Boston Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Discusses Potential Leadership Void

It hasn't been the start anyone expected for the Boston Red Sox, who came out of the gate with a 4-8 record in their first 12 games. In 2025, the team made its first playoff appearance since 2021, and in the offseason set its sights on building a team capable of contending for a World Series title in 2026. 

Thanks to the additions of Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray, the new look Sox were built on run prevention, one of Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow's calling cards during his time with the Chicago Cubs. Boston entered the season with the second-highest pitching WAR projections on Fangraphs, while national pundits hailed them as having had one of the best offseasons of any team in baseball. 

Yet something has looked and felt off for the majority of the first two weeks of the season. The Red Sox have looked like a disconnected team at times, without anyone in the clubhouse who could stand up and pull everyone together to weather the storm, a role left unfilled when third baseman Alex Bregman left Boston for the Cubs. 

Sure, the Red Sox added plenty of veteran pieces, like Suarez, Gray, and first baseman Willson Contreras, but none came with the same pedigree in leadership that came with Bregman when he arrived in March of 2025. Bregman immediately took on a leadership role within the team, buying suits for the Red Sox trio of top prospects, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Kristian Campbell, forming bonds with the next wave of Red Sox stars and showing them what it's like to be a big leaguer. 

After being teammates again, perhaps for the final time, with Bregman at the World Baseball Classic, Anthony shared just how much of an impact the veteran has had on his career, telling the Boston Globe's Alex Speier, "He’s helped me up until this point more than anyone probably in the big league level. Being with him last year and learning from him and the way that he has been as good as he is and the way that he game-plans and everything, and knowing that he just transforms a clubhouse," 

Breslow joined WEEI's 'The Greg Hill Show' on Thursday for his bi-weekly appearance, where he downplayed the lack of leadership within the Red Sox clubhouse. "I don't think it's a leadership gap in terms of guys are looking around the room and trying to figure out who's going to speak up... there are veteran guys who have had success, who have won World Series," Breslow explained to the show.

He did offer an interesting reason behind why the team has appeared so disconnected. "I think, maybe in part because the team just didn't spend a ton of time together this spring," Breslow said, citing the team's 15 participants in the World Baseball Classic, "The team is still kind of coming together, building relationships, forging that identity," he continued. 

As for who may step up into leadership roles, Breslow suggested several veteran pieces, Trevor Story, Jarren Duran, Garrett Crochet, Contreras, and Gray, all of whom he dubbed as "very, very capable of carrying a leadership position". The Red Sox will need one of these veterans to step up into that leadership role. Since 1903, only 14 teams have made the playoffs after a 2-7 start to the season, which Boston had.

The Red Sox will look to inch closer to .500 when they kick off a six-game road trip on Friday night in St.Louis, when Connelly Early takes the mound opposite former Red Sox starter Dustin May. First pitch from Busch Stadium at 8:10 p.m. ET. 

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