Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer, Craig Breslow, joins! Casas and Story updates!

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Casas and Story Updates! Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer, Craig Breslow, joins! Breslow on Casas: "We are nearing the end of his rehab assignment." Breslow on Story: "I wouldn't say surprised that he wants to be back".

Transcript

00:00And Craig Breslow the chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox joins us this morning. Hey, Craig

00:08Hey, good morning has Theo given you the backstage meet-and-greet

00:13Eddie Vedder and offer yet for September 17th at Fenway

00:18He he hasn't yet, but my hope is it's coming. Okay. Yeah. How often do you see Theo? Is he around the ballpark?

00:26I

00:28Talked to him significantly more than I see him. He was up for a couple days

00:33About a week or so ago. Yeah, but more more phone calls quick check-ins via text

00:39And he obviously knows that he is welcome to be around as much as he'd like

00:44Has he been checking out the basketball in town a little bit more of late or?

00:51My conversations with him are exclusively about baseball

00:55Before we get well, you might not want to get to last night, but before we get to that

01:00As a player you got to experience the what the Jimmy fund does Dana Farber?

01:06This your first time the last couple days as the chief baseball officer

01:12It's pretty incredible what the Red Sox do and what the city does when it when it comes to helping those who are fighting cancer

01:20Yeah, no, no question about it

01:21there's just a different atmosphere different or around Fenway around the team for these couple of days and

01:28So many people have a hand in making it such a successful

01:32Radio telethon including all of you at WBI and then want to extend our appreciation, but the work that goes in is

01:39Incredible this year was especially meaningful and poignant

01:44Given how much Larry and wake had meant to to this

01:48But the ability to raise the almost four million dollars over a couple of days

01:52Toward cancer research is truly remarkable

01:55All right on to last night

01:57we were talking earlier about the bullpen and I think prior to the

02:03all-star break the the combined ERA was three

02:08Little over three three six seven or whatever. It's now over six. What what if anything?

02:13Task it the way Alec Lally would

02:16What do you see being the issue there?

02:19Yeah, you know, I think this comes down to execution and

02:23You know, we've got to figure out if this execution driven by fatigue isn't it execution driven intent?

02:28But you know, we're getting ourselves into two strike counts at about the same rate that we had in prior to the all-star break

02:35but we're not missing barrels, especially with two strikes and we can

02:40think about a handful of

02:43Breaking balls spin that stayed close to

02:46Standards that you know damage was done on and I think we've got to figure out a way to execute better

02:52I will take a look at whether it's pitch mix though

02:55The usage has been pretty consistent with what it was before the all-star break or what but obviously, you know

03:01We've got a pitch better

03:02we've got to figure out a way to hold leads as we get into late innings and

03:06Get the ball to guys like Martin who has been really good when when he's been healthy and Kelly who's been really good all

03:12Craig bullpen aside Alex Cora emphasized the importance of playing defense and in the need to play defense to be able to play into

03:20October

03:22Standing where you guys are right now. What is your biggest difficulty your biggest challenge to make it to October when it comes to this team?

03:30Yeah, you know I think

03:32Pitching and defense certainly stand out and in the first half

03:36It was the pitching that carried us and coming out of the all-star break. We swung the bats really really well

03:41We've got you know an offense that can score runs with any other team in the league

03:45But we've got to prevent them as well. And it's true. We've got a young team. That's

03:50athletic and

03:52Plays fast, but we've got to figure out a way to slow things down on defense and it's not from a lack of

03:58Effort or care or work?

04:00we've just got to continue to

04:02To you know force these guys to develop at the big league level and on the pitching side

04:06Like I said, you know, I think we've got to figure out how to preserve leads

04:10You know with

04:12The last turn through Tanner's been better cutters been better and getting bailed back as I've been good to that

04:17I will go tonight and so hopefully we can stabilize the rotation a bit and see some positive performances on that side as well

04:24Craig when you look at where you guys are in the standings and the importance of this series against Baltimore and

04:31Really being able to come away with winning this series to kind of keep pace in this tight wild-card race

04:39What what's the mindset? Is that the mindset in the clubhouse is to not split to come away winning this series against Baltimore?

04:48Yeah, you know

04:49I think the mindset has been pretty consistent except early a credit to

04:53Alex and the coaching staff and the players in the clubhouse that have focused on the task in front of them

04:58And so I don't think there's a ton of scoreboard watching and you know trying to root against the teams that we're facing

05:05I think there's a focus on the work that we have to do and that starts with winning tonight's game

05:10and you know, it's easy to get caught up in you know, the pitch to pitch and and

05:17Certainly last night's loss

05:20Was was incredibly difficult at the same time, you know

05:23We're in the middle of August and we're two games out of a playoff spot

05:26And I think we've got some guys returning that should help us and we've got a we've got to win the games that we can

05:32Win and that's the most important thing for us

05:35I would just ask Craig what's going on with Tristan Casas?

05:40Yeah, so I think we're nearing the the end of his rehab assignment

05:44I I would expect that he's going to be back with us soon. I think he was just kind of working through

05:51The

05:53Acclamation to swinging and hit the ball hitting ball hard with the recovery and recognizing that you know

05:59It's not going to feel in the ribcage area exactly like it did before he got hurt

06:04But figuring out, you know how to kind of manage this and work through it given that

06:10This is a base, you know, this is a baseball decision at this point medically, you know, he feels

06:15Pretty good. He feels probably as good as he's going to and the timing is coming back. He's had a couple good games

06:21And he feels like he's very very close to being ready

06:24How do you balance that with the need to get him up here him being cleared medically and then just waiting for the okay?

06:33Tristan feeling like he can actually do it

06:35Is there any encouraging that Alex or you or anybody on the staff does to tell him he could you know?

06:40He's ready to go up here to get it. We bet you the team needs him

06:45Yeah, I think he I think he knows that I think he also knows that a healthy

06:51Tristan is going to impact us far more than one who has reservations or hesitant. And so

06:59He's been very honest. We've been very honest with him

07:02And also should give some credit to you know, a guy like Dom who has stepped up in Tristan's absence and and contributed to a number

07:09of wins

07:10There's no question that we're you know, we're a better team with Tristan Constance's is on it, but that's only the case if he's

07:18Producing at the level that we're used to out of him speaking of getting guys back

07:23Were you surprised?

07:25When it came to Trevor's story that he wants to be available is available

07:30That was everybody kind of described that as season season ending in April. It was the organization surprised by that

07:37Pleasantly so you're very very excited about that. I wouldn't say

07:42Surprised that he wants to be back

07:45Super competitive guy that was just crushed, you know when this when this injury happens

07:51back in April, but I think

07:55Over the last two or three weeks

07:56We've seen such rapid progress that this went from you know

08:00a pipe dream to

08:02Potentially a reality watched him take batting practice on the field on Monday kind of joke

08:07He hit the ball over the monster and I said, I think you're gonna be ready tomorrow

08:11But it's been great to have him around the team, you know

08:14You always you looked out of the in the dugout you see him sitting sitting next to Alex right now

08:17It's like he's an additional coach another set of eyes, but hopefully pretty soon

08:21He's gonna be a guy who's playing shortstop for us

08:24We know that you can impact the game on both sides of the ball

08:27And I think we saw that a little bit in spring training and in April before he went down

08:30So I think just the idea that he might be back on the field has really uplifted the group and having him around it's had

08:36Such a positive impact on others Craig. It was a hard week for Jaron Duran for a player

08:41That's been pretty outspoken about his mental health struggles

08:44How important was it for the team to make sure that he took responsibility, but was also taken care of with the backlash?

08:51For sure, you know

08:53we felt like the incident warranted a very strong response from the organization and we certainly

08:59Recognize the the damage that had been done at the mistake that this was at the same time

09:03I think we also can recognize that Jaron is a good kid who made a mistake and you know

09:09Both of those things can be true and it's important that we and his teammates support him

09:13And I think you're seeing that because you know, I think Jaron took

09:18significant initiative in

09:21speaking to the media in showing a ton of

09:26accountability

09:27And in committing to doing the work to repair the damage that he's done

09:33Craig Breslow, thanks for taking the time and we will talk to you again soon

09:37Thank you. Appreciate it. There is as we would call him Craig Craig

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