so angry?

If SF could take it back, I'm fairly sure they would.  Devers is notoriously streaky, but in his last 19 games, he has an awful, awful 28/2 K/W with 1 HR.  2nd worse fWAR right now, out of 182 qualified.

[moonslav59]

Some notable fWARs: (before today)

1.3 Murakami

0.9 BLowe

0.8 Contreras, Yandy Diaz, Neto & L Arraez

0.7 C Vazquez

0.6 Donovan, Bogaerts, Jeffers

0.5 Dom Smith

0.3 Schwarber, T Gray & Alonso

0.2 V Grissom, G Torres, Josh Bell, Betts, Wong, Okamoto, KMarte, DHam, Yorke & Andujar

0.1 Moncada, Semien, Paredes

_______________________

-0.7 Ozuna

-0.6 Devers

-0.3 Refsnyder, Story

-0.2 Hoskins, J Naylor, B Matthews

-0.1 Bichette

 

 

[moonslav59]

It took Wong 7 years to catch up to Betts in seasonal fWAR.

LOL.

[notin]

2 hours ago, iortiz said:

He "only" moved Devers and Sale? LOL! That's a lot. Sale won a CY and Devers somehow someway is playing 1B in SFG. BTW where is the center pice Grissom? Hitting 800 in LAA. Useless Hamilton? Looking like MVP caliber player in MIL.

They let walk Pivetta and Bregman. They are experts on that, I give you that. They also gave Password for a bum who is already in the IL. Add Montgomery and Meidroth who are doing well in Chicago while extended Campbell who is in oblivion and probably won't see a MLB AB again. 

It's beyond me why he's still here. 

He listed a bunch of talent, most of which. Is still here.  Sale was hurt all the time.  No one saw his comeback, not even Atlanta.  Although many claim it was obvious, and were able to spot it well after it started.

And Devers? Ungodly selfish.   f*** him.  Glad he’s gone.   And Youre giving Devers credit for playing 1b?  You do realize it was him that killed the idea in Boston, right?  San Fran didn’t have better insight about him; they just latched on to a player who finally realized it was time to stop throwing tantrums.

Montgomery is still in the minors, yet to debut.  Meidroth is a replacement-level player, the type you’d be complaining about if he was still here.  Like you do about Anthony, because he hasn’t set MLB on fire yet and his 22nd birthday is rapidly approaching. 

Hey, did you know Roman Anthony is 2 years younger than Braden Montgomery?

Also, higher career OPS+ - Campbell or Meidroth?

The grass isn't greener on the South Side...

[notin]

5 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

There is much uncertainty and falsehood about where the Sox rank in payroll but all I will say is  1} the majority of our recent spending {since DD} have been for the most part wasted money mostly on broken down P and bad contracts like the most recent Suarez and Gray additions. I would have NEVER signed Suarez !

. How much money did we waste on all the rehabbing P of which 90% never made a contribution in Boston ??  Didn't you say that Sandavol would be in this rotation?? Then we replace a guy like Bregman with a Durbin. I don't care that Bregman has had a bad start but you know given his track record that he will come around. He was also a positive influence in the clubhouse. Not saying I would have paid the contract he got but Durbin was a weak replacement AT BEST.

Spending stupid money like we have done makes no sense at all but I personally don't believe we are 5th in payroll. I came into this year optimistic but that is long gone now. This team is horrid and not likely to get much better. The only decent thing Breslow has done is improve the young P.

 

Probably like $50-60mill over the last 10 years.   Not enough to get the meaningful players the Sox could use.   If they didn't gamble on Sandoval and Kluber and Richard, etic, FSG would just have a bigger bottom line.

Or maybe they could extend some of the younger players.  Maybe...