SARASOTA, FL - MARCH 20: Manager Jason Varitek #33 of the Boston Red Sox looks on from the dugout prior to the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium on Friday, March 20, 2026 in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Scott Audette/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
MLB Photos via Getty Images
The Boston Red Sox suffered a second straight loss to the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, settling into last place in the American League East division as the franchise faces some larger questions about its direction.
The front office made the drastic decision to fire long-time manager Alex Cora and many of his coaches as they struggled to open the season, but that move hasn’t driven much of an improvement yet.
“The firing of manager Alex Cora just 27 games into the season indicates there’s plenty of pressure on the organization to turn things around, and (chief baseball officer Craig) Breslow’s job security has also come into question since Cora’s removal,” Mark Polishuk noted for MLB Trade Rumors.
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The team will need a significant turnaround to surge into the playoffs as they did last season. And even if they do manage that, there seem to be some bridges that the team has burned for good after cutting ties with Cora and reassigning franchise legend Jason Varitek to a new role.
“I don’t care honestly,” Andy Barkett, who won a World Series championship with the Red Sox as a hitting coach in 2018, wrote on X in response to a post about the team’s losing streak at Fenway Park this season. “A org that can turn their back on Jason Varitek has lost my respect.”
Barkett was dismissed from his role with the team in 2019, but he was voicing an opinion on Varitek that is shared by many contemporary staff members and fans, as well as former players.
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It was not immediately clear if Varitek would accept a new assignment from the Red Sox after the team fired Cora, but his wife seemed to indicate that he would not when she wrote that the team will “be OK without Jason, that’s what they wanted.”
Legendary pitcher Pedro Martinez shared a similar sentiment earlier this month.
“To me, Tek is a legend here, and I’m not going to go into details because I don’t know,” Martinez said after throwing a ceremonial pregame pitch for the team, per The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey. “If I knew, I’d tell you straight up, too. I’d tell you why (he was reassigned), but I don’t know. But it’s very unfortunate that I don’t get to see my batterymate out there, giving me a hug or probably receiving the baseball from me when I threw it today.”
As the team struggles to justify the decision to fire Cora and move most of his staff, it seems some key figures from the past have counted them out.
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