How did SP Giolito look in his Sox debut? #Redsox Chief Baseball Officer, Craig Breslow, joins! How does Breslow feel the bullpen is doing? #MLB
Did Alex Cora convince Breslow to bring in Bregman?
What does Breslow make of fans going "over the line"?
Did Alex Cora convince Breslow to bring in Bregman?
What does Breslow make of fans going "over the line"?
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SportsTranscript
00:00It is the Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox, Craig Breslow, who joins us this morning.
00:04Hey, Craig.
00:06Hey, good morning.
00:07Lucas Giolito, first start back last night.
00:10How did you think it went?
00:12Yeah, I thought he threw the ball really, really well, obviously.
00:15Kept us in the game, gave us six innings.
00:17I thought he was really sharp.
00:19Fastball change of command worked really, really well.
00:22And I think more than anything, it was great for him, great for us just to get him back on the mound.
00:26Craig, you guys, when you look at where you are with runs as a team, pretty high.
00:33How do you feel the bullpen is doing, though, because there are some games that you're losing leads?
00:40Yeah, I mean, I think generally we've protected leads quite well.
00:45Obviously, this morning it's easy to talk about last night's game.
00:49But when we have a lead and we get the ball to guys like Whitlock and Slayton and Chapman
00:54and there are others who are starting to emerge, we feel pretty good.
00:58And I think that's a credit to those guys.
01:02It's the usage and keeping them fresh, and it's our starters being able to pitch deep into games.
01:06Craig, you guys are two games over .500, and Wiggy brings up last night, it was a close one there.
01:12You've had some close games, but a majority of them have been either you guys have crushed a team
01:16or a team has crushed you guys.
01:19What do you attribute to that disparity between leads and losses?
01:24Disparity.
01:24Disparity.
01:25Yes.
01:25Yeah, I think our offense was such that, to your point, we either scored a bunch of runs
01:34or it seemed like we didn't score any at all.
01:36I think there's been a consistency over the last couple of weeks where we're seeing what we're capable of,
01:41which is scoring runs in bunches.
01:43We've got guys that can get on base and run, and then the middle of the order that can hit the ball out of the park.
01:48And then we need to add some consistency to the rotation, and hopefully we can get guys like Tanner back on track.
01:55And Crochet has been pretty consistently really, really good.
01:59Bueller's been really good his last turns through, getting healthy and getting Bayo back and Giolito back.
02:04I think we believe going into the season that we should have an offense that was capable of putting up runs in bunches.
02:10And then I think the other thing is the defense has stabilized over the last couple of weeks,
02:13and that was something that we were not particularly proud of early on in the season.
02:19Speaking of the defense, a guy that you brought in, Alex Bregman, to solidify that as third in the American League
02:24and hits, has been hitting the cover off the ball lately.
02:27I'm curious, Alex was very public, Alex Cora, in his desire to pursue Bregman.
02:34Did he convince you?
02:36How did that work this offseason that you guys ended up getting Bregman in here?
02:39Yeah, no, I think when you have an opportunity to bring in a great player like Alex is,
02:48then you want to be as aggressive as you can in doing so.
02:52What Alex Cora had was a relationship with Bregman and experience with the type of leadership
03:00and influence he can have on the clubhouse.
03:05That's something that obviously we couldn't have been as familiar with,
03:08but in terms of evaluating the player, we saw that he was such a great fit,
03:11given the profile, given the defense, and then the way that Alex could speak to,
03:16and I realize how confusing it is when we're talking about two Alexes,
03:19the way that Alex Cora could speak to just the positive leadership and impact that he could have.
03:24So there was no convincing.
03:25It was more a matter of Alex Cora being able to endorse all of those things
03:29and then our needing to be aggressive while also being responsible and patient
03:35to see if we could bring these things together.
03:37Craig, during my lead this morning, talked a little bit about Aaron Judge standing up for Jaron Duran
03:43and talking about how fans at times can step over the line with the things that they say,
03:53having a little bit of time to reflect on what happened during that situation and in general.
03:58Do you feel like there's something that Major League Baseball needs to do?
04:03Or is this the same kind of thing happening when you were playing?
04:07Where are you at it currently with fans?
04:11Yeah, well, I think, first of all, of course, what the fan did in Cleveland was completely unacceptable.
04:18We recognize that.
04:19The Guardians recognize that.
04:20And Major League Baseball recognizes that.
04:21And, you know, I think Jaron, in his comments, talked about how he felt supported
04:28and he has the resources behind him, which is fantastic.
04:34And every situation that arises like this is a reminder of how important it is to bring this conversation
04:41about mental health and mental health struggles into the open,
04:44but also how much work there is to do because it's very clearly still stigmatized.
04:48And so do I think that there's, you know, there are things that Major League Baseball can do
04:52and individual teams can do?
04:53Like, of course, there's always more that we can do.
04:55But to see players stand up for each other, I thought was really, really powerful,
04:59but especially a player who is as accomplished and visible as Aaron is.
05:05Craig, I know that you were asked yesterday about guys like Marcelo Meyer and Roman Anthony
05:11and when they're going to get called up.
05:13And you said that it's a balancing act.
05:15Do you think that we will see them with the Red Sox this season?
05:21I hate to put timelines on these things because I just I don't think it's fair to the players.
05:27I don't think it's fair to the organization.
05:29But Marcelo, Roman and others are really talented players that we think are going to have a significant impact
05:36on our Major League team.
05:37Exactly when that is is really hard to know.
05:40But those guys have clear development goals that they're working through.
05:45They're making a ton of progress.
05:47And when the opportunity is right for them to impact our team, they'll be here.
05:50Craig, I know it's still early in the season, but Casas continues to struggle.
05:55When do you as an organization start to feel like, OK, we might have to figure out what plan B is?
06:02Yeah, we want to put the best team on the field that we possibly can.
06:08The one that gives us the best chance of winning games.
06:10And I think we've seen some signs from Tristan that things could be trending in the right direction
06:15over the last week and a half or so.
06:17It seems like there have been some some in-game performance that has been encouraging,
06:25whether it's a couple of hits the other night, a couple of home runs on the home stand.
06:29But more than that, just about being on time and getting his best swing off,
06:33not allowing hittable pitches to pass by in the strike zone.
06:36We've seen some more of that.
06:38And so we're encouraged.
06:40But at the same time, you know, our job is to put the best team on the field that we possibly can.
06:45I want to give you the opportunity before you go to call me stupid.
06:48So we were talking earlier about the Dodgers.
06:52And some of us were complaining and were wildly concerned that this team is going to spend way over the cap
07:02and it's unfair to everybody else.
07:04And they are basically 500 their last 20 games.
07:07So is that are we stupid for worrying about that?
07:12Well, I think the Dodgers are a really good team.
07:18And I think that that will bear out throughout the season.
07:20They're a little bit banged up.
07:22But it's true that the amount of money that you spend is not the perfect proxy for how good a team you're going to have.
07:30And that's baseball.
07:31And there's a ton of variance.
07:32Now, given that we play 162 games, for the most part, the best teams end up on top at the end of the season.
07:38So I think it's probably premature to characterize any teams at this point.
07:42Craig, when do you have a pretty good understanding of your team?
07:46Is there a benchmark?
07:47Is there a number of games, analytic-wise, that you can say that you have an understanding?
07:51How many of these do we have to play before you see what the problems may be?
07:55I think some of it depends on the track records of the players.
08:00You know, we saw Bregman make a handful of errors in the first couple weeks of the season
08:04and felt like that's not something that we expect to continue.
08:08And, you know, it largely hasn't.
08:10And, you know, you look at the start that Rafi got off to and figured, like,
08:14this guy is just too talented for this to continue.
08:16And, you know, he's hit the ball really, really hard over the last couple of days.
08:21And he's impacting games now with the bat.
08:24So a little bit of that depends on, you know, how much information you have going into this.
08:29But, like, I think at least, you know, a third of the season is reasonable to start to draw some conclusions about.
08:37And it's not necessarily, like, what your team is, but it could be opportunities to improve, you know,
08:41where you start to see some diminished depth, you know,
08:47when you start to think about what you might want to do as the trade deadline approaches.
08:51What does the analytics say about how many times you can straight steal home plate?
08:54Undefined.
08:57There is as many times as you get guys on third, I guess.
09:01But, no, what an exciting couple days.
09:04And Jaren's, obviously, in particular, it's a glimpse into the type of impact he can have on a game.
09:12And, you know, he's struggling a little bit going into that Cleveland series,
09:15particularly struggling against lefties.
09:16Had a bunch of hits, got on base.
09:18And we saw what that could do to defenses.
09:21Well, that's one area where you guys have really done a good job is what you speed on the base pass.
09:25It's interesting because you talk about guys having a track record.
09:29For a guy like Casas who doesn't really have much of a track record,
09:34how difficult is it to stay patient knowing that you're just looking at, like,
09:40oh, he could have some good swings or he's hitting the ball hard,
09:43even though he's not putting it into play?
09:46Hey, it has to be difficult to stay patient with a guy that you're starting to maybe just see some things
09:52that might not be leading to hits.
09:56Yeah, and so we try to focus on some of the underlying process
10:01and make sure that the work day-to-day is good and that we're seeing encouraging signs.
10:04But, of course, it's hard to stay patient.
10:07It's hard to stay patient for all of us, Tristan included,
10:09because we tend to want to react to what we saw in last night's game.
10:15And baseball is just, you know, the nature of baseball in the baseball season.
10:19It's such that that's not the best approach here, but that doesn't make it any easier.
10:23All right, Craig, thanks for taking the time.
10:25We will talk to you again next week or whenever.
10:29Sounds good. Thanks.
10:31All right.
10:31That is Craig Breslow, Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox,
10:34Red Sox Front Office Report.