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Will the Red Sox be buyers at the Trade Deadline?
Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow joins!
What's wrong with the pitching? (Other than Crochet)
Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow joins!
What's wrong with the pitching? (Other than Crochet)
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SportsTranscript
00:00the boston red sox who joins us this week craig breslow hey craig good morning
00:04good morning how are you doing doing well i uh wish we had a result to talk with you
00:10uh about that was one other than a sweep here in this series with the angels um where where
00:18are you this morning on on what is going on currently with this baseball team yeah i i think
00:26uh we need to play better and we need to play better across every aspect of the game we saw it
00:32in glimpses where the rotation carried us for about a two-week stretch and then we had some
00:37good offensive performances but watching the games you can see a play or two or three each night and
00:44say that's going to drive a loss instead of a great play that's going to lead to a win and there have
00:51been base running mistakes and defensive miscues and then you know the inability to make a big
00:56pitch when the game is on the line and you put that all together and after that really good stretch
01:01of games that we had been playing we're uh we're back under 500 and we're still trying to figure
01:07out how to put it all together in in the nine games prior to the devers trade the team was seven and two
01:14uh since the trade the team is three and six did you did you expect a result like that when when it
01:22came to to trading raphael devers no um you know i thought that we would continue to play good baseball
01:30and i still think that we'll play good baseball but uh you know i don't think that these losses can be
01:37still down to one player one spot in the lineup and we haven't been playing great defense we haven't
01:44been running the base as well and we haven't been pitching well um you know and so we've been
01:49finding too many different ways to lose games to be able to say hey this is the one reason
01:54craig i know you said that you need to you guys need to play better overall but focusing on the
01:58pitching besides crochet it's been a bumpy road for a lot of your guys do you feel like andrew bailey
02:04is still the right guy for this job
02:07they do and i understand the the performance and the questions that that would lead to um but i also
02:16know the conversations that are going on every day um and the work that andrew and the rest of our
02:22pitching group are doing to try to get the the ship moving in the right direction and you know it's been
02:28inconsistent we've seen glimpses of of success and lucas has thrown the ball much better lately and we've seen
02:36baio pitch deeper into games and and use some different weapons with a you know with a cutter
02:42pitch that's been really effective for him i think the consistency is the thing that's been holding us
02:46back craig we're just a little bit over a month away from the trade deadline you guys are in a
02:52position where you're two and a half games out of a wild card and if you kind of continue to play
02:56up and down baseball you'll be in that similar position come trade deadline is it safe to say that
03:02you guys are going to be active buyers when it comes to helping this baseball team come trade
03:08deadline because you now have some cash that freed up for the devers trade
03:13yeah so two things there's obviously a lot of baseball between now and then but we absolutely
03:22went into this season with the expectation that we were going to compete and looking to the trade
03:26deadline as an opportunity to bolster the team that's still where our heads are we want to add to this
03:32team we want to improve our chances down the stretch because we still think that this is a team that's
03:36capable of making a deep postseason run and it's one that we believe in now um if the trade deadline
03:42doesn't operate the same way as free agency so dollars are certainly helpful in that they provide
03:48flexibility and they give us the opportunity to maybe go down paths that we wouldn't have been able
03:54to otherwise um but so does the deep farm system and so i think there are going to be a number of
03:58different ways that we could improve the team come the deadline alex cora said yesterday that
04:04bregman will not be most likely not be back until after the all-star break scott boris said this week
04:10that they would be open to talking about a longer term deal have you already or will you engage
04:17in discussions about a long-term deal there yeah i think the specifics of the conversations and the
04:26timing of the conversations will will remain internal but what i'm very comfortable saying
04:31is us has been everything that we could have asked for both on the field uh unfortunately he's
04:37obviously been been heard and hasn't been able to impact games on the field but also in the clubhouse
04:42and from a leadership standpoint not just in the way that he's helped younger players and our staff
04:48but in the way that he's helped me and many of us in the front office um and so right now while
04:54we're focused on doing everything we can to get him back on the field as quickly as possible when
04:59the right time comes to have those conversations uh i'm very very confident that we will why does
05:04from your perspective running running the whole show why does this team continue to make costly
05:11fundamental mistakes in the field and when it comes to you know basic stuff like base running
05:19yeah i think if there were a simple answer then we wouldn't be talking about this anymore because
05:26we would have solved the problem but is it the i can say that but is it the players is it the is it the
05:33manager i think there's there's responsibility that we all have to take uh now i think what recognizing
05:41that we've been kind of a poor fundamental team in the big leagues for a long time uh has forced
05:49us to do is look at the way that we're doing things in the minor leagues too and question
05:53whether or not we're preparing guys to be successful at the major league level and if you look at our
05:59performance in base running and on defense in the minor leagues at each of our affiliates
06:03that's been struggling too and so we've changed a lot of the way that we're training and teaching
06:09and the feedback that we're providing uh this year and i think that we've seen some progress but
06:15it's going to take some time but my my hope is that by really being willing to take like a good
06:21hard look at everything that we're doing across the organization we're going to end up in a better
06:25place craig i i just with brez uh with bregman still being out and likely until uh after the all-star
06:32break why move devers before knowing when you're going to get bregman back in some capacity
06:38yeah i think there are decisions really hard decisions that need to be made to some degree
06:47independent uh of each other and you know we got to this place where it felt like
06:55the raffi trade and both sides getting a fresh start um was important and necessary for the direction
07:04that we were going uh and that was a really hard decision and i understand the criticism and i
07:12understand um you know the the questions but it was a it was a hard decision that we had to make
07:18and with the devers decision you alluded to at the deadline that you will have cash but you also
07:24have a deep farm system according to multiple multiple reports the organization prioritized the
07:31ability to offload the entire contract over better prospects and eating some of the money with
07:37devers wouldn't you have been able to accomplish two things if you traded devers ate some of the
07:42contract and got assets that would help your major league club now
07:45i think that would um
07:51devalue the players that that we did get back and and and by that i mean that we really like the
08:00the players that we have back you know if you were to say today what are the areas that we think we
08:04need to improve certainly the bullpen and particularly the back end of the bullpen just given the workload
08:10that guys like chapman and weissard and whitlock and wilson have have taken on and we think in
08:14in jordan hicks we did get um you know a dominant back end reliever i would point to starting pitching
08:20and say you know we just talked about the inconsistency in the rotation and harrison is somebody that
08:25we'd identified has a couple things that he can work on and then we think he's going to to help
08:30us and and not just help us as you know somebody who picks up pitches at the back of a rotation but
08:35somebody who can who can pitch behind garrett um you know and win big games for us so i think in a lot
08:41of ways we we have brought back players that we believe can address some of the deficiencies on our
08:47major league team but you're a major leaguer craig like right now you have a weekend series against
08:51the blue jays at fenway park you're 40 and 42 if you're in that clubhouse why do you care about
08:56two months down the line don't you need people to help you win now
08:58absolutely and there's a ton of belief uh from those 26 guys in each other and there's a ton of
09:07belief from us in the office and our coaching staffs in those guys uh and you know they absolutely
09:14were surprised by the the trade and the timing of the trade but uh in the conversations that i had
09:21with each of them and in the comments that they made publicly they talked about believing in each
09:25other having a job to do and preparing to to win that night's game craig when when you were and i
09:31know it's kind of going back a little bit when but when you're looking at trading a guy like devers
09:36or just trading a player in general and there are some issues about maybe a guy not being a team player
09:42did that kind of close maybe potential trading partners with you that might had a few questions about
09:50his attitude and if he would be willing to do other things
09:55well i mean it's hard for me to answer how other teams were reviewing the situation i think uh most
10:06people recognize that they don't have all of the facts and all of the details and that could work in
10:13in both directions um but this was not personal and rafi is not a not a bad guy uh the unfortunate
10:23thing is that we just got to a place where it was best best for both sides to to get that fresh start
10:30that i'm i'm talking about um but we saw the way that um you know rafi endeared himself to to the san
10:40francisco fans in a really short amount of time and he's a he's a really good player and a really
10:43good hitter uh and and he's not he's not a bad guy craig when we were asking you about roman anthony
10:50and when you guys were going to call him up over and over again you stated and kind of emphasized
10:54the importance of him and being able to handle kind of the pressure that you're going to put him
11:00in now that he's here things have kind of spiraled do you think that he's handling that pressure
11:06well what changed in your mind that you could put him into this position now rather than earlier
11:11this season sure so i guess to the to the first question you know is he handling the pressure well
11:21um you know based on conversations with him and and the way that he's handling himself in the clubhouse
11:26i think the answer is yes and i was incredibly impressed with his maturity
11:36and selflessness when i met him last year and then in spring training when he was around our
11:41major league team his makeup is is special and i think if there's anyone who could handle
11:48the pressure and demands of playing in boston roman can um and you know what what changed obviously is
11:57willie had gotten hurt and was on the il so there was a clear opportunity for him to come up
12:02and get regular playing time and then with the raffi trade and the ability to use kind of four
12:08outfielders across three outfield spots and the dh i think some of the pressure of feeling like you
12:15have to perform from that number one and if you don't get a hit today you're not going to play tomorrow
12:22has been removed and that's some of the pressure that we're talking about not just
12:27the ability to come up and save a season or or carry a team uh but you know going uh
12:34should being able to show up at the park every day and know that you're going to play regardless of
12:39how yesterday's performance went i was just asking roman anthony craig he he's obviously the best
12:45prospect in baseball he comes up why did you fire the scout that signed him like we're talking about
12:52this great player and how he's going to change the shape of the organization he's this most valued
12:56commodity it feels like you'd want to have people that could find that talent around your club
13:02sir and i don't think it's fair to anybody to get into specifics of a particular decision but what i can
13:09say is as an organization we value every person and there are a lot of great people who are doing
13:16a ton of really hard work uh anytime we have had to make a decision to to move on from somebody
13:23it's been really really difficult and keeps me up at night because we know we're impacting people's
13:29lives and their families um but the reality is the game has changed and the game has changed because
13:38the players have changed over the last 20 years and if we're going to get where we need to go which is
13:44to win a world series then we're not going to get there by doing things the exact same way that we
13:49have for the last 20 years and so it's not that we have diminished the role or the importance of scouts
13:58it's that we've asked them to take on some different responsibilities and and that's true across the
14:03office and that's what drove the the disruption here over the last year and a half um you talked earlier
14:10about this team you still believe in them you still believe they have the opportunity to be there
14:15come playoff time so if the trade deadline were today then i then i was would you be a buyer or a seller
14:26yeah we would be looking to improve our team uh we'd be looking to improve our team for 2025
14:30because despite the fact that we haven't been able to strung together uh like the consistent
14:37performance that we think we're capable of we're still very much staring down wildcard chances and
14:43and you know nobody has really run away with the al east and so as we start to get healthy and we start
14:49to look externally about ways that we can improve the team we think we've got a good chance to make a deep
14:54deep postseason run okay all right well we appreciate you as always taking the time we are next thursday
15:00okay our final road show we are on the dive which is a floating bar lake winniposaki um i would i would
15:11invite you if you want to do the the front office report live from the dive winniposaki i don't know
15:16if you're available but we'd love to have you up there well depending on how the next week goes i
15:21might might be able to make myself uh available how big is the bar okay all right pretty big
15:26all right you're probably i'm sure you like to i don't know if you're a swimmer or not but or uh
15:33you just like to have a a uh you know good time in the sun but we'd love to have you there
15:39i appreciate i appreciate it guys all right all right
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