Ex-MLB GM Sounds Off on Craig Breslow as Red Sox Season Derails

The Boston Red Sox likely came into the season hoping to compete to win the American League East. They signed Alex Bregman and had promising young players who were expected to contribute to winning.

However, the Red Sox have traded Rafael Devers and are below .500 through 82 games. The Red Sox’s handling of Rafael Devers’ position change and communication has been put under a microscope after a long saga that resulted in the team trading its franchise player. Former MLB general manager Dan O’Dowd had some strong words for chief baseball officer Craig Breslow as the Red Sox’s season continues to derail.

“He doesn’t act like (a former player) to me,” O’Dowd said on “Foul Territory.” “It’s perplexing to me. He acts like a lot of current general managers, which is thinking players are part of a portfolio that you buy and sell. (Devers) didn’t handle it maturely, but I don’t think the expectation was that you should have expected him to handle it maturely.”

“They screwed themselves with their comments after the Rafael Devers deal,” O’Dowd continued. “I don’t think they’re a good team. I think the sum of their parts does not equal the bigger part. I think they should be sellers at the deadline. When you come out publicly and say, ‘Listen, we are not taking a step back with the Devers deal,’ your credibility begins to erode to the point that may not be salvageable if you keep going back on the things that you promise.”

O’Dowd managed the Colorado Rockies from 1999-2014. He helped lead them to the 2007 World Series, where they lost to the Red Sox.

According to MassLive’s Christopher Smith, Devers was asked to play first base by Breslow when Triston Casas suffered a season-ending injury. Devers had already been reluctant to give up playing third base for Bregman. Devers was upset when Breslow requested him to change positions again and went on a rant to reporters.

Now the Red Sox are fighting to make the postseason without Devers, while Bregman is also hurt. If they cannot turn things around by the July 31 deadline, it may be in their best interest to sell and give up on the season.

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