Craig Breslow Has Officially Earned the Benefit of the Doubt With Red Sox

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What a week it's been for the Boston Red Sox. Along with the announcement that manager Chad Tracy has signed an extension through 2029, the team also confirmed that they have picked up both contraction options for Craig Breslow in 2029 and 2030. Fenway Sports Group has given both men a huge vote of confidence as the team prepares to head back to the postseason in 2026.

There will be much to say about Tracy’s deserved contract, but the Breslow announcement caught me a bit by surprise if we’re being honest. It was fairly obvious that he would hang around in Boston through at least part of the 2027 season since we’re staring a landscape-shifting lockout dead in the face at the end of the year, but with all of the negative press surrounding him throughout the early part of the season, I think we all kind of assumed Breslow’s tenure in Boston would end well before his contract options were even a consideration.

Just two games into the historic winning streak over the summer, I even wrote about how Breslow’s tenure in Boston was set to end with a whimper. Then, as the trade deadline approached, I said that his past trade deadlines showed that he couldn’t pull off the big deal. But then, on August 3, Breslow pulled off a massive in-division trade that showed me he deserved far more credit than I had given him up to that point.

We can point to a number of Breslow additions throughout the first two years of his time in Boston as huge successes: trading for Garrett Crochet and Carlos Narvaez on the same day, acquiring both Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras from the Cardinals over the offseason, bringing in Caleb Durbin to settle the hot corner in the wake of Alex Bregman’s departure, and signing Ranger Suarez to be a veteran, middle-of-the-rotation anchor for a starting rotation of mostly young talent. While he’s swung and missed as well (the trades for Vaughn Grissom and Dustin May come to mind immediately), Breslow’s decision to go all-in on Adley Rutschman to settle the catching position for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027 showed that he understood what the team needed to finally push themselves over the edge of contention.

That he was able to get a deal of that magnitude done during the season was an even bigger feather in his cap. He identified a problem, found a solution that benefited the organization both now and for the future, and did what he had to do to get the deal done. In my mind, that was the last hurdle that Breslow had to clear to show that he could be trusted to lead the Red Sox through the next few years. While Rutschman hasn’t been the offensive force we all hoped he would be, his impact on the pitching staff can be seen game in and game out and it feels like he’s been here far longer than six weeks. It’s entirely likely that the team will discuss a long-term deal with the catcher before the lockout begins and if that gets done, then Breslow can add yet another blockbuster move to his résumé.

While the Rutschman trade was the main move of the deadline, Breslow also addressed two other areas of need by trading rookie southpaw Connelly Early for Curtis Mead and former top prospect Marcelo Mayer for lefty reliever Erik Miller. While Mead’s Red Sox debut was short lived—a broken wrist after a hit by pitch that has kept him on the shelf for the majority of the second half of the season—he profiles as a second base/DH option next season and provides a nice source of power from the right side of the plate. Miller started his Red Sox’s career on fire, becoming one of Tracy’s trusted weapons out of the bullpen, though he's faltered after his mechanics started to break down during the month of September. That being said, he seems to have fully bought into Breslow and pitching coach Andrew Bailey’s program and should be a very useful weapon for years to come.

Craig Breslow may still struggle with the human connection part of baseball, but he’s made obvious strides in the right direction in that regard and FSG has given him their full stamp of approval for the next three seasons at least. This season’s turnaround and the additions he’s made along the way have given the president of baseball operations a ton of runway to prepare to bring another World Series title to Boston. If he can continue to operate the way he has in 2026, Craig Breslow will prove just how right John Henry and company were to take a gamble on him in 2023.