Boston Red Sox GM Craig Breslow has been quite open about the future of the team and the organization overall since they traded away Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants.
Even after trading Devers and falling into another slump that brought them back below .500, Breslow still believes the Red Sox to be buyers rather than sellers at the trade deadline, with the goal in mind to improve for 2025, as he explained on WEEI on Thursday.
"We would be looking to improve our team. We would be looking to improve our team for 2025. Because despite the fact that we haven’t been able to string together the consistent performance that we think we’re capable of, we’re still very much staring down a Wild Card chance. And nobody has really run away with the AL East."Red Sox GM Craig Breslow
That was great to hear from the Red Sox GM. But then Breslow started to explain that some of the recent struggles are a result of being a “poor fundamental team” all across the board of the organization, and it starts with the minor league system, according to Breslow.
“Recognizing that we’ve been a poor fundamental team in the big-leagues for a long time [what it] has forced us to do is look at the way that we’re doing things in the minor leagues too and question whether or not we’re preparing guys to be successful at the major league level. And if you look at our performance in base-running and on defense in the minor leagues at each of our affiliates, that’s been struggling too.”
Although there’s some truth to be found in Breslow’s criticism, there’s more proof of the minor league system being successful in growing the top talent that they’ve been given than not. It takes time to develop a young player, sometimes a teenager, to be MLB-ready, which they’ve done well with in recent years.
It’s fair to say that there might be more problems in Boston than there are in the minor league systems. The young players coming and going from Worcester are making more errors when they’re with Boston than they do with Worcester, so what does that ultimately say about the system?
Here’s a look at the variance of errors between players in Boston vs Worcester, per Baseball Reference:
- Kristian Campbell: BOS: 7 Errors, WOR: 1 Error
- Wilyer Abreu: BOS: 5 Errors, WOR: 0 Errors
- Abraham Toro: BOS: 4 Errors, WOR: 4 Errors
- Romy Gonzalez: BOS: 4 Errors, WOR: 0 Errors
- Marcelo Mayer: BOS: 2 Errors, WOR: 5 Errors
- Roman Anthony: BOS: 1 Error, WOR: 0 Errors
While it’s fair for Breslow to want to improve all aspects of the organization, he should really stay focused on how things are running in Boston, where there’s more evidence of dysfunction in the clubhouse and front office than there is with other parts of their organization and farm system.