Red Sox CBO Craig Breslow joins! Bregman back? OFs for SP?

WEEI-FM / WEEI

If MLB deadline was tomorrow, where is the one area   Red Sox would prioritize? Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow joins!  Does the abundance of OFs go into a potential deal? OF for pitching help? Alex Bregman to play in this Tampa Bay series??  RedSox CBO Craig Breslow joins! Breslow: "It's looking that way" Greg: "Only one word to describe any extension talk (On Bregman) what would that word be?"

Transcript

00:00it is red sox chief baseball officer craig breslow brought to you by shaw's and star market

00:06perfecting the art of fresh and by findmassmoney.gov hey craig hey good morning how are you

00:15doing great uh yoshida back in the lineup last night at dh went three for four what what does

00:22uh having him back do for this team yeah i think it gives us uh another quality left-headed

00:29bat and a little bit different profile um you know that he uh he prioritizes putting the ball in play

00:36he has a quality at bat um really controls the strike zone and i think it lengthens the lineup

00:42so obviously all good things great to have him back uh night off for rafael last night i know

00:48there were some that were saying what you know what why why that choice alex cora spoke a little

00:54about a little bit about it yesterday afternoon but there's an abundance of guys i guess and

00:59uh the night off is not a bad thing right yeah that's the way that that we see it and um you

01:09know there will be some balancing acts that make sure that everybody gets enough playing time but

01:13also we're able to keep everybody fresh and um you know we've we've never had nobody's ever

01:18complained about having too many good players and you know the more good players that you have that

01:22means that there are guys on any given night who are on the bench that are probably capable of being

01:27everyday guys and we need to figure out how to balance that out but i think you've seen the

01:31comments from alex and the guys that recognize that we're trying to accomplish something together

01:36and that means that uh you know on any given night somebody might be out of the lineup craig i know

01:41we're still a few weeks away from the trade deadline but let's say hypothetically it was tomorrow

01:47you guys have to be looking what's the one area that you would like to improve this baseball team

01:54yeah it's a very fair question i'm not trying to avoid answering it but i think if you it kind of

02:03depends on where we are and so we have to zoom out a little bit and try to figure out you know who are

02:09we and and what do we have coming back and what do we think is sustainable meaning you know a month

02:15ago a month and a half ago we would have talked a ton about starting pitching and getting more

02:19consistency and finding someone who you know slots in uh toward the top of the rotation behind garrett

02:24and then you look at what lucas and brian have done over the last month and a half and start to feel

02:29confident in the way that the starting the starting pitching is is coming together that said you can

02:33never have too much so i think that's probably what we would prioritize um but you know we we've seen

02:40what fits has done uh dobbins is getting healthy how is getting healthy so we have some depth um but i think

02:46if there's the opportunity to provide some impact starting pitching and add that to the group that's

02:50probably where we focus craig going back to that abundance of outfielders that we were just talking

02:55about um and having kind of an overload of talent in that part of your roster to what extent do you

03:01feel that that factors into maybe being in a position where the smartest move becomes trading one of those

03:08players yeah it's something that you would have to consider if there was an opportunity to

03:16um you know to improve the team elsewhere but i think it's really important to to point out that

03:22we don't have to trade one of the outfielders simply because we have you know more guys that

03:28are capable of contributing than can start every night and i think there's a there's a way to balance

03:34this out alex is very aggressive in matching up finding pinch hit opportunities moving guys around

03:40um and making sure that the pieces come together um but we have to be open-minded about ways to improve

03:46the team um and and you know the the obvious one that continues to pop up is is there an opportunity to

03:52you know address the rotation potentially through some of that outfield depth and we just don't know yet

03:58alex gora said on this radio station yesterday that alex bregman will play this series

04:05yeah that's uh it's looking that way and you know i'll stop short of saying definitively yes

04:13because every day that alex comes in he does a little bit more he pushes it a little bit harder

04:17and we need to see how he comes out of that and how he recovers the next day but he's been he's

04:22working really hard to get back on the field before the all-star break and and certainly looks

04:25like it's trending that way before you answer fair question i'm going to ask you this in a different way

04:31um if you could use one word and only one word to describe uh any extension talk when it comes to

04:40uh scott boris on alex bregman how uh what would that word be

04:48um uh i've got to think about that uh i might consider preferring to admit to find my third favorite

04:55band i mean would it be uh ongoing uh would it be um a middle of the intermediary uh continuing

05:09unstarted um

05:12but i i think uh i think ongoing is always a fair um summary just given you know this is something

05:20that's on our mind it's clearly something on alex's mind but the priority for the last

05:25almost two months has been doing everything we can to get out back on the field but i think i've been

05:29pretty outspoken about what he's provided on the field and in the clubhouse to a bunch of the young

05:34guys to the coaching staff to me um and so he's he's a guy that we would like to uh to have here in

05:41a red sox uniform for a long time i mean watching games you see he's always talking it up with roman

05:48anthony and marcelo meyer how important has he been when it comes to helping those guys getting

05:55acclimated to to the big league so far yeah i'm not sure how you how you could put a measure on that

06:04outside of you're right the communication the conversations are happening all the time they're

06:09happening in the clubhouse in the video room in the dugout um and alex has talked a lot about

06:15the the aptitude and the ability to make adjustments pitch to pitcher at bat to a bat that

06:20these guys have um you know which i think is uh a testament to their athleticism um and just the the

06:29raw talent that they have he talks a lot he jokes a lot about how much quicker they're able to make

06:33adjustments just given the natural talent that they have um and having somebody like alex around them

06:39to to guide them and help direct their work has been unbelievably valuable just given how successful

06:45alex has been in his career and the amount that he's been around winning with bregman coming back

06:51alex cora said there are decisions to be made around marcelo meyer is there a chance that you have to

06:58send him back down and and if so was it a mistake to bring him up uh well i don't think it was a

07:07mistake to bring him up kind of working backwards here um you know alex got hurt and and marcella was

07:14the right guy um to to fill in and i think we've seen an incredible ability for him to step into third

07:20base and play really good defense there despite the fact that he hadn't played a ton um coming up he was

07:26obviously you know he's a shortstop and and at some point is gonna play shortstop again but uh we have

07:31to make the best decision for the organization and the best decision for marcelo and and you know

07:37usually those things overlap but we'll figure that out when alex is back and uh you know we'll make

07:42the the best decision we can during this time of the year you you know how it is we all get to

07:47speculating about who could be dealt or who you potentially could be trading for one name that's been

07:55rumored out there um because he's in having an amazing season and he's an he's probably a huge

08:01asset for you is a raw this chapman but how is it how important is it to make sure if you're going

08:08for it this year that you have a guy like that at the back of your rotation as a closer who can go out

08:15there and win those critical postseason games for you yeah a guy like eraldus in the postseason just

08:24given the way the the schedules are set up where you can really lean on your best relievers uh and he has

08:32a ton of impact right you know and we've seen it in postseasons that he's pitched in um you know and so

08:38you you you really lean on your top starters and you know kind of the horses in the bullpen so you

08:45know you you want to build a bullpen for the postseason um given the amount that the amount

08:50of innings that they're going to throw um now and when people talk about chapman and the deadline right

08:54the obvious kind of thing that comes to mind is you know when he was traded for cole reagan's and

08:59and reagan's become a top of the rotation starter uh you know but eraldus chapman is pitching for the

09:05boston red sox right now and you know it's unbelievably exciting to watch him come into

09:10the game the fact that he's still thrown 100 miles an hour named to the all-star team for i think it

09:14was the eighth time um you know is is it's great for us and we're glad that that's the way it is right

09:20now craig i believe fangross has you at a 36.5 chance of making the postseason as we sit here today i'm

09:28sure you guys have your own much more scientific uh calculations around all this but how much do those

09:36quantitative figures factor into what you want to do at the trade deadline

09:42sir so you know i think something that i've learned in the short time that i've been in in

09:47this role is those numbers can serve as a good baseline but they don't tell the whole story and

09:53what you know our jobs in in the front office uh are to to do is to understand kind of what type

10:02of trajectory we're on and where we think we're going and to do that you need to consider uh you

10:08know how are we playing do we think that we can keep this up i think the answer to both of those is

10:13is you know we're playing really well and we do think that this is something that we can keep up and

10:16then you know we've got guys like bregman coming back and yoshida obviously last night and we've got

10:22some starting pitching that's getting healthy so i don't think the the playoff probability uh tells the

10:28whole story um you know because i think we're a better team than what we've shown and in the first

10:33half and i think that we're starting to come together in the way that we had anticipated did

10:38it surprise you as much as it did me that rafael devers blew will clark off three times

10:46i had a feeling i was going to get asked about this uh and it turns out that uh my my focus is solely on

10:55the boston red sox i see i don't have i don't have much to add could it be just the phone issue when

11:01it comes to major leaguers veteran major leaguers who are texting is i i do know anything about that

11:10again uh you know we've got 26 guys on our major league roster we've got an organization here to uh to

11:18remain focused out and we'll do everything we can to get the most out of our guys all right well maybe

11:22that's what it is we got to get devers a better a better phone plan maybe it might be that's what

11:27it is yeah all right well listen uh big series here uh about to get underway this evening and we

11:34i think you're off next week uh with the rest of baseball and so uh we will talk to you again soon

11:40craig breslow sounds great i won't miss all of you dearly thank you very much all right there

11:46he is the chief baseball officer of the boston red sox

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