drewski6

Im of the opinion that we got decent utility out of Dham.

Really, we are 8 years into a rebuild and it feels like we are in year 1 or 2.

Surprising that things would come this far off the rails, yes. Surprising that JH didnt laugh at Breslow for suggesting the change, sure. But things did come pretty far off the rails. My question is are they punting on the season by doing this now or trying to find a hail mary catalyst for a 2026 turnaround?

And what Breslow didnt say is "im getting rid of the main competition for my job"

I do think the fact that Cora was here for so long made it easy for Bres to sell ownership on axeing Cora. I think they jumped right on board. Its not a particularly hard sell from a superficial POV. You know we have more talent than our record, right JH? Cora has been here for a while, right JH? No manager (or executive) lasts forever, right JH? This isnt the first time it wsa simply time to part with a good manager, right JH? Cora has been teh common link between the last 3 admins , right JH? He wasnt my hire, right? And how can you assess me if there are still relics and holdovers from prior admins......

I honestly think its the ownership group wanting to spend more time with grandkids and other ventures. I think they are more open to delegating than they have been in the past and they just want someone to handle the C-level operations for them.

Im not sure Henry actively wanted Cora gone, but I think Brez easily made the case that Cora had been here through multiple disappointing regimes and could be the problem and that Brez himself cant be fairly assessed unless he gets the keys in full. He managed to buy himself some time.

I can agree with that. It still leaves room for Breslow to be the primary architect jsut with some guardrails. But I think it was ultimately Breslow who bungled it with Bres, flipped Devers, went all pitching, and fired Cora. JH prob had to give the ok, but I think JH gives Breslow the space to do his thing, mostly.

Yes, and the relationship felt doomed from the get-go. At the beginning of last year, it felt like they werent in sync, then it felt like it improved throughout last year, and thats when I stopped dogging Breslow (as much) until he gave me new reasons to (no bat at deadline, bad offseason, more bad communication). I do agree that part of it was the situation. Internal drama is no good. Ive seen it first hand. Employees sabotaging each other, its like - folks , we have enough to compete against outside these walls cant be battling internally too.

Personally, I saw how well it went when Brad Stevens went from coach to executive and I thought it was worth a shot for Cora. I also like how Cora sees humans when putting a ballclub together and not names on a spreadsheet. Cora, I think, understands that these are all individuals. Breslow does not.

Im in the minority here but I dont think Breslow is JH's yes man. I think Breslow is firming running the show and making the decisions and this is on him, squarely. Which is good news because they wont sell the team but they may sack Breslow after the year.

I dont think the housecleaning is over. I think T-2 weeks until Story has money eaten and is flipped for relief pitch prospects.

Or at the very least, hire good coaches that will help the guys and he didnt really do that either. I do think Cora would make a better executive than coach, and to me, thats the issue here. Also Breslow doing nothing to help this feel like a team/family/unit/chemistry. Its all an individual players approach.

Throw in a 5. scapegoating and I can get behind this

I said train Cedanne for ss, not play him there. If he worked at ss all offseason he would also be better at 2b. Im not sure Mayer is long for this team. What if this time next year and hes still struggling , ya know? Im fine with mayer at ss and cedanne at 2b for a spell. Its also possible masa is cooling off. More than anything , I believe in versatility and cross training. So if a big bat becomes available you can make room and your cut ninth best, you arent limited to only cutting those who play that exact same position. Also, I think that if cedanne played infield for a year, hed be awesome at it and if hes awesome at it, why not ss? But if mayer breaks out , its fine.

What are we even doing here? You jsut keep changing my posts for fun? Im fine at cedanne at 2b , im fine with him at ss. I dont care. Im fine with him at Catcher. Defense is like +/- 5 wins max. Defense can break you, but clearly, not nearly as much nor as quickly as not building around your bats. When you were all giving this team As and Bs , I was giving it a D for not going after bats. When you were all saying we cant get schwarber because of positional alignment, I felt like I was getting trolled. Get bats, I dont care where they play, I dont care if they DH. Whether you have to play Cedanne at 2b/ss/cf/c - I care not. Positions are dead. Managers will use 100 alignments this year. Guys are moving all around. I would have Masa cross training , Cedanne cross training, everyone cross training, because thats how you fit the 9 best hitters wihtout being an absolute trainwreck defensively. But instead many fans work backwards. Think about what position is best for a player and typecast the player to that position. And thats how many here are like "what else could we have done?" Those same people who said we were set up to have the best decade in history (before the offseason) and then said best offseason in history (I heard that stuff here) are now saying there was nothing we could have done. And they fall back to War/$$, positions and more of the same. I think compared to other teams, we dont move guys around enough. There is literally no position I would not put Cedanne in. None. His value is that hes good defensively, so as long as you dont have 9 better bats, he can play. Unlike Schwarber who can only play 4 positions, so its easier to squeeze him out of the lineup. Defensive versatility not defensive optimization. I assure you we arent where we are becaus we are moving guys around too much or we have too many good outfielders or we have a 2b playing ss. Its because we worry about that stuff too much already. Best. Nine. Bats.

Dont back down, you are right. Look if you dont want more of the same, enough of the max efficiency talk, WAR/$ model, it has led to this. "we cant get scwharber becasue then what would we do with Masa?" What about positional alignment! POSITIONAL ALIGNMENT!!!!! We cant get Seager, we cant get tatis. We are always destined for this , you see - they tell me. They are wrong. This was a mess we created by not going after bats. Calculate your budget, get the 3 best bats available....see how much is left to plug holes. The model that Breslow has introduced has spectacularly failed. Throw it out.

I meant shortstop 4 cedanne.

I dont agree that the story of the red sox is that oh no, we have too many good outfielders. I think its oh no, we are maybe the worst hitting team since 2000, and the de-prioritization of offense began with Breslows tenure.

Team would be watchable.

If Contreras can play C at all, and there is a very good hitting first baseman who we may be able to acquire and we do not because of where Contreras fits in defensively......then simply, we have learned nothing. Get the best nine hitters you can, figure everything else out as you go.

Dont care, bats

Yup. We've been de-prioritizing hitting for a while now. That is why I gave them a D for offseason grade. I dont know how you saw that playoff team against Yankees and then be okay with a pitching and defense approach. ANd when some here were and no matter what still do (I would trade offense right now for a #2) - Im still hearing this stuff....OR you cant play that guy there, hes a 14% better defender at this postion (even though playing the guy there would make room for another good offensive player, we just cant have that 14% decrease in OAA)....And sometimes, it feels like Im getting trolled. The lesson of the 2026 Boston Red Sox is this: build your team around the bats.

Playing Contreras at C helps you get another very good bat. When a GM builds a team focusing on stuff other than cramming in as many potent bats as possible, I present to you the historically impotent 2026 Red Sox.

Ichiro never had a 100 SB season in the minors.