The Red Sox are heading to the postseason following a remarkable run over the second half of the season and on Tuesday they rewarded the two chief architects of that turnaround.
Boston removed the interim tag and named Chad Tracy the 49th manager in team history, signing him to a three-year contract that will run through the 2029 season, with a club option for 2030. The Red Sox also announced that it has exercised the 2029 and 2030 options on chief
baseball officer Craig Breslow.
The elevation of the 41-year-old Tracy comes after the Red Sox secured a wild-card spot in the playoffs on Sunday. Tracy took over in April after former manager Alex Cora was fired following a 10-17 start to the season.
Tracy has since guided the Red Sox to a 74-55 record, which included a 15-game win streak that tied the franchise record set in 1946. Boston's 27-3 (.900) record from July 3 through Aug. 7 was the best 30-game span in franchise history.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for a team that was 32-46 and 15 1/2 games back in the AL East race on June 24.
“Over the last three years, we have watched Craig bring clarity, discipline, and conviction to the work of building our baseball operation. Chad was asked to step into a difficult situation with little notice, but the trust he immediately commanded at the major league level was earned through years of work across our organization," Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said in a statement. “What this team has accomplished over the past several months has been historic.”
Breslow, 46, was hired in October 2023. A 2013 World Series champion with Boston, he is only the fourth former Red Sox player to lead the club’s baseball operations efforts.
In his three seasons in the role, the Red Sox have gone 254-226 (.529), the third-best record in the AL.
Tracy served as the manager of the Red Sox’s Triple-A team in Worcester since 2022, leading the WooSox to a winning record in each of his four full seasons as manager. That came after seven previous years managing in the Los Angeles Angels minor league system.
A third-round pick by the Texas Rangers in the third round of the 2006 draft out of Pepperdine University, Tracy also played eight professional seasons (2006-13) in the Rangers, Colorado Rockies and Kansas City Royals organizations.
___
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
