Red Sox's Craig Breslow Era Is Set to End With A Whimper

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

See?  That’s exactly what I said people eould do when(not if) Dombrowski outbid Breslow for Schwarber.

Thanks for proving my point…

All DD had to do was offer Flintstone $1, and that would have outbid the Red SOX. Your so-called point is pointless.

[notin]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

All DD had to do was offer Flintstone $1, and that would have outbid the Red SOX. Your so-called point is pointless.

Your split personality is showing ;)

[Old Red]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

Your split personality is showing ;)

Your NNN is showing. By the way my mother had me tested. B A Z I N G A.

[notin]

2 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Your NNN is showing. By the way my mother had me tested. B A Z I N G A.

But did she test both of you? 

[moonslav59]

21 minutes ago, notin said:

See?  That’s exactly what I said people eould do when(not if) Dombrowski outbid Breslow for Schwarber.

Thanks for proving my point…

It's comical, and the funniest part if the obliviousness.

Time to cue up "You are over analyzing what I said."

[notin]

The thing is - we know why Schwarber and Alonso weren’t signed and it wasn’t just a matter of filling out a couple forms.

But if you want to pursue that angle, the real question is - why wasn’t a lesser hitter brought in?  Someone like Ryan O’Hearn would have been an improvement and, let’s face it, fits any budget despite quietly becoming a pretty good hitter over the past 3 or 4 seasons.  

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

But if you want to pursue that angle, the real question is - why wasn’t a lesser hitter brought in?  Someone like Ryan O’Hearn would have been an improvement and, let’s face it, fits any budget despite quietly becoming a pretty good hitter over the past 3 or 4 seasons.  

That's been one of my main points, and while we can play the hindsight game all day and cry about not adding Murakami (who nobody here wanted) Okamoto (who a few suggested) BLowe or Donovan (LHB not many advocated for) or O'Hearn/Arraez/ ______, the fact that we didn't even try and miss, which is Fred's good point, is a stain on Brez & Co's winter report card.

A big fat coffee stain that hides the A's he got for Suarez, Gray and Contreras, or at least 1 of them.

[notin]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

That's been one of my main points, and while we can play the hindsight game all day and cry about not adding Murakami (who nobody here wanted) Okamoto (who a few suggested) BLowe or Donovan (LHB not many advocated for) or O'Hearn/Arraez/ ______, the fact that we didn't even try and miss, which is Fred's good point, is a stain on Brez & Co's winter report card.

A big fat coffee stain that hides the A's he got for Suarez, Gray and Contreras, or at least 1 of them.

I think we didn’t go for a second tier type because Breslow felt his offense - largely the same - could repeat.  He basically swapped out Bregman and Lowe for Contreras and Durbin on the 7th best offense in MLB.  He addressed the “#2 starter” need that left Boston starting a struggling Bello in a clinch game.  And hoped the lineup could repeat…

[Old Red]

49 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's comical, and the funniest part if the obliviousness.

Time to cue up "You are over analyzing what I said."

What’s comical is I don’t have to Que up the you are over analyzing, because it’s quite obvious when someone is questioning question marks, but thanks for bringing it up it’s much appreciated.👍

[moonslav59]

56 minutes ago, notin said:

I think we didn’t go for a second tier type because Breslow felt his offense - largely the same - could repeat.  He basically swapped out Bregman and Lowe for Contreras and Durbin on the 7th best offense in MLB.  He addressed the “#2 starter” need that left Boston starting a struggling Bello in a clinch game.  And hoped the lineup could repeat…

That is what he did, but the Breggie to Suarez pivot indicated he was planning on an upgrade on offense, and pivoted to more pitching.

I actually liked our depth, but not much was offensively focused, except for the Duran/Anthony/Yoshida/Romy DH mix and OF/1B/2B back-ups.

There was no offensive back-up at SS/3B/ C, and we knew Romy was out and Ref was gone, so there was a gap that even Brez must have seen. I think his calculation was more about thinking the improved pitching and defense could outweigh a known loss (even if thought to be minor) on offense.

On paper, a healthy and productive Anthony and upticks from our vast young player depth looked good, but you know injuries occur, unexpected down ticks occur, and adding Durbin and IKF over offense was a choice he made. That was D over O, when he had already unbalanced the team by adding way more pitching than offense.

While true, most of us did not foresee this bad of an offense, we did see it as one of our weakest areas (along with pen depth beyond our top 2-3 RP'ers.) O'Hearn was not costly. BLowe or Donovan might have been a bit costly, but not trading for Oviedo might have allowed us to put a package together to land one of them. Paredes is the big what if to me, and he'd have helped the line-up and given is this infield on day one:

1B Contreras (Paredes/Romy)

2B Durbin/Mayer (Romy to come)

3B Paredes/Mayer

SS Story/Mayer

The improvement to the offense, even if he hit just .750 would have been very significant.

[JoeBrady]

On 7/6/2026 at 9:56 AM, Old Red said:

Con Man was fine, but the original plan was adding him with Bregman. Con Man, and Alonso would have been more than fine.

So you'd have:

• Bregman + Alonso = 26 HRs & .246 for $59M, or
• Contreras + Durbin = 28 HRs & .256 (+ defense) plus Suarez 3.15 ERA for $46M,

[JoeBrady]

13 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

I do find it interesting that the worse parts of this roster generally all predate Breslow. 

I've been saying this all year.  The problem (and it isn't even remotely close) is not the 2026 acquisitions, but the guys that were already on the team.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

I've been saying this all year.  The problem (and it isn't even remotely close) is not the 2026 acquisitions, but the guys that were already on the team.

It's like trying to pound square pegs into round holes.

[Old Red]

7 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

So you'd have:

• Bregman + Alonso = 26 HRs & .246 for $59M, or
• Contreras + Durbin = 28 HRs & .256 (+ defense) plus Suarez 3.15 ERA for $46M,

You would have Con Man+Alonso+DUBin.

[mvp 78]

On 7/7/2026 at 8:35 AM, Hugh2 said:

Not that I want to defend Breslow but I do find it interesting that the worse parts of this roster generally all predate Breslow.  E.G. Story, Yoshida, Duran, Mayer, Bello (although he did extend him). 

Monasterio -0.7 fWAR

Gasper -0.3 fWAR

All the negative fWAR pitchers are Breslow guys. 

[Hugh2]

47 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Monasterio -0.7 fWAR

Gasper -0.3 fWAR

All the negative fWAR pitchers are Breslow guys. 

Are those guys starters? funny you leave out IKF. 

 Also, those guys are only getting playing time because other guys got hurt "Story, Mayer, Anthony" 

How many teams 3rd/4th options to start, down in the minors come up and play like studs?

Also Monasterio has been playing much better lately, he has a .822 OPS the last two weeks. 

 

I mean technically you are correct, those are Breslow guys but Gasper not lighting the world on fire isn't exactly the same thing as Wilson Conteras or Sonny Gray not performing.  Those guys are expected to start and paid to be starters. 

[Hugh2]

55 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

 

All the negative fWAR pitchers are Breslow guys. 

You mean the 5 guys (Uberstine, La Sorsa, Gamboa, Khnle, and Oviedo) who all combined for less than 21 innings? Come on....

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Hugh2 said:

I mean technically you are correct

Duh. 

It's just silly to infer that all the problem players aren't Breslow's fault since they were acquired by another CBO. Breslow has been in charge for several year now. He had the ability to move the guys that are now playing like garbage. 

Gray/Ranger/Contreras have been great. Have all the moves been great? No. Durbin was asleep for the first two months. He didn't make enough additions to the bullpen. 

The reason the Sox are 7 games under .500 is Craig Breslow. So many people got hurt! Shouldn't Story missing most of the season be expected at this point? Pitching injuries are the name of the game these days, but he moved most of their depth away. Narvaez can't hit. Gasper can't field. Mayer wasn't ready last season and him missing time isn't surprising. Aside from Roman going down and Duran being a shell of what he was, where are the big shockers for this team? 

Relying on a headcase like Duran seems bad for business. Relying on a guy with less than one year of service time to lead your offense feels rather foolish as well. 

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

You mean the 5 guys (Uberstine, La Sorsa, Gamboa, Khnle, and Oviedo) who all combined for less than 21 innings? Come on....

Bello has a higher fWAR than they do. 💪

[mvp 78]

If you're mad about Bello at 0.0 fWAR, just look at Watson's 0.0 fWAR. He has 48.2 IP. He has a 6.20 xERA! I don't even know why he's on the roster except to be a mop up guy. 

[Old Red]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Duh. 

It's just silly to infer that all the problem players aren't Breslow's fault since they were acquired by another CBO. Breslow has been in charge for several year now. He had the ability to move the guys that are now playing like garbage. 

Gray/Ranger/Contreras have been great. Have all the moves been great? No. Durbin was asleep for the first two months. He didn't make enough additions to the bullpen. 

The reason the Sox are 7 games under .500 is Craig Breslow. So many people got hurt! Shouldn't Story missing most of the season be expected at this point? Pitching injuries are the name of the game these days, but he moved most of their depth away. Narvaez can't hit. Gasper can't field. Mayer wasn't ready last season and him missing time isn't surprising. Aside from Roman going down and Duran being a shell of what he was, where are the big shockers for this team? 

Relying on a headcase like Duran seems bad for business. Relying on a guy with less than one year of service time to lead your offense feels rather foolish as well. 

Good summation, and spot on.👏

[Hugh2]

9 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Bello has a higher fWAR than they do. 💪

4 guys at the bottom of the roster.  Every team has those guys.  You call guys up for a game or to fill in as depth, those 20 innings from the bottom of the roster is irrelevant to overall point that the guys who were brought in to perform have largely done so this offseason. 

Every team has those guys, even the Dodgers have 5 guys at the bottom of their roster all with negative WAR and they all account for 40 innings. 

[Hugh2]

19 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Duh. 

It's just silly to infer that all the problem players aren't Breslow's fault since they were acquired by another CBO. Breslow has been in charge for several year now. He had the ability to move the guys that are now playing like garbage. 

Gray/Ranger/Contreras have been great. Have all the moves been great? No. Durbin was asleep for the first two months. He didn't make enough additions to the bullpen. 

The reason the Sox are 7 games under .500 is Craig Breslow. So many people got hurt! Shouldn't Story missing most of the season be expected at this point? Pitching injuries are the name of the game these days, but he moved most of their depth away. Narvaez can't hit. Gasper can't field. Mayer wasn't ready last season and him missing time isn't surprising. Aside from Roman going down and Duran being a shell of what he was, where are the big shockers for this team? 

Relying on a headcase like Duran seems bad for business. Relying on a guy with less than one year of service time to lead your offense feels rather foolish as well. 

I'm not saying Breslow doesn't shoulder responsibility, I'm just saying his 2026 offseason was largely a good one, and he was adding to a team that made the playoffs last year. 

If had a team coming back that largely is the same team that made the playoffs last year and you could add Sonny Gray to it, and know he'd pitch as well as he has, add Ranger Saurez and know he'd pitch as good as he has, add WIlson Contreras and know he'd be as good as he has been......would you guess this team would start off as s***** as they did? 

I think the vast majority of people would think they'd be a very highly competitive team.  That was my point, or at least the one I was trying to make.  I think that's true whether Breslow is 0% to blame or 100% to blame.  I find it weird that a team can go from Wild Card to last place after having a relatively good offseason. 

[FredLynn]

13 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Good summation, and spot on.👏

Its about time for people to recognize who is at the bottom of the problem with this team. Breslow. And Henry. Bad players are going to stink. They can't help it. I will not be sorry to see Breslow fired at the end of the season or before.

[Old Red]

5 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I'm not saying Breslow doesn't shoulder responsibility, I'm just saying his 2026 offseason was largely a good one, and he was adding to a team that made the playoffs last year. 

If had a team coming back that largely is the same team that made the playoffs last year and you could add Sonny Gray to it, and know he'd pitch as well as he has, add Ranger Saurez and know he'd pitch as good as he has, add WIlson Contreras and know he'd be as good as he has been......would you guess this team would start off as s***** as they did? 

I think the vast majority of people would think they'd be a very highly competitive team.  That was my point, or at least the one I was trying to make.  I think that's true whether Breslow is 0% to blame or 100% to blame.  I find it weird that a team can go from Wild Card to last place after having a relatively good offseason. 

Counting on Story to be healthy, and productive again, and also counting so much on little Anthony, and to some degree Mayer to be productive, and finally not being able to land a BIG bat for the middle of the order. No one saw a career year coming for the Con Man, which made that other BIG bat more needed.

[Hugh2]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Counting on Story to be healthy, and productive again, and also counting so much on little Anthony, and to some degree Mayer to be productive, and finally not being able to land a BIG bat for the middle of the order. No one saw a career year coming for the Con Man, which made that other BIG bat more needed.

Ok, but you're paying Story, and you're paying Yoshida, you're paynig these guys real money.  You're not going to pay them and bench them.  Especially after the season Story had, he pretty much had his hands tied.  Yes we can argue to the Cows come home about how he should have got Alonso or resigned Bregman but Contreras has been much better than both those guys, and Durbin has been lighting it up the past month.  

I'm not saying there aren't things he could of done.  He could traded Yoshida/Story even if he had to eat money, and traded for yet another big bat, or spent that money on one of those guys (on top of Contreras) instead of signing Ranger.  I'm not saying things couldn't have been done.  But how many people would guess that if you took a wild card team and added those performances they'd have this record?

If we took away this season and we were given Contreras stats, Grays stats, Rangers stats and we took away all the names and we were just given the stats almost everybody would guess this team was going to perform much better.  

It's just weird to me dude, I don't know why everyone feels compelled to make the same point they've been making endelessly for the past 6 months.  

[Old Red]

10 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Ok, but you're paying Story, and you're paying Yoshida, you're paynig these guys real money.  You're not going to pay them and bench them.  Especially after the season Story had, he pretty much had his hands tied.  Yes we can argue to the Cows come home about how he should have got Alonso or resigned Bregman but Contreras has been much better than both those guys, and Durbin has been lighting it up the past month.  

I'm not saying there aren't things he could of done.  He could traded Yoshida/Story even if he had to eat money, and traded for yet another big bat, or spent that money on one of those guys (on top of Contreras) instead of signing Ranger.  I'm not saying things couldn't have been done.  But how many people would guess that if you took a wild card team and added those performances they'd have this record?

If we took away this season and we were given Contreras stats, Grays stats, Rangers stats and we took away all the names and we were just given the stats almost everybody would guess this team was going to perform much better.  

It's just weird to me dude, I don't know why everyone feels compelled to make the same point they've been making endelessly for the past 6 months.  

I’ll take a wild stab to answer that. The W-L record is what matters most, and that is what most look at endlessly since game 1.

[Hugh2]

32 minutes ago, Old Red said:

I’ll take a wild stab to answer that. The W-L record is what matters most, and that is what most look at endlessly since game 1.

I 100% agree with that statement, but I don't think that answers any question I was asking. 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

I'm not saying Breslow doesn't shoulder responsibility, I'm just saying his 2026 offseason was largely a good one, and he was adding to a team that made the playoffs last year. 

If had a team coming back that largely is the same team that made the playoffs last year and you could add Sonny Gray to it, and know he'd pitch as well as he has, add Ranger Saurez and know he'd pitch as good as he has, add WIlson Contreras and know he'd be as good as he has been......would you guess this team would start off as s***** as they did? 

I think the vast majority of people would think they'd be a very highly competitive team.  That was my point, or at least the one I was trying to make.  I think that's true whether Breslow is 0% to blame or 100% to blame.  I find it weird that a team can go from Wild Card to last place after having a relatively good offseason. 

The problem is that he still built this team around pitching and defense. Contreras is great and the pitchers are great. However, this is a team that couldn't win at Fenway for a long stretch of time because of Craig's inability to put together an offense. They are 28th in runs. They are 30th in runs at Home. They are 30th in HRs at Home. It's really unbelievable how his vision on the hitting side is not seeing results. Whatever they are doing organizationally just isn't working. 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

Its about time for people to recognize who is at the bottom of the problem with this team. Breslow. And Henry. Bad players are going to stink. They can't help it. I will not be sorry to see Breslow fired at the end of the season or before.

We are stuck with Henry and Henry is probably stuck with Breslow for the time being. He may have been better off sticking it out with Bloom when all is said and done.