Don’t worry, Red Sox fans. The person you yell about the most to replace Alex Cora as manager is reportedly coming back to Boston in 2026.

According to multiple media reports, Red Sox legend Jason Varitek is returning to the coaching staff next season, marking him as yet another member of the 2025 staff avoiding a pink slip this offseason despite mounting fan pressure for the organization to make a change.

Ahead of last season, Varitek’s title on Cora’s staff changed from game-planning coordinator/catching coach to game-planning/run prevention coach. After serving in that first role from 2020 through 2024, the change in title came after the Red Sox hired catching coach Parker Guinn away from the Yankees.

Before joining Boston’s coaching staff in 2020, he worked as a special assistant/catching coach in a hybrid coaching/front office role over an eight-year span that began in 2012 after retiring from his decorated playing career that included two World Series rings as Boston's team captain. The 53-year-old has been linked to managerial openings in both Seattle and San Francisco in the past, and remains a name that continually gets brought up in manager-search rumors across the sport.

For now, Varitek remains on Cora’s staff as a seemingly over-qualified assistant. Whether or not his title remains the same for 2026 has not yet been reported.

My friend and WEEI colleague Rob Bradford wrote on X on Sunday evening that hitting coach Pete Fatse, pitching coach Andrew Bailey, third base coach Kyle Hudson, first base coach Jose Flores, bullpen coach Chris Holt and bench coach Ramon Vazquez will all be returning to Boston for the 2026 season.

If you’re someone who believes everything Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow says, this should come as no surprise.

Here was Breslow’s exchange on the coaching staff during last Monday’s end-of-season presser:

Question: Is your intention with the coaching staff to bring them back?

Craig Breslow: “Alex [Cora] and I are having conversations? You know, there's nothing to announce right now, outside of - our coaching staff did a very good job this year. Like I said, there were a number of challenges that they faced, and you could not question the commitment, the work ethic, the relationship that they have with players.”

Of that group of six names, there’s three that will raise the temperature of a large faction of fans across Red Sox Nation - Fatse, Bailey and Hudson.

The consternation towards Hudson is low hanging fruit after the decision to hold Nate Eaton at third base in game two of Boston’s Wild Card series with New York kept the Red Sox from taking a 4-3 lead in the top of the 7th. Boston would go on to lose that game 4-3, which led to a game three loss one night later to make the Red Sox the first team to blow a three-game Wild Card series after going up 1-0 since MLB flipped to this format in 2022.

It’s a long way of saying that Red Sox fans are mad about losing to the Yankees in the postseason (totally understandable), and they need someone to point the blame at. Hudson’s stop sign is an easy, tangible thing to look at and say, “Hey, that run would’ve helped!”

Hindsight is 20/20. Who knows if the Red Sox actually win that game if Eaton scores from second. Heck, who knows if Eaton even scores from second in that situation! All in all, Hudson returning is not the end of the world, and Boston fans should find a new slant.

(with that said, my man should have the shortest leash imaginable in 2026)

When it comes to Bailey and Fatse, I’m willing to hear the argument for either one’s departure.

I think at certain points this season and last, it felt like Bailey could be on his last leg in Boston - especially after reports started coming down that third baseman Alex Bregman was helping pitchers work through some of their issues with tipping pitches, not Bailey.

But then you look at Bailey’s season on the whole, and you have to tip your cap.

Look at the seasons he got out of Brayan Bello (11-9, 3.35 ERA) and Lucas Giolito (10-4, 3.41 ERA). Look at what Garrett Crochet (18-5, 2.59 ERA) was able to accomplish during his first season in Boston as the major-league leader in strikeouts (255). Look at Aroldis Chapman (32 saves, 1.17 ERA) having arguably his best season at age 37 after coming in with basically no expectations. Look at the success he had with young pitchers like Hunter Dobbins (4-1, 4.13 ERA) and Connelly Early (1-2, 2.33 ERA), and the flash we saw from Payton Tolle (0-1, 6.06 ERA) during his MLB debut against Paul Skenes (10-10, 1.97 ERA).

All of that to go along with weathering a storm of insane injuries to both the starting rotation and the bullpen, and it almost feels like Bailey might deserve a raise, not a pink slip. Even if the Red Sox are unable to add another frontline starter this offseason, that pitching staff alone will have Boston sporting some of the shortest odds to win the World Series in 2026.

The argument for Fatse’s departure is stronger, although he’s essentially the puppet for a front office insistent on pushing the Driveline hitting approach. If the front office were to fire Fatse, it would likely be just so they could find someone else they deem more qualified to push the same hitting agenda.

The bats got incredibly cold once the calendar turned to October. Outside of Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida, no one else was hitting consistently enough to give Boston a real chance to advance to the ALDS. There’s a faction of fans that would love to point to the hitting coach here and say they could have done more to get the bats going down the stretch.

I, myself, believe this was more of a talent issue than anything. And while I don’t think the Fatse/Driveline combo is perfect, I do look at the renaissance of Story at the plate, and the emergence of rookie phenom Roman Anthony, and I give Boston’s coaching staff a ton of credit. Neither one of those things happen in a vacuum.

In the grand scheme of things, I don’t believe changes on the staff either way make a huge difference for what this team’s outlook is for 2026 at the moment.

The Red Sox need to focus on adding talent. The rest will fall into place.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.