Sam Kennedy backs Craig Breslow as Red Sox season spirals out of control

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks following the firing of Alex Cora and the struggles of the roster he assembled this offseason.

Boston sits at a season-worst 12 games under .500 after being swept by the Rays and continues to drift further from playoff contention. As losses pile up, a growing segment of the fan base has begun calling for Breslow’s job.

Despite the mounting criticism, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy quickly dismissed any notion that the organization is considering a change atop its baseball operations department.

“Look, I fully understand and appreciate questions regarding Craig Breslow and his job security and all that, but the issue of a change there, just to be clear, it’s not even on the table,” Kennedy said on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show on Thursday morning. “He is working as hard as anybody in terms of getting things back on track, but again, words are hollow right now.”

If the Red Sox were to make a front-office change, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. The organization parted ways with Dave Dombrowski in 2019, less than a year after winning the World Series, and fired Chaim Bloom in 2023 after four seasons leading baseball operations.

Kennedy used words such as “embarrassing,” “unacceptable,” “maddening” and “frustrating” throughout his 20-minute interview on WEEI, making it clear the organization is far from satisfied with the way the season has unfolded.

“Having been here 25 years, we’ve had some incredibly high highs and some very low lows. But I don’t remember a period really feeling it as viscerally as we feel it right now,” Kennedy said. “It’s been awful.”

Kennedy believes Breslow has done a strong job rebuilding the organization’s pitching infrastructure and credited him for helping guide the Red Sox back to the postseason last October. Despite the disappointing start to 2026, Kennedy made it clear that both ownership and the front office remain confident in Breslow’s vision and his ability to help the club take the next step forward.

“We’re just not where we expected to be. We have to own that. We’re not pretending otherwise,” Kennedy said. “We all watch the same games, we’re at every game, we watch every pitch of every game on the road, we’ve seen the same inconsistencies, we’ve seen lack of performance, and that’s on us. We’ve got to grind through it, we have to get better, but yeah, we’re all incredibly upset and frustrated with where we are.”

Under Breslow, the Red Sox have made several significant additions, including Garrett Crochet, Aroldis Chapman, and Alex Bregman, though Bregman ultimately departed for the Cubs in free agency after one year in Boston. He has also overseen a complete overhaul of the organization’s pitching infrastructure, an area many around baseball view as dramatically improved from where it was just a few years ago.

At the same time, Breslow’s tenure hasn’t been without criticism. 

Communication issues played a major role in the deterioration of the relationship with Rafael Devers, ultimately leading to his trade to the Giants. There have also been questions about some personnel decisions, including the trade that sent Kyle Harrison to Milwaukee for Caleb Durbin. Harrison has blossomed into an All-Star-caliber pitcher with the Brewers, while Durbin has struggled to establish himself at the major league level. He traded Chris Sale and $17 million to cover some of the left-hander's salary for infielder Vaughn Grissom. Sale went on to win a Cy Young in Atlanta and Grissom failed in two years with the organization and was traded to the Angels over the offseason. 

Kennedy also took ownership for miscommunication around young star Roman Anthony's hand injury in May. 

“I need to own up to my mistake,” Kennedy said. “I was unequivocal in my response to you regarding Roman and his situation. Apparently, I missed that day at Harvard Medical School. I shouldn’t be sitting here talking about a sprain. A sprain is a tear. I was reading off a report that identified the sprain.

“He needed to correct, I think, what I said, which was that I referred to it as a sprain. It was a sprain. That was true. But that is also a tear. The degree, the level, I just shouldn’t be wading into that. That’s on me 100 percent.

“I apologize for my mistake there. I’ve communicated with Roman about that. That’s all good. The most important thing is that he’s doing the work to getting back.”

Anthony has been on the injured list with a “partially torn ring finger ligament in (the) ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal)” joint. The Sox initially called the injury a sprain. 

“Roman is doing everything he can to get back and get better,” Kennedy said. “Putting a timetable on baseball injuries is really, really hard. That’s why we try not to do it. Then when we don’t do that, it sounds evasive and like we’re dodging it.”

A healthy Anthony would help the Red Sox, but he alone isn’t enough to turn around a season that’s spiraled out of control. 

The Sox have been publicly saying they’ve been focused on buying ahead of the trade deadline, but as the club sinks further out of playoff contention, Kennedy acknowledged they might need to sell off pieces.

“You have to take an honest assessment and look and see where you are,” Kennedy said. “At the current moment, there are a lot of discussions going on in terms of improvement and how we get this thing back on track looking at every single area of the roster and player personnel and Bres and his team are doing that. But look, let’s be honest, unless things change dramatically, we may have to pivot here from what our initial planning was. It wouldn’t be responsible to do otherwise. But we’re here in mid-June, we need to see what happens over the next couple of weeks and then we’ll reassess.”

Breslow has been a human punching bag for the fanbase and members of the media over the last couple of weeks. Earlier this week on WEEI, ESPN’s Buster Olney continued to kick Breslow while he was down. Olney reported that an unnamed member of the Red Sox leadership group had been making calls around the league in efforts to improve the lineup. 

"Today I talked to someone with another team that told me that it’s to the degree that the Red Sox ownership has gotten involved," said Olney. "I have not confirmed the name of the owner, so I'm not gonna mention the name that I heard ... but an owner, one of the Red Sox ownership group, is actually calling around and trying to grease the skids to something to add a right-handed bat." 

Kennedy was also asked about recent reporting from Olney and suggested it likely stemmed from conversations that took place during MLB’s recent owners meetings. According to Kennedy, he, John Henry, and Tom Werner spent three days meeting with other owners around the league, discussing the state of their respective clubs and organizational needs.

“No one is trying to play general manager on TV here," Kennedy said. "Sometimes those conversations at the ownership level can be passed along to our baseball ops department and lead to a transaction. There were discussions going on with other clubs, with other owners about needs that we have. You haven’t seen a lot of transactions or moves, they are hard to pull off this time of year just given where everybody is, but I assume that’s where those reports came from. And we’ve got constant communication with Craig in terms of keeping him updated if there’s anything that’s actionable or anything he can follow up on.”

This past week, The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reported that rival executives around the game have called the Red Sox’ lineup as “punchless” and filled with “Triple-A players” and “utility infielders.” 

“It’s been accurate that we’ve been punchless and we haven’t performed up to expectations,” Kennedy said. “So it’s frustrating and maddening and it pisses you off, but at the same time, 27-39, we’re 12 games under .500, we’re in last place in the American League East, so it is what it is.”

Kennedy was asked about his own job security and said he wasn’t worried about his future with Fenway Sports Group and is instead focused on getting the Red Sox back on track this season. He did acknowledge that this season has been the worst since he took over for the late Larry Lucchino as president and CEO in 2015.

“This is as bad as it gets, and it’s been brutal,” Kennedy said. “But look, again, we can sulk and just give up or grind through it, which is exactly what we’re going to do.”