4 takeaways from Craig Breslow, Sam Kennedy’s press conference after Alex Cora’s firing

Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow addressed reporters in Baltimore Sunday morning — just a day after the Red Sox made the decision to fire manager Alex Cora and several coaches.​

​Here are four takeaways from Sunday’s presser:

A “necessary move”

Kennedy acknowledged in his opening statement on Sunday that, despite Cora’s body of work across eight seasons in Boston, a change was needed to try to pull Boston out of a 10-17 tailspin.

Kennedy noted that the decision to fire Cora and several of his coaches was made on Saturday morning, with Kennedy, Breslow, and Red Sox principal owner John Henry flying down to Baltimore to deliver the news.

“I want to thank Alex Cora, all of the coaches and their families for what they’ve meant to the Boston Red Sox,” Kennedy said. “AC’s impact on Boston and our city will be felt forever. The memories that we all shared from 2018 are going to last a lifetime. He’s a friend to so many in Boston and across New England, and so that contributed to making this a very difficult decision. And so we thank him and wish him well.​

“Yesterday was definitely painful, but we felt it was a necessary move, and we felt it necessary to take decisive action to achieve the goal of a fresh start for the 2026 season. We have full confidence in the players in that room to perform at the very highest level and get us back to playing baseball in October, which is the goal. Ultimately, what matters is the performance on the field at the major league level, and a new beginning starts today.”

Breslow’s call

​When asked who made the call to move on from Cora and his staff in search of a shake-up, Kennedy stressed that the decision was made by Breslow — rather than an order from higher up in the Red Sox’ chain of command.

​“Craig leads our baseball operation, and he’s made several bold decisions and recommendations, and this was one of them, and we fully support it,” Kennedy said. “That’s why we took the action we took yesterday.”

​Breslow added that the decision to overturn Boston’s coaching staff was rooted in a belief that the team can get more out of this current roster.

“Well, certainly the performance on the field has not been what we expected,” he said. “And beyond that, again, this is a decisive and convicted demonstration of the confidence we have in our player group.”

​Despite that vote of confidence in the current roster, Breslow added that the “accountability” for the struggling group that he assembled still falls on him.

“Ultimately, responsibility for the performance on the field, it falls on me as the leader of baseball operations,” Breslow said. “But so too does the responsibility for doing everything that I can and the organization can to find solutions.

“And right now, we feel like this change, these changes, were warranted. And we’re really excited about the chance for Chad [Tracy] to come in and be a consistent, stabilizing voice, and one that a majority of our player group is familiar with.”

Breslow also brushed back a question that his relationship with Cora eventually devolved into a clashing of ideologies and disagreements — one that eventually led to Cora’s ouster.

“Characterizing the relationship as a power struggle is unfair,” Breslow said of Cora. “I have looked at these roles as a partnership. … Ultimately, this is about needing to do everything we possibly can to give ourselves the best 135 games [to go].”​

Belief in this roster?

Despite Boston’s poor start to the 2026 season, Breslow — who helped assemble what has been an underachieving roster — harped on the belief that this current club has the talent and time available to right the ship with 135 games left in the regular-season slate.

​“It really comes down to the belief that we have in the players and the belief that we have in the group to accomplish what we set out to accomplish,” Breslow said. “And by acting today, it gives us 135 games ahead of us, so we’ve got almost a full season’s worth of run to take advantage of this fresh start and ultimately to compete for a division and deep postseason run in the way that we talked about it and envisioned and believed heading into spring training.”

“We believe in the group of players that we have in the clubhouse, down the hallway, and we believe that a new direction is warranted, new voices, and something that enables us to take a fresh start.”

Turning to Tracy … for now?

As the Red Sox look to pick up the pieces amid such a sizable shakeup, Boston is turning to former WooSox manager Chad Tracy as its interim manager.

​Tracy, 40, had been the manager of the WooSox since 2022 — playing a role in the development of several younger Red Sox stalwarts like Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, and others.  

​“Chad has been in the organization for a while. He’s managed at the highest level of our minor league system, and he’s familiar with meaningful relationships with a majority of our roster, given just kind of the young players that we do have,” Breslow said of Tracy.

​“He’s demonstrating the ability to get the most out of that group, and I think equally important is his ability to build relationships with veteran guys and earn trust and respect, and then also just to be a consistent and familiar and stabilizing voice. We believe that Chad is the is the right guy to handle this transition and we’re going to put all of our effort into supporting him to do that, and we’ll kind of figure out where that leads us.”​

Despite Tracy’s upside after earning high marks down in the minor leagues, Breslow acknowledged that the Red Sox are leaving all options on the table when it comes to potentially hiring another manager at some point this season.

We could be [hiring a new manager], it could also be that Chad is exactly what, you know, what we’re looking for,” Breslow said. “We have full confidence in him. We believe that to be the case, but you know, any time a team is not performing, I think you have to look at all options.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.