Former Rival GM Reveals How He Would Fix Red Sox

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A quarter of the way through the 2026 season, the Boston Red Soxhaven't performed as hoped so far. They enter play on Wednesday last in the AL East with a 17-24 record and a negative-13 run differential.

Despite changing their manager and much of their coaching staff last month, the Red Sox haven't gotten the most out of their roster this year.

During his appearance on the "Cassell's Corner" podcast this week with Worcester Red Sox reporter Tommy Cassell, former Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi explained how he would try to fix Boston's roster this season.

"It's hard to do things now because teams aren't willing to trade at this point," Ricciardi said. "I would try to utilize a little bit of their speed and maybe steal bases a little bit more... I would hit and run a little bit more. I would emphasize more contact to create traffic as much as I can on the bases because there's no power on the club."

Former Toronto Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi, who is now a color analyst with NESN, shares his thoughts on how he'd fix the Boston Red Sox' roster.

Watch or listen to my entire video podcast with Ricciardi here: https://t.co/KKBFCtKFWEpic.twitter.com/FVE38cxlKx

— Tommy Cassell (@tommycassell44) May 13, 2026

Ricciardi emphasized that he would try to use the Red Sox's speed to help spark the team's slumping offense, which ranks 27th in runs per game. Boston ranks 12th in steals but has been running more under Chad Tracy, stealing 18 bases in 14 games under him compared to 16 steals in 27 games under Alex Cora.

As for the defense, Ricciardi wouldn't change much, outside of potentially swapping Trevor Story and Marcelo Mayer at the middle infield positions.

"Defensively, I think they are what they are defensively," Ricciardi added. "There's not one brush that can make this right. I think incrementally you gotta try to build this thing up. You gotta get Crochet back. You gotta get the guys who are hurt back."

The Red Sox can only do so much without their best hitter and their best pitcher, but it's clear that they need to be aggressive and exploit every possible edge if they want to turn their season around.

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