Red Sox Spring Clean Coaching Staff Following Disappointing Start

Though spring training concluded several weeks ago, it’s still spring on the solar calendar, and this year, spring cleaning in Boston involved the Red Sox clearing out some dirty laundry. On Saturday night, ESPN reported the firings of manager Alex Cora, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, third base and outfield coach Kyle Hudson, hitting coach Peter Fatse, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, and major league hitting strategist Joe Cronin. Further, game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek has been offered a different role within the organization.

The Red Sox began the season projected to win 85 games, with 60.8% odds to make the playoffs. Of the 25 writers who contributed to the FanGraphs 2026 Staff Predictions, 21 picked the Red Sox to make the postseason and nine had them winning the division, which tied Boston with Toronto as the most popular pick to take the AL East. Heading into Sunday’s games, the Red Sox had a projected win total of 80, and their odds of making the playoffs were down to 31.4%. Their drop of 29.4 percentage points in playoff odds was the largest in the AL, while in the NL, the Mets and Phillies saw their playoff odds decline by 41.0 points and 33.0 points, respectively.

At just 27 games into the season, Boston’s dismissal of Cora is the earliest manager firing since 2018, when the Reds fired Bryan Price after the club started the year 3-15. Cincinnati entered the season looking to complete the transition from rebuilding to contention, but instead finished in last place in the NL Central with a 67-95 record. The Reds simultaneously cut ties with pitching coach Mack Jenkins, which is representative of a common pattern with coaching changes. When a team’s struggle is particularly acute on one side of the ball, the coach leading that effort is often held accountable along with the manager. But rarely does an organization remove seven members of its major league coaching staff in one fell swoop. Boston’s overhaul was so dramatic, the team had to bring in what appears to be a party bus to transport the deposed coaches away from the team hotel.

I mean they are now

— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T02:58:53.586Z

Cora took over as manager of the Red Sox in 2018, following a 14-year playing career, a stint as a GM and manager for the Criollos de Caguas in the Puerto Rican Winter League, and one season as bench coach for the Astros. His first year in Boston ended with a World Series ring, but after his second season, Cora was outed as a key player in the Astros 2017 sign-stealing scandal, and his 2018 Red Sox were determined to have used the video room illegally to decode opponent signs. As a result, Cora and the Red Sox mutually agreed to part ways as he served a suspension from MLB for the duration of the 2020 season. He was immediately re-hired upon the conclusion of his suspension, and he went on to lead the Red Sox to two more postseason appearances, reaching the ALCS in 2021 and getting knocked out of the wild card round in 2025.

Boston also suffered two last place finishes in the AL East during Cora’s tenure (2022 and 2023), but it’s worth noting that he managed under three distinct front office administrations and a directive from ownership to trim payroll in order to get under the luxury tax threshold. He was originally hired by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, then re-hired by chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, and now, fired by Bloom’s successor, Craig Breslow. Regardless of what was happening in the front office, Cora was generally viewed as a player’s manager. When speaking to the media before Sunday’s game, shortstop Trevor Story said Cora and the other coaches let go by the team were, “some of the best coaches in the world.”

With a couple of minor exceptions, those other coaches are most easily summarized as everyone but the pitching coaches, which pretty loudly emphasizes that Breslow believes the team’s primary weakness is its offense. At the time the personnel decisions were made, the Red Sox had a 77 wRC+, good for worst in the majors. The peripherals didn’t look much better, as they sat 29th in xwOBA (.307).

Digging deeper into the numbers as of the start of play on Sunday, Statcast data implies that Red Sox batters are squaring the ball up pretty well, but given that their 45.8% groundball rate is second highest in the majors (trailing only the Brewers at 51%), they’re not making contact at productive launch angles, regardless of how well they’re striking the ball. Part of the problem is their swing decisions. The Sox rank 10th in out-of-zone swing rate (30.6%) and 21st in out-of-zone contact rate (56.2%), and more specifically, only one team swings at a higher percentage of waste pitches (the Diamondbacks). On pitches in the zone, they rank 27th in swing rate (62.4%) and 23rd in contact rate (85.0%). That’s all a very numbers-heavy way of saying they swing way too much at pitches off the plate and they’re not punishing pitches over it.

It doesn’t help that the hitters struggling the most make up the team’s young position player core, the group intended to carry the offense through a nice, long window of contention.

Anthony’s wRC+ might not look so bad until you remember he posted a mark of 140 last year. Add in Story’s 40 wRC+ and things look pretty bleak. Considering that something like plate discipline is coachable and young players tend to be fairly open to coaching, you can see why Breslow told the media he felt the staffing changes were “warranted.”

But it’s not as though the departing coaches are a bunch of scrubs or nepo babies. Here’s a brief résumé rundown:

Vázquez began his coaching career in the Astros system back in 2019 and, like Cora, spent some time managing winter ball in Puerto Rico. He joined the Red Sox staff in 2018 alongside Cora, first contributing to the advance scouting process, transitioning to first base coach in 2021, and then taking on the bench coach role in 2023.

Fatse spent nine years as the owner/operator of a private baseball academy before joining the professional coaching ranks as a minor league hitting coordinator for the Twins in 2019. He joined the Red Sox as an assistant hitting coach in 2020 and was promoted to hitting coach in 2022.

After accruing 12 years of coaching experience at the amateur level and in the minors, Lawson spent three seasons as the Yankees’ minor league hitting coordinator and was then promoted to big league hitting coach in 2022, but lasted less than two seasons in the role. He became Boston’s minor league hitting coordinator in 2024 before transitioning to assistant hitting coach in the majors starting in 2025.

A former minor league outfielder from 2008 to 2015, Hudson coached a couple of seasons for the Guardians as a bench coach at Triple-A and a staff assistant in the majors. He originally joined the Red Sox to take over as first base coach for Vázquez in 2023, then flipped to third base coach the following season.

Cronin got his start with the Sox as a player development intern in 2021, became a development coach in 2022, a clubhouse analyst in 2023, and finally settled in as a major league hitting strategist in 2024. He is not related to the Hall of Fame Red Sox shortstop and manager Joe Cronin.

But Varitek is perhaps the alteration to the staff most likely rankle Red Sox fans. No matter how the rest of the season plays out in Boston, ousting Variteck from the big league coaching ranks is unlikely to be forgotten. The switch-hitting catcher played all 15 seasons of his career in Boston, made three All-Star appearances, and drove in several crucial runs en route to the team’s 2004 curse-breaking World Series win. In 2005, he was named team captain, the last Boston player to receive the title and the first since Jim Rice in the late 1980s. Unlike the other coaches who were fired outright, Varitek was given the option to be reassigned to a different role within the organization. Thus far, all signs point to his declining the reassignment. One Red Sox player told the Boston Globe, “He was fired. He ain’t coming back.” Varitek’s wife posted a farewell to Red Sox fans on social media, and in a photo on Cora’s Instagram story, Varitek could be seen flashing a thumbs down before boarding a flight back to Boston with the other former coaches.

The upheaval of the Red Sox coaching staff is part of a protracted sense of discord betwixt and between various leaders in the clubhouse and front office. Most recently, the collective mishandling of a proposed position change for Rafael Devers called into question the ability of the coaching staff and front office to manage people and construct a cohesive roster. But the Devers incident is part of a longer narrative arc characterized by seemingly avoidable conflicts and dramatic departures. As Boston has cycled through managers and front office executives, the common thread has been principal owner John Henry. In recent weeks, the home crowd at Fenway Park has erupted into, “Sell the team!” chants, with at least one instance occurring with Henry in attendance. The initial statement released by the Red Sox regarding Saturday’s firings included quotes from Henry thanking Cora, his staff, and their families for their contributions to the organization, but it provided no real transparency into the decision behind the personnel changes, nor did Henry offer any accountability for his role in the current state of the team.

The day after the firings, Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy and Breslow met with the media at Camden Yards before the rubber match of Boston’s series with Baltimore. (The Sox won, 5-3.) Henry, who was present for the meeting with Cora on Saturday night and stood nearby as Breslow addressed players in the clubhouse before Sunday’s game, did not attend the press conference. Instead, Kennedy confirmed that the decision to make the change at manager ultimately came from Breslow. The former reliever last pitched professionally in 2018. He joined the Cubs front office in 2019 under Theo Epstein, working at the director/assistant GM level until October 2023, when he stepped into his current position with the Red Sox. Breslow was initially viewed as the type of executive with both the technical savvy to run a modern front office and the on-field credibility to get buy-in from current players. But despite the recency of his playing career, he has struggled with his messaging to players.

After Breslow met with the team on Sunday, the clubhouse opened to the media, and players were given their first opportunity to speak on the matter. Story said Breslow’s explanation was not satisfactory and that he intended to have another conversation with him later that day. Overall, Story said he would have preferred that the players be consulted beforehand, but Breslow’s message, according to the shortstop, was that as players, “We’re here to play baseball, and that’s it. We don’t make decisions. We don’t have any input on that.”

And Story wasn’t the only player to walk away with that sentiment. In the words of pitcher Garrett Whitlock: “They made it very clear that we get paid to play baseball, and we need to just focus on playing baseball. … So that’s where we’re at.”

For his part, Breslow expressed optimism following the decision, “By acting today it gives us 135 games ahead of us, so we’ve got almost a full season’s worth of run to take advantage of this fresh start.” Story on the other hand, sounded far from comforted by the chance to hit reset, “It’s up in the air what the true direction of the franchise is.”

Perhaps Breslow is fine with keeping his players in the dark and trusting that they’ll continue to suit up and follow his murky path forward despite a lack of any proven track record to justify that level of blind faith. For now, Breslow’s plan involves bringing in three interim coaches. Triple-A manager Chad Tracy will fill the manager’s seat. Son of longtime big league manager Jim Tracy, the new Red Sox skipper got his first taste of managing in the lower levels of the Angels system from 2015 to 2017. He remained with the Angels organization as a minor league field coordinator for the next four seasons before assuming the manager’s role with the Worcester Red Sox in 2022. Tracy’s most prominent selling feature given the big league club’s current circumstances is his existing relationships with the team’s vast array of homegrown talent. Over the past few seasons, Tracy has managed Duran, Mayer, Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Brayan Bello, Connelly Early, and Payton Tolle, among others. And not only did Tracy manage those players, but he also helped them adjust to a new level, a process several are still working through in the majors.

Tracy’s third base coach will be Chad Epperson, who most recently managed the club’s Double-A affiliate and also has 12 years of experience as a catching coordinator. Epperson, like Tracy, will also benefit from existing relationships with players who have risen through the Red Sox system. Finally, Collin Hetzler will stand in to help cover hitting coach responsibilities. He has three years of hitting coach experience at the Triple-A level (two with the Mets and one with the Red Sox).

There is a general belief around the game that managers have a “type” of team that they are best suited to manage. Some are well-equipped to guide a rebuilding team, others are more cut out to manage veteran egos, while the rest might thrive with younger, more moldable players. Maybe Breslow believes Cora, et al simply weren’t right for the current era of the Red Sox. Maybe Breslow was worried that the hitting philosophies preached at the big league level were in conflict with what players had been taught in the minors. The only member of the major league hitting staff that survived Saturday’s purge is assistant hitting coach John Soteropulos. After one season as a minor league hitting coordinator for the organization in 2023, Soteropulos was added to the major league staff. Prior to joining the organization, he was a trainer at Driveline. Hetzler is also a Driveline alum, formerly working as a trainer, operations manager, and head of bat fitting for the company. Beyond the big leagues, Boston’s minor league system is brimming with former Driveline employees, with no less than five contributing hitting instruction across the organization’s affiliates. Meanwhile, Jason Ochart, the club’s director of hitting development, built Driveline’s hitting department from the ground up. Though the hitting coaches that got the axe on Saturday had plenty of qualifications, they may not have fully bought into the Driveline hitting philosophy that permeates the rest of the organization.

It’s also possible that Breslow just wanted a full staff of “his guys.” Nearly all of the coaches let go pre-dated Breslow’s appointment as chief baseball officer in October 2023, while the coaches still on the payroll were largely brought in under Breslow. Pitching coach Andrew Bailey, a teammate of Breslow’s from 2009 to 2013, was hired in November 2023, with the rest of the staff settling into their current roles over the subsequent few seasons. First base and infield coach Jose David Flores joined the organization in 2022, but wasn’t promoted to the big league staff until 2025. Similarly, pitching strategist Devin Rose was hired as clubhouse analyst in 2023, but only promoted to his current position in 2025. Bullpen coach Chris Holt and catching instructor Parker Guinn were both hired from outside the organization heading into 2025.

Though it’s possible to justify the retention of the pitching coaches because the team’s issues on the mound have not been as severe as those in the batter’s box, one cannot claim that the pitching has been particularly good. Jay Jaffe went into detail on Boston’s pitching woes last week, so I won’t belabor the point. But I will note that even though Breslow added Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray (who hit the IL with a hamstring strain last week) over the winter, as of the firing, this year’s starting rotation ranked 26th in ERA- (113), compared to a 92 ERA- and an 11th-place ranking in 2025. And not to pile on, but the Base Runs estimate for runs allowed per game had the Red Sox at 4.91, whereas their actual number sat at 4.63, suggesting Boston’s pitchers may have benefitted from some fortunate sequencing to start the year.

Despite the pitching staff’s underperformance, Breslow told the media on Sunday, “We have confidence in the pitching group’s ability to turn that around, and I think we’ve seen evidence of that with Ranger [Suarez] and Garrett [Crochet], and we have the full confidence in that group to be able to get us on track.”

Crochet did throw six scoreless innings on Saturday after a series of bumpy outings, and Suarez put together two strong starts before backsliding his last time out. Whether or not the pitching staff pulls off a full return to form remains to be seen, but if the Red Sox aren’t able to turn things around, there will be no one left for Breslow to blame but himself. These are his guys, coaching his roster, and now it’s his job on the line.