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Amid the latest Red Sox losing streak that dropped the club to 12 games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2020 season, team president Sam Kennedy gave chief baseball officer Craig Breslow a vote of confidence Thursday.
Appearing on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” Kennedy said firing Breslow is “not even on the table” at this point.
“I fully understand and appreciate questions regarding Craig Breslow and his job security and all that,” Kennedy said. “But the issue of a change there, just to be clear, that’s not even on the table.
“Craig is working as hard as anybody in terms of getting things back on track. But again, words are hollow right now and as bleak as things appear, I think it would be ridiculous to say anything other than that we’re all feeling it. We’re working to get us back on that trajectory we really thought we were on.”
Earlier this week, The Boston Globe reported that the Red Sox had not discussed a change of leadership in baseball operations — and Kennedy’s comments on WEEI back that up. Still, Red Sox ownership has been known to be reactionary over the years, as evidenced by the firings of head executives Dave Dombrowski in 2019 and Chaim Bloom in 2023, as well as the firing of manager Alex Cora and much of his coaching staff in late April. Notably, no one in Red Sox ownership has gone on record to say that Breslow is guaranteed to have his job for the rest of the year.
Under Breslow, the Red Sox missed the postseason in 2024, then returned to the playoffs after the successful additions of Garrett Crochet, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman last year. The club had high expectations heading into 2026 but is 27-39 and sits in fifth place in the American League East.
On the radio, Kennedy lauded Breslow for helping the organization develop a pitching pipeline, as evidenced by the emergence of young lefties Payton Tolle and Connelly Early. He also praised the former reliever for the largely successful offseason moves that brought Sonny Gray, Ranger Suarez and Willson Contreras to Boston. Breslow’s track record also includes some negatives in those areas, including Brayan Bello’s steep downturn and the trade that sent Kyle Harrison to Milwaukee for Caleb Durbin and other spare parts.
“If you zoom out and take a step back, we brought Brez in three years ago, well-known to the organization as a player,” Kennedy said. “We brought him in to lead this baseball operation and to do a lot of difficult things. Primarily, to re-work our pitching infrastructure. That had been an area of weakness. We’ve had some great success there. We got back to the playoffs.
“With the moves we made in the offseason, whether it was bringing in Sonny (Gray), Ranger Suarez or Willson Contreras, we really felt we were gonna take that next step this coming year. Obviously, that’s looking like a huge mountain to climb. We can shut down and put our heads in the sand or we can own it, acknowledge it and just grind through it. That’s what we’re choosing to do.”
Kennedy’s tone was one of anger and frustration throughout the interview but he made it clear that the Red Sox ownership group and front office remain united — at least for now — in their attempts to rectify a season Kennedy described as “embarrassing, unacceptable, maddening and frustrating.”
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” he said. “It has been awful, especially when you consider the stated goal of building upon what happened last season.”
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