In an interview on WEEI on Thursday, Boston Red Sox president Sam Kennedy called the team’s play this season “embarrassing and unacceptable,” but said there’s been no consideration of removing Craig Breslow from his role as chief baseball officer.
The Red Sox have been mired in a season-long slump. They fired Alex Cora on April 25 but that’s done little to jolt the team, which entered Thursday 27-39, in last place in the AL East and 5.5 games out of the final wild card spot.
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Kennedy told WEEI. “It’s been awful, especially when you consider the stated goal of building upon what happened last season (when Boston made the playoffs). ... It’s been incredibly frustrating, and I just want to acknowledge that right at the outset. It’s on all of us. We have to get better.”
Breslow has been the target of criticism from the Red Sox fanbase, with several of his trades and signings not panning out and communication about injuries to young outfielder Roman Anthony and ace Garrett Crochet questioned.
But Kennedy told WEEI that Breslow is “working as hard as anybody in terms of getting things back on track.”
“Look, I fully understand and appreciate questions regarding Craig Breslow and his job security and all that, but the issue of a change there, just to be clear, that’s not even on the table,” Kennedy said.
What may change, however, is Boston’s big league roster.
Kennedy acknowledged that if the team’s play doesn’t improve “over the next couple weeks,” the Red Sox likely will turn into sellers ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
“At the current moment, there are a lot of discussions going on in terms of improvement and how we get this thing back on track, looking at every single area of the roster and player personnel, and Bres and his team are doing that,” he told WEEI. “But look, let’s be honest, unless things change dramatically, we may have to pivot here from what our initial planning was. It just, it wouldn’t be responsible to do otherwise.”
