The Red Sox are moving on from six coaches, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. According to Speier, the departures from Alex Cora’s staff include first base coach Andy Fox, bullpen coach Kevin Walker, assistant hitting coach Luis Ortiz, mental skills coach Rey Fuentes, trainer Ben Chadwick and bullpen catcher Mani Martinez.
Fox was promoted to first base coach this past season. He’d previously spent time as Boston’s field coordinator. Fox had been in the organization for more than a decade. He played parts of nine seasons in the big leagues as a utility infielder, spending the bulk of that time with the Diamondbacks and Marlins.
Ortiz, who briefly appeared in the majors with the Red Sox during the mid-1990s, had been an assistant hitting coach for the last three years. Ortiz held the lead hitting job on Chris Woodward’s staffs with the Rangers between 2018-21. Ben Rosenthal has overlapped with Ortiz as an assistant to primary hitting coach Peter Fatse in Boston.
The Sox tabbed Walker as bullpen coach during the 2020-21 offseason. He’d spent the shortened season as an assistant pitching coach. Boston’s bullpen has generally been middle-of-the-pack over the past four years. The relief group was a disappointment this season, finishing 24th with a 4.39 earned run average and 23rd in strikeout percentage (21.9%). The bullpen cratered down the stretch. Only the Nationals’ relievers had a lower strikeout rate in the second half. No team had a worse ERA after the All-Star Break than the Sox’s 5.45, while Boston relievers led MLB with 16 blown leads.
That’s not all on the coaching staff, of course. The front office’s deadline pickups of Lucas Sims and Luis García didn’t work. Kenley Jansen missed most of September, while Chris Martin was shelved for the bulk of July. Nevertheless, the bullpen was one of the biggest factors in the Sox falling out of the Wild Card race, so they’ll look for a new voice. Strengthening the group in front of Rule 5 success story Justin Slaten and a hopefully health Liam Hendriks should be an offseason priority for Craig Breslow and his staff.
Rsox
Probably would have let the hitting coaches go too. Drastic shift in philosophy from the first half to the second half led to an anemic second half offense
sheerterror
Too bad they renewed the manager; he should be on this list out the door also!
hiflew
Mental skills coach? Really? If they continue to broaden coaches away from the physical, I might still have a shot at being a big league coach one day. I cannot help with your swing, but I might be able to help your with mother issues.
raisinsss
So much money is invested into baseball performance that even a slight benefit from an ~$80,000 investment is worthwhile.
hiflew
I know, it just struck me as funny.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
This won’t fix anything
Boston won’t be fixed until Cora is gone and Henry spends again
dasit
wait the bullpen coach actually impacts on-field performance? i thought they just answered the phone and passed along instructions
DecaturRagun
Future HOF pitching coach Brent Strom can fix the Red Sox pitching issues, he finally realized major internal issues with the Dbacks after consulting with Roger Beshens Football Slider. Red Sox should hire Strom and have Roger Beshens do individual sessions all throughout the organization with pitchers, this would expedite the time pitchers develop. Whoever they hired last year and previously doesn’t know the techniques needed for that Roger Beshens Football Slider.
DecaturRagun
More and more upper management personnel are recognizing it’s all about teaching pitchers that Slider, inside the lines it’s called the Roger Beshens Football Slider. The Sweeper, Gyro that’s the RBFS, If you don’t know it Google it click images,video.
Nobody teaches it better than Roger Beshens, he was consulting with Strom, (Ryne Nelson) development all 2024 even in the Dbacks clubhouse.
Strom recently said there was a major internal issues, that’s the issue and it needs to be taught ALL throughout the organization. Dback’s AAA, AA failed miserably in having higher tier RB Football Slider guys ready. If the Red Sox hired Roger Beshens in ONE MONTH there would be DOZENS of guys advanced. Realize Giolito couldn’t avg over a K an IP until 2019 guess what pitch he learned? Guess why he shortened his arm path? Roger Beshens Football Slider.