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Some Things I Think I Think: Now it’s time for Craig Breslow to be in the crosshairs
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- Some Things I Think I Think: Now it’s time for Craig Breslow to be in the crosshairs
∗ It may well be weeks if not months before we see what kind of impact Alex Cora’s firing has on the 2026 Red Sox .
Maybe the shock of the purge which cost Cora and five coaches their jobs will be enough to kick-start a team which has stumbled and bumbled its way through the first month of the season. Maybe a new voice (Chad Tracy), one already familiar to much of the roster, will spark a turnaround.
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The truth is, we don’t know. And neither do the Red Sox.
But of this much we can be sure: having made the case to change managers and wipe out most of the coaching staff, all eyes are now on chief baseball officer Craig Breslow . That’s how these things work.
When an executive fires a manager or coach beneath him, he puts himself on the hot seat. Because if it’s determined that the manager wasn’t to blame for the losing, next in line is the man who chose to do the firing.
Breslow already had a lot to which he needs to answer, starting with an ill-fitting roster which featured too many lefthanded hitters, too many outfielders to fit into the lineup at once and not nearly enough power.
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Yes, the Red Sox made some big moves this past offseason, adding three starting pitchers and two starting infielders. But two of the three starters are currently on the IL, the other has been inconsistent and third baseman Caleb Durbin has been brutal offensively. Among Breslow’s most recent acquisitions, only Willson Contreras has played up to expectations.
In two and a half years on the job, Breslow has had high and low points. The team’s pitching development has improved and his trade for Garrett Crochet and signing of Aroldis Chapman , both risky moves, couldn’t have worked out better. But he got forced into trading Rafael Devers after failing to sufficiently communicate with him, and the return was minuscule. He failed to re-sign Alex Bregman and was strangely passive when it came to finding a run-producing bat last winter.
Now that he has moved on from Cora and every staff member who was loyal to the former manager, the rest is up to Breslow. And surely he knows that the mandate is to turn around a disastrous start to the season. Or else.
Otherwise, Breslow may soon join Cora in unemployment.
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∗ No matter how you slice it, the choice of Caleb Lomu as the Patriots’ first-round pick is a curious one. While it’s certainly essential for the Pats to prioritize protecting Drake Maye, for now, Lomu doesn’t figure to crack the starting lineup this fall — as long as Will Campbell and Morgan Moses are healthy.
If anything, Lomu would appear to be an insurance policy, selected in case Campbell struggles again as he did in the playoffs, allowing the team to move Campbell to guard while Lomu takes over at left tackle. Having depth at such an important position as tackle is great, but the Patriots aren’t so rich in talent that they fail to get an immediate starter out of their top pick.
∗ The first two games of the Bruins’ playoff series with the Sabres were all the evidence you need that the B’s can indeed advance to the second round. The Bruins were clearly the better team in the first two games and should have returned to Boston up 2-0.
The series has also served as a reminder that Jeremy Swayman is back in top form. If the Bruins are going to pull an upset, they need their goalie to outplay the Sabres’ choice in net. Through three games, Swayman has done just that.
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∗ If they handed out awards for Most Stubborn Coach in the NBA, Joe Mazzulla would win that, too. Mazzulla’s unyielding devotion to the three-pointer is a thing to behold.
∗ The first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs has been riveting, per usual — except for the epidemic of goalmouth scrums that break out every time a goalie freezes the puck. There’s nothing more tiresome than the requisite pushing and shoving that accompany every whistle and serve no purpose except to interrupt the game flow and extend the time of games. Here’s hoping that the NHL meant business when it recently warned that penalties would be enforced.
∗ At the very least, Mike Vrabel could have expressed his regret that Dianna Russini lost her job out of all this. When Vrabel disingenuously said he “couldn’t” comment on that — as if we were dealing with some ongoing legal case and he was under a court order — he actually meant he didn’t want to comment.
∗ We’re all guilty of introducing silly phrases into our sports lexicon. This spring, you can hardly watch an NHL broadcast without hearing an analyst talk about a player who plays “on the right side of the puck.” Whatever that means....
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∗ Could FIFA be any more full of itself? There’s a radio spot airing locally that refers to World Cup games being played in “Boston Stadium” which is laughably incorrect on two fronts — that’s neither the name of the facility, nor the location. But if you’re a sponsor that isn’t paying the world’s most corrupt sports entity directly, you simply don’t exist.
∗ Some Yankee players have expressed to management that they’d like to try the concept of alternate jerseys, as 29 other franchises have done, and well, the amount of pearl-clutching that ensued was pretty darn entertaining.
∗ Elsewhere on the New York sports scene, the Knicks are underachieving in the postseason, and no one could possibly have seen that coming — not after the team last won a title a mere 53 seasons ago.
∗ The Bruins have a rich history of great players, many of whom reside locally. So with no disrespect intended to Logan Mankins, why does the team import stars from the other teams in town to serve as banner captains for playoff games?
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∗ Finally, recommended reading: Bosses of the Bronx , from top New York Post columnist extraordinaire Mike Vaccaro, examines the stewardship of the Yankees by George Steinbrenner and his son Hal. Vaccaro has long been a keen observer of the New York sports scene and intuitively understands the franchise’s place in history. There are plenty of great stories told and for those who aren’t as interested in pinstripes lore, no shortage of Red Sox-related content, too.
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