Craig Breslow is still employed. Sit with that for a second.
The Red Sox were 10-17 and dead last in the AL East when they pulled the trigger on Alex Cora last Friday. Five coaches walked out with him. Chad Tracy — the Triple-A Worcester manager — is now running a major league club. And the guy who actually built this roster? The guy who traded four elite prospects for Garrett Crochet and then handed him a $170 million extension? He’s at his desk right now, totally fine, probably scheduling a press conference to explain his vision.
This is such a Red Sox thing to do.
Cora Didn’t Build This
Alex Cora did not sign Garrett Crochet. He did not decide to gut the farm system — Kyle Teel, Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, Wikelman Gonzalez — to acquire a pitcher who came into 2026 posting a 7.88 ERA through his first five starts. We wrote about Crochet’s early struggles back on April 22, when the returns were already ugly. Cora didn’t approve that trade. He didn’t set the payroll. He managed the hand he was dealt.
Breslow built the hand. Breslow is still employed.
The Ringer’s analytical frame applies here: the Crochet acquisition was Breslow’s signature move, the bet-the-farm centerpiece of his entire tenure as Chief Baseball Officer. Crochet was a 2025 AL Cy Young runner-up with a 2.59 ERA. The case for the trade was defensible. But when it’s blowing up — and a 6.30 ERA even after Crochet’s six shutout innings on April 25 is still blowing up — the person who made that call should be accountable for it. According to the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy, Cora shouldn’t have been fired at all. Red Sox president Sam Kennedy didn’t even try to obscure who made the call: he told reporters the firing was “Craig-led.” Breslow fired his own manager. Breslow kept himself.
The Seven-Minute Meeting
Seven minutes. That’s how long Craig Breslow spent with the players after firing their manager. Garrett Whitlock confirmed it. Seven minutes, no questions allowed.
Trevor Story said Breslow’s explanation was “not satisfactory.” Said the direction feels “up in the air.” These are active major leaguers, in the middle of a season, being told their manager is gone — and the front office gave them seven minutes and no Q&A. That’s not a meeting. That’s a notification. It’s the kind of thing you do when you know the answers to the questions would be bad, so you don’t let anyone ask them.
Breslow knows the team’s problems aren’t managerial. He knows it because he built the problems. A seven-minute meeting is what you hold when you have nothing real to say.
The Players Know
Garrett Crochet said it plainly to reporters on April 27: “those guys paid the cost of our own crime.”
That’s your $170 million ace — the centerpiece of Breslow’s entire offseason — going on record to say the coaches who just got fired were scapegoated. Crochet isn’t dumb. He knows what happened. He knows he struggled early. He knows Cora and five coaches didn’t cause it. And he said so, publicly, two days after the firing.
The Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and five members of his coaching staff Saturday in a stunning early-season overhaul with the club sitting in last place in the American League East. https://t.co/wthBHNvNK9
— ESPN (@espn) April 26, 2026
FanSided’s framing nailed it: “Red Sox GM Craig Breslow Won Power Struggle With Alex Cora: Now No One’s Left to Blame.” That’s the whole story in one sentence. Breslow consolidated power, cleared out anyone who might push back, and now when this team finishes 78-84 — or worse — there’s no manager to point at. Just Breslow, the roster he built, and a fanbase that paid real money for this.
Cora’s contract ran through 2027. Three years, $21.75 million. He was a year in. He’s getting paid anyway. The Red Sox will eat that money just to avoid having to look in the mirror.
You got fired. Breslow got a press conference. Welcome to Boston.