The Boston Red Sox front office isn’t running a script for their managers. Manager Chad Tracy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow both claim that data doesn’t dictate how they handle in-game moves. Following a difficult defeat in the American League Wild Card Series versus the New York Yankees, this occurred.
The tension started after the team lost two games in New York. In both contests, the Red Sox pulled their starting pitchers during the fifth inning. This led to an 18-2 total score loss across those games. First baseman Willson Contreras didn’t hold back on the strategy. “It’s not enough when you have talent or you have data or you have computers that’s telling you what to do, because this is baseball,” Contreras said last week, per the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
No directive from the front office
Breslow wants to clear the air regarding the team’s use of scouting and data. He claimed that there is no team-wide rule for how analytics are used. “I would push back on the notion that somehow the role of the scout or the importance of the scout has been diminished in this organization. That’s not the case,” Breslow said. He noted the team looks at data to help with roster builds and player investments, but he insists the value of scouts remains.
Tracy faces his own heat for how he handled pitching. Trailing 1-0 in the opening game, he took rookie Payton Tolle out after 4 2/3 innings and 83 pitches. He also pulled Sonny Gray during Game 2. Gray had a great regular season, going 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA. He led the American League in winning percentage. Yet, Gray was pulled after just 70 pitches and 4 2/3 innings in that second loss. Gray noted that he “would have liked to have been trusted in that moment.”
The manager holds the reins
Tracy says the decisions belong to him alone. He pushed back against the idea that the front office gives him instructions on when to pull players. “(Those) decisions are mine. We have information, just like all the other 29 teams have information. Everybody has that,” Tracy said, per the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
The Red Sox saw a massive summer surge. After Alex Cora was fired, Tracy took over and led the club on a 32-5 run. This hot streak brought Boston back to the postseason. The rotation also changed when Garrett Crochet went on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation.
