Alex Mayes

The consensus around Abreu at the end of last year was that he had to hit left handed pitching to take the next step. As maybe the biggest Abreu fan on this website, no one expected him to be a bigger star than Anthony. He had/still has the potential to be a star in his own right but he never carried the expectations Anthony has carried. You had national publications predicting a top three MVP finish for Anthony this year. I agree Antony was miscast as a leadoff hitter.

I want a press conference where Henry and Cora are sitting on stage smoke cigars together.

I agree with you 100%. I said when they inked Cora to the extension that they purpose of that was to get his timeline to match up with Breslow's so when they moved on from Bres at the end of his contract, Cora could slide into that position. if they knew Cora would accept the position today, I think Breslow would be gone already. I think it's telling Cora is still interacting with Sox things on social media and has been seen out with members of FSG since his firing. He still owns his house in Boston as well. Anecdotal, but something to pay attention to.

You're right, no one was certain it would begin in year two but Breslow put a roster together with him as the main offensive weapon heading into his year two season. I'm a huge Anthony fan and expect him to be a star so I think that we're on the same page, but he had a lot of pressure put on him when Breslow failed to acquire another bat to pair with him and Contreras.

I acknowledged I misspoke, but the point remains pretty much the same. If he was worth 9 bWAR at the deadline and you could have gotten a front line starter PLUS a top four prospect, you should have done it. Passan is the most trusted voice in the sport for a reason.

At the time it was absolutely something to worry about. Now though, I think it's still a pretty attractive job to people. I also think the fact that you now have Henry out in public frequently, making sure to be seen is a huge indicator that things are changing within FSG again. I believe Ortiz when he says he's talked with John and John is worried about what's going on. Papi is employed by the team and he wouldn't have said it, and then doubled down on it, without knowing John is okay with that getting out. That was followed by Olney echoing the same thing. Then you have Kennedy who is ever the optimist, essentially saying, 'yeah, things are bad here and we are going to have to do some real searching for what the correct path forward is.' That's telling to me. Your point about the Dodgers and Padres is accurate. They attract the talent and, at least with the Dodgers, that talent gets them to the World Series year after year. I think the reason Boston isn't attracting the talent right now is mainly Breslow. Every agent knows that he's following a very limited scope of algorithms to make his decisions so if their guy doesn't fit into those systems, they don't even engage. Once you have a POBO/GM who understands the value of analytics along with the human intangibles, things begin to correct themselves.

I actually think that's now overblown. Yes, the team struggled to get applicants and Breslow wasn't their first choice, but it seems that Alex Cora's presence as the manager may have been one of the driving factors in that. I don't have any first hand accounts of that but the fact that Cora essentially got Bloom fired and was well known to be in Henry's ear was likely a deterrent to anyone who would have applied. You saw the same pattern with Breslow this year before Cora was fired. He was taking veiled shots in the media and hadn't yet moved on to getting shirts made that had quotes from Breslow on them like he did Bloom, but it was probably coming. Breslow is an intelligent man, saw what was starting to happen, likely talked to Bloom because they are friends, and instead went to Henry and co first. I've said since the day he was fired that when Breslow is let go, Cora is likely leading the pack to replace him as POBO/GM/whatever the title is. In hindsight, they should have just promoted Toboni to the position instead of refusing to give him the GM title under Breslow and losing him to the Nats.

Great way to put that.

From Jeff Passan in December: The buzz: The Red Sox are valuing Duran more like the seven-win player of 2024 than his 4-win version in 2025. Either way, his addition can instantaneously make a team better, and Boston can hold out for a big return because the Red Sox don't have to deal him. At some point, though, the Red Sox will have to move Duran or Wilyer Abreu. Keeping full-time-quality players for less than full-time roles rarely works out well. So not at the deadline, during the offseason. My mistake for attributing it to the deadline.

We agree there. That was one of my biggest complaints with the offseason. They looked at a 21 year old and said, “you are the backbone of this team.” It was incredibly shortsighted and out far too much pressure on him to perform.

Once again, the league adjusts to rookies. This isn’t something new. He didn’t have time to adjust back before the injury. He was starting to, but then was shut down.

An oblique strain and a torn tendon are injuries that take time to heal. Maybe the team’s focus on insanely quick bat speed could be more to blame than the player.

@mvp 78the episode is live! Thanks again!

A fair deal is Dylan Cease, the top pitching target of Breslow in the offseason, and Salas, That deal was on the table and Craig said no. That's on him. I'm aware that a 7 WAR player is rare, but that's the confirmed value that was placed on him at the deadline last year. If other GMs saw him on a 3.5 WAR LF but Craig didn't, that's a huge issue. It's further proof he can't read the trade market and values.

Calling Anthony fragile is crazy. He's had two injuries in two seasons, the most recent one being an injury so unique that doctors who deal with hand injures struggled to wrap their heads around it. He was slow to start because the league adjusted to him, as it does to every single rookie that gets called up. Calling a check swing indecisive is a weird reach as well. Check swings happen all the time and indecision isn't the likely culprit.

I don't disagree that his offseason moves have worked out incredibly well and are realistically the only reason that the team has won many of the games they have this season. The most damning thing to me is the overvaluation of Duran and his refusal to move him when it was obvious to anyone paying attention he wasn't ever going to be a 7 WAR player again. He created this outfield logjam and refuses to fix it, that alone should be fireable. While I never would have been a fan of the contract Bregman got with the Cubs, Breslow clearly thought Bregman was bluffing and got caught slipping there too. If he could only work in the offseason, I think he'd be safe but the past two trade deadlines have proven he has zero feel for the market and shouldn't be trusted to handle it. That's likely why members of FSG, presumably Theo, are the ones making calls about trades instead of Breslow. That, along with the Duran situation, are the main reasons I think he's likely gone after this season. I'd like to see it happen before then, but realistically if they do end up letting him go it will probably be in September like the other two POBOs before him.

Boston Red Sox Weekly Snapshot Record Last Week: 5-2 Runs Scored Last Week: 34 Runs Surrendered Last Week: 22 Standings: 5th in AL East 12.5 GB 1st Place Transactions: 06/23/26: Boston Red Sox signed free agent C Andrew Knizner to a minor league contract. 06/23/26: Boston Red Sox sent LHP Patrick Sandoval on a rehab assignment to Worcester Red Sox. 06/23/26: Boston Red Sox sent 1B Romy Gonzalez on a rehab assignment to Worcester Red Sox. 06/25/26: Boston Red Sox sent LHP Jovani Morán on a rehab assignment to Worcester Red Sox. 06/26/26: Boston Red Sox recalled SS Tsung-Che Cheng from Worcester Red Sox. 06/26/26: Boston Red Sox placed 2B Marcelo Mayer on the 10-day injured list. Bone stress reaction to the left ulna. 06/28/26: Boston Red Sox optioned C Mickey Gasper to Worcester Red Sox. 06/28/28: Boston Red Sox transferred LF Roman Anthony from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. 06/28/26: Boston Red Sox activated 1B Romy Gonzalez from the 60-day injured list. Scores: Game 76: BOS 2, COL 3 Game 77: BOS 5, COL 2 Game 78: BOS 6, COL 8 Game 79: BOS 6, NYY 3 Game 80: BOS 6, NYY 1 Game 81: BOS 4, NYY 1 Game 82: BOS 5, NYY 4 Series Breakdown/Highlights Rockies Series: Do we really even want to talk about this series? Yes, the Red Sox won the middle game, but their awful defense and inability to come through with runners in scoring position was the biggest news story out of Colorado when the series was over. The Sox were up in the seventh in both the first and third games, a situation in which they were undefeated going into the series, and managed to lose both games. In game one, Jake Bennett dazzled over six innings, striking out nine and giving up four hits. Tyron Guerrero continued to show why he needs to be flying up other team’s trade boards. Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman combined for eight straight hits over two innings, with Chapman taking the loss after giving up three earned runs. Offensively, Willson Contreras and Caleb Durbin supplied both RBIs. In game two, Wilyer Abreu hit a mammoth home run while Ceddanne Rafaela and Nate Eaton provided the other four RBIs. Sonny Gray worked around a shaky first inning where he gave up his only earned run on the night. He proceeded to toss six more innings of six-hit, 11-strikeout baseball en route to the win. If you watched the game, you saw an absolute masterclass in how to pitch at elevation. The trade for Gray may be the thing that Craig Breslow can hang his hat on more than anything else; the man knows how to identify pitching. Justin Slaten and Whitlock both worked clean innings to put the game away. Game three, on the other hand, was just awful. The Red Sox looked like a junior varsity team playing in a big-league ballpark. Andruw Monasterio hit his second home run of the season while Connor Wong finally sent one over the wall for the first time in almost two years. Ranger Suarez tossed six innings of one-run baseball, striking out nine. The starting pitching wasn’t the problem in this series at all, the bullpen and the defense gave it away. The Rockies scored eight runs in this game, but only three of them were earned. Yankees Series: Who is this team? Seriously: Where has this version of the Red Sox been all season? It wasn’t perfect, as we’ll get to in game four, but this was the most complete series the Red Sox have played all season. Game one saw the Yankees boot the ball around like crazy and the Red Sox took full advantage. Caleb Durbin stayed hot by hitting another home run while Connelly Early tossed six innings of two-earned-run, nine-strikeout baseball. Both Whitlock and Chapman looked to avenge their Rockies series and mostly did so. Chapman, curiously, had no strikeouts in this appearance though. Game two was mostly domination by the Red Sox, who chased Will Warren after giving up five earned runs over 5.2 innings. Tsung-Che Cheng was called up after Marcelo Mayer went on the injured list and knocked his first big-league hit. Connor Wong contributed two RBIs while Contreras hit an absolute moon bomb that cleared the Green Monster by quite a few feet. Payton Tolle pitched a gem of a start, especially considering he had been sick the whole day prior. He tossed seven scoreless innings, striking out seven while giving up only one hit late in the outing. The young core of this rotation is going to be fun to watch for a long time. Game three was another impressive outing for the Red Sox against Gerrit Cole, who threw 5.1 innings while giving up four earned runs. Jake Bennett threw 6.1 innings of one-run, three-strikeout baseball. Chapman notched another save and looked more like himself in this game. Masataka Yoshida hit his second home run of the season while rookie Anthony Seigler hit his first career homer off Cole. No matter what happens in Seigler’s career, that will be a moment he never forgets. If you were anywhere but the edge of your seat during the second half of game four, we had to be watching different games. Gray was amazing, again. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning while striking out nine. His final strikeout was also number 2,000 for his career. This start gave the Sox their 11th quality start in a row, showing just how bad the previous series had to go in all other areas for the team to not be riding a seven-game winning streak right now. Chapman likely hurt his trade value a bit with this game, but the defensive lapses by Abreu in right field are the main reason the game went to extras. In a season where the Red Sox have continually rolled over late in games when they’ve been losing, Sunday night was a breath of fresh air. The names you’d expect to get it done, didn’t. The game was won by Seigler, Monasterio, Yoshida, Cheng, and Duran in the bottom of the tenth. What a game, what a sweep. Website Highlights Justin Slaten is More Useful as a Red Sox Trade Chip Than Reliever by Jordan Leandre Red Sox’s ABS Ineptitude is Clearest Proof Yet of Organizational Failures by Yirsandy Rodriguez Evaluating Chad Tracy’s First 50 Games as Red Sox Interim Manager by Gottie Chavez Red Sox’s Craig Breslow Era is Set to End with a Whimper by Alex Mayes Looking Ahead 06/29/26: Nationals (Miles Mikolas) @ Red Sox (Ranger Suarez): 7:10 PM EDT 06/30/26: Nationals (Cade Cavalli) @ Red Sox (Connelly Early): 7:10 PM EDT 07/01/26: Nationals (Andrew Alvarez) @ Red Sox (Payton Tolle): 1:35 PM EDT 07/02/26: Off Day 07/03/26: Red Sox @ Angels: 9:38 PM EDT 07/04/26: Red Sox @ Angels: 9:38 PM EDT 07/05/26: Red Sox @ Angels: 9:30 PM EDT View full article

We’re back with a quick turnaround this time. If you have questions you’d like answered on the podcast, get them posted here by 5 pm CST on Monday, June 29!

@mvp 78 @drewski6 @moonslav59 the episode is live! Shoutout to @Nick John for his help on the catcher question!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record as of late, the Boston Red Sox are awful in 2026. It’s a shame coming off a postseason appearance in 2025 that should have pointed president of baseball operations Craig Breslow in the right direction. Even the free-agent signings believed they were coming into a situation where they would “breeze to get to the playoffs," at least according to Isiah Kiner-Falefa. He even went on to say that his goal with signing in Boston was to be a bench player for a championship team, so even those who weren’t with the organization last year saw the direction the team should have been headed. “Should” is the operative word in that sentence. We’re now no longer in ‘well it’s still early’ territory, and the Red Sox are what they are as we approach the halfway point of the season. In an effort not to mince words: They are a sub .500 team that struggles at home and seems to be allergic to hitting with runners in scoring position. It’s the end of June and the season already feels lost. The team can’t keep up in a middling American League Wild Card race and, even if they somehow managed to limp their way into that third spot, they’d be certainly eliminated in short order. With all of that being said, the most obvious path forward for the Red Sox is to let Craig Breslow go sooner than later. Breslow is an excellent pitching coordinator. He’s drafted and developed some of the best arms that the organization has seen in years, but that’s about as far as his credentials go. He terminated most of the scouting department during the first 18 months of his tenure and the big-league club has suffered mightily from it. The team that is on the field day in and day out for the Red Sox can’t function properly as a major-league team. There’s far too many utility players with everyday roles, there’s almost zero power outside of Willson Contreras, and the bullpen has been incredibly leaky outside of Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock. I’m not going to sit here and rehash the firing of Alex Cora and the majority of his coaching staff, but that gave us a bit of a peak behind the curtain as to the true feelings of Fenway Sports Group’s opinion of Breslow. The morning after the firings, Breslow sat at a table next to Sam Kennedy and said that the decision to move on from Cora and crew was a mutual decision. Within seconds, Kennedy pinned the decision solely on Breslow. Ownership signed off on it, of course, but they essentially looked at Breslow and said, “Okay, you can do this, but just know there’s no one else to be the fall guy if things don’t get better.” To absolutely no one’s surprise, things have arguably gotten worse. Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony have spent significant time on the injured list, Jarren Duran looks like a shell of himself at the plate, and the catching situation is maybe the most confusing roster dilemma in all of baseball. Speaking of the catching situation, it paints a clearer picture for how Breslow didn’t learn anything from the drama that surrounded Rafael Devers last season. It was reported time and time again that Devers wasn’t spoken to about his changing roles, then when he was approached about possibly moving to first base he was combative because he felt he had been disrespected and blindsided. Now, Carlos Narvaez has spoken to The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey about how his playing time has been diminished but he hadn’t been told anything by either Chad Tracy or someone in the front office. Breslow recognizes that communication isn’t a strong point of his, but it’s gotten to the point that, according to Boston Globe’s Tim Healey, multiple officials within the organization believe that Breslow would benefit from having a “baseball interpreter” to convey his overall message to the players. This shouldn't need to be said, but the freaking President of Baseball Operations shouldn’t need someone else to convey his message and vision to the team. If Craig Breslow can’t effectively communicate, then he doesn’t need to be in a position of leadership with the team. What should be the final nail in the coffin for Breslow is the fact that his past two trade deadlines have been absolutely abysmal. I took at look at those deadlines to see if we could figure out what direction Breslow is going to take in 2026 and came up with the following: He struggles to pick a lane and ends up putting the team in a much worse position because of it. To add onto that, ESPN’s Buster Olney went so far as to say that “someone in ownership” was picking up the phone to talk trades with other clubs. While it shouldn’t come as a surprise that ownership has to be involved to sign off on any big trades that occur, they shouldn’t have to be the ones making the calls to get conversations started. Ownership should only be involved at the finish line of a trade, since they need to approve the money moving in each direction. If they don’t trust their front office chief enough to let him negotiate his own trades, why does he still have a job? If he can’t handle one of the most important aspects of his role, he doesn’t need to occupy space in the front office anymore. Fenway Sports Group has publicly backed Craig Breslow so far this season, and they pretty much have to publicly. They can’t come out and say that they are considering firing him; that’s not practical nor the way you run a business. Remember, they made similar comments around this same time about both Chaim Bloom and Dave Dombrowski during their eventual final seasons with the team. It finally seems like John Henry is frustrated with the direction of the Red Sox if both Sean McAdam and David Ortiz are to be believed. If that’s the case, then the difficult decision needs to be made to move on from Craig Breslow now. If they wait much longer, they run the risk of a trade deadline that is mishandled and delay the ability to start looking for his replacement prior to the 2027 lockout. The time to act is now. View full article

Hello again forums! @Maddie Landis and I really enjoyed the questions that were submitted for our mailbag episode last week. The questions gave us some excellent talking points and were incredibly engaging. We saw a good amount of success with them with the episode as well to the point that the other Diamond Centric podcasts are starting to integrate them into their own shows. After talking with Brock a bit, we've decided to make them a weekly feature moving forward. Our recording schedule this week is a bit wonky, we're recording Thursday night instead of our typical Sunday/Monday schedule so that's why this post is going up now. If you've got questions, we may have answers! Post your questions below and we'll kick off the episode answering them! We'll put the cutoff for questions at 3 pm CST on Thursday, June 25.

Boston Red Sox Weekly Snapshot Record Last Week: 2-4 Runs Scored Last Week: 16 Runs Surrendered Last Week: 19 Standings: 5th in AL East 14.5 GB First Place Transactions: 06/16/26: Boston Red Sox sent 1B Romy Gonzalez on a rehab assignment to Portland Sea Dogs. 06/17/26: Boston Red Sox sent LHP Patrick Sandoval on a rehab assignment to Portland Sea Dogs. 06/20/26: Boston Red Sox recalled 2B Anthony Seigler from Worcester Red Sox. 06/20/26: Boston Red Sox placed 2B Isiah Kiner-Falefa on the 10-day injured list retroactive to June 19, 2026. Left forearm inflammation. Scores: Game 70: BOS 1, TOR 6 Game 71: BOS 0, TOR 3 Game 72: BOS 3, TOR 4 Game 73: BOS 6, SEA 2 Game 74: BOS 5, SEA 1 Game 75: BOS 1, SEA 3 Series Breakdown/Highlights Blue Jays Series: My mother always told me if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Unfortunately, we have to talk about this putrid series. In game one, Payton Tolle wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t great. He tossed five innings of three run baseball while striking out six and issuing two walks. He seems to have hit a bit of a wall in June, pitching his way to a 3.71 ERA for the month so far. That’s not bad, but it’s a full earned run more than what he had been bringing to the table earlier in the season. Still, he’s a rookie and he’s finding his footing at the MLB level. He’s going to be a stud for this team for years to come. Offensively, this game was a joke. The Red Sox had eight hits but could only plate one run on a garbage time Jarren Duran home run. In game two, it was more of the same. The team had seven hits but was unable to plate any runs, despite the fact that they had ducks in the pond seemingly every inning. Jake Bennett’s line looks worse than his performance on the field, but he did give up two of Toronto’s two earned runs. Maybe the lone bright spot was that Tyron Guerrero continues to light up the radar gun and is likely jumping up trade boards across the league. Game three seems like it was close but if you watched it, it wasn’t. The wind wreaked havoc at Fenway Park during the entire time. Sonny Gray tossed seven innings of three-run baseball while striking out four. Somehow, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Caleb Durbin came through to tie the game in the eighth inning, but defensive miscues extended the top of the ninth to allow the Jays to score and ultimately charged Aroldis Chapman with the loss. The bottom of the ninth was typical Red Sox baseball — it was over in five pitches. Not even five pitches from top-tier closer Louis Varland; five pitches from Mason Fluharty. Mariners Series: Much like the rest of the season, the Red Sox played better on the road than they did at home. The pitching matchups didn’t favor the Sox; they were seeing the top of the Mariners’ rotation, but they had mostly patient at-bats that made the multiple top arms of Seattle pay. In game one, Ranger Suarez carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. The offense erupted for six runs and Caleb Durbin stayed hot with another homer. Greg Weissert looked solid but Ryan Watson allowed two earned runs. Marcelo Mayer was originally not in the starting lineup due to illness but was a last minute addition and provided three RBIs. Carlos Narvaez put some good swings on the ball in hopes of getting more playing time. Game two saw Connelly Early start off shaky but he ended up striking out seven over six innings, allowing only one earned run. Wilyer Abreu got the party started for the Sox with a huge two-run homer while both Mayer and Durbin provided one RBI each. This game saw Ceddanne Rafaela get a much needed rest as the team gears up to head to the giant outfield of Coors Field to kick off next week. Guerrero was his usual flamethrowing self out of the bullpen, while Garrett Whitlock and Danny Coulombe both worked clean innings. Unfortunately, game three didn’t complete the West Coast sweep. The offense managed just one run on a Nate Eaton second deck solo shot. It was Abreu’s turn for a rest day on Sunday, only his second one of the season. Tolle pitched his way into and out of a couple of jams, going six innings with two strike outs, two walks, and three earned runs. He was the victim of some defensive lapses though, and looked mostly solid throughout his start. Coulombe and Watson both pitched well to keep the game within reach out of the bullpen. Website Highlights Ranking Red Sox’s Best Closer Candidates if Aroldis Chapman is Traded by Ben Lofy The Definitive Case for the Red Sox to Trade Jarren Duran by Alex Mayes Ceddanne Rafaela is Succeeding by Breaking One of Hitting’s Most Basic Rules by Yirsandy Rodriguez Looking Ahead 06/22/26: Red Sox (Jake Bennett) @ Rockies (Ryan Feltner): 8:40 PM EDT 06/23/26: Red Sox (Sonny Gray) @ Rockies (Sean Sulivan): 8:40 PM EDT 06/24/26: Red Sox (Ranger Suarez) @ Rockies (Kyle Freeland) 3:10 PM EDT 06/25/26: Yankees @ Red Sox: 7:10 PM EDT 06/26/26: Yankees @ Red Sox: 7:10 PM EDT 06/27/26: Yankees @ Red Sox: 1:10 PM EDT 06/28/26: Yankees @ Red Sox: 7:20 PM EDT Sunday Night Baseball View full article