Just a few hours after the Boston Red Sox smacked the Baltimore Orioles around, the Red Sox front office fired manager Alex Cora, hitting coach Pete Fatse, bench coach Ramon Vazquez, third base coach Kyle Hudson, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson and hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. Game planning and run preventing coach Jason Varitek was also "re-assigned" meaning he either takes a job coaching the minors or he's leaving.
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So who survived? Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey, 1st base coach Jose Flores and bullpen coach Chris Holt. Who are the new coaches? Worcester Red Sox manager Chad Tracy has been named Interim manager, Worcester Red Sox hitting coach Collin Hetzler will be the new Boston hitting coach. Portland Sea Dogs manager Chad Epperson will be the third base coach and minor league hitting coordinator John Soteropulos is the new assistant hitting coach. A new bench coach hasn't been established yet and who replaces Varitek is also to be determined.
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So why the major shakeup? It was beyond time. When John Farrell was named manager of the 2013 team, it was the right move to make. It was a veteran team and he knew some of the pitchers as pitching coach of the Red Sox. They were one of the best pitching teams from 2013 to 2017 (especially in 2017) and won it all in 2013. By 2017, the younger players like Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr and Christian Vazquez weren't playing to their full potential so ownership fired Farrell. When Alex Cora took over that team for 2018, he was the right man for the job. He got through to the kids and the 2018 season speaks for itself. But just 4 years later the magic wore off as it was a completely new team and the cracks in the foundation became gaping wide holes.
His managerial decisions such as relying too much on analytics, benching players against matchups, yanking starters too early and stubbornly putting relievers in a position to fail started to be called into question. Every single season after 2021 they came out flat as a pancake and were around .500 by the end of May and that's on him for not having the team ready out of spring training. This season they were terrible fielding wise and one of the worst hitting teams in the league. They were getting utterly dominated by the most mediocre of pitchers and it was clear what they were doing wasn't working. Was it the right move to make to fire Cora and almost his entire staff? We'll know in a few months.
So who's coming in? Chad Tracy has been the manager of the Worcester Red Sox the last five years and it does sound cheap on paper to promote from the minors, but it might be a blessing in disguise. He was the one managing Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Peyton Tolle, Connelly Early and Kristian Campbell so maybe he can get through to them since it was clear that Alex Cora wasn't. Chad Epperson was also going into his fifth year as manager of the Portland Sea Dogs so having him at third base if and when Franklin Arias or some of the other Sea Dogs finally get here, he'll be familiar with them. Having two coaches with field managing experience is also an upgrade over Ramon Vazquez and Jason Varitek who previously had none. Fans are wondering why Andrew Bailey didn't get the axe too, but that's easily explained. Bailey had no control over roster construction and guess who won a ring with Craig Breslow in 2013?
Gee, wonder why Bailey wasn't fired
The bottom line was the situation was reaching a boiling point and something had to be done. The roster isn't still what it should be, but also keep in mind 6th man Romy Gonzalez and starting first baseman Triston Casas are still out along with Johan Oviedo, Justin Slaten, Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford. The Sox might get some of them back and start to play better. One thing is for sure, at least it shows ownership hasn't COMPLETELY given up if they at least try to make a change. Whether the Sox can turn it around is up to them now.
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