3 Red Sox Who Should Be Fired Next

2. Dave Bush

I mentioned this the other day, but Boston’s pitching staff has been a major problem since Dave Bush took over as the team’s pitching coach after the 2019 season. Just look at the team’s ERA since then:

• 2020: 5.58 ERA (28th in MLB)
• 2021: 4.27 ERA (15th in MLB)
• 2022: 4.53 ERA (24th in MLB)
• 2023: 4.60 ERA (21st in MLB)

No wonder the Red Sox keep finishing in last place.

When you have a manager who used to be a position player like Alex Cora was, the pitching coach becomes even more important. The manager relies on him to know and see things that a position player wouldn’t know and to give him good advice. In that regard, Bush has clearly failed.

It’s not like Bush is a proven coach who just didn’t gel in Boston either. Just about his entire journey into coaching has been within the organization.

Bush spent three years as a pitching development analyst and had a short stint as a minor league pitching coordinator before becoming the Sox’ pitching coach. Whatever the organization thought they saw during that stint in the minors was clearly not enough.

You don’t like to give up on a guy who you developed in-house, but sometimes you’ve just gotta admit your mistakes and cut your losses.

The team’s pitching problems go much deeper than Bush, of course, but whatever he’s doing isn’t working. Boston needs to hire someone else to handle the pitching staff and see if things improve next year.