The Red Sox handed Chad Tracy the title he’d already been carrying in practice, and the timing could not be much better for a team trying to steady itself before October.
On September 22, Boston announced that it had triggered two options on Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow’s contract and signed Tracy to a three-year deal as manager. The Breslow move signals real confidence from ownership, but the Tracy news is the one with the immediate pulse. Taking off the “interim” label gives the club a clear show of faith at a moment when the Red Sox need one.
That belief matters because Tracy has already become a popular figure in the room. Boston has rallied around him, including during the franchise-record-tying 15-game winning streak in July, and the organization is asking that connection to hold up again now that the postseason is near.
The challenge is obvious. September has been rough.
The pitching staff looks worn down, and the offense has gone cold at the worst possible time. Boston is batting .221 this month, the second-lowest mark in the league, and its .179 average with runners in scoring position in September shows how much the lineup has stalled when it matters most.
Even so, the Red Sox have a chance to turn the front office’s vote of confidence into fuel. Beating the New York Yankees and carrying that momentum into a longer playoff run than last year would make Tracy’s first season in charge look even bigger than it already does.
It took a while after Alex Cora’s firing for Boston to find its rhythm, but Tracy was one of the people who helped get it there. Some underperforming hitters began to respond to the message from Tracy and his staff.
His ties to players who passed through Triple-A, whether as prospects or on rehab assignments, have helped him build trust quickly. So has his steady way of communicating.
The Red Sox were 31-44 through 75 games, and no team with a worse start has ever reached the playoffs. Tracy played a central role in dragging Boston out of that hole. Now the club has rewarded him with a permanent job, and the next step is on the players: make that decision look right with postseason success.
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MLB and both clubs are monitoring the situation closely, and for now there are no plans to relocate the games out of Boston. Still, the potential for delays or other schedule changes hangs over the series, and that could complicate the rhythm for both teams as they try to get through the final stretch of the regular season. [Read more 🡒]
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So it was probably no surprise that ESPNs David Schoenfield still found room for debate when he handed Boston a B grade for the season. In a year when the Red Sox recovered from a shaky start and outperformed the doubts hanging over them, the letter felt a little low to some fans, especially with the grading framed against preseason expectations and the rest of the league rather than just the turnaround itself. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Face Immediate Outfield Decisions As Key Bat Nears Return
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His return also puts the Red Sox right back into the kind of day-to-day outfield juggling that tends to matter most this time of year. With the postseason approaching, Boston has to sort out how Rafaela fits into the lineup and the defensive alignment, and his activation should make the roster look deeper even as it forces some immediate decisions about who moves where. [Read more 🡒]