Red Sox now dealing with locker room issues after publicly blaming each other as Boston sinks into last place
In sports, there’s going in the right direction, and then there’s going in the direction the Boston Red Sox are going.
Boston entered the 2026 season with hopes of returning to the postseason for the second straight year. The front office appeared to have resolved their pitching issues and brought in Rangers Suarez, Patrick Sandoval and Sonny Gray to back up franchise star Garrett Crochet.
With Alex Bregman leaving in free agency, Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Marcelo Mayer have built a good young core around veteran stars like Willson Contreras and Trevor Story. Top prospect Kristian Campbell struggled in 2025, but still offered plenty of upside at just 23 years old.
They brought back coach Alex Cora, who won the 2018 World Series, and provided stability as one of the three longest-tenured managers with the same team.
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Fast forward about six weeks and Boston is in last place, 10 games behind the first-place New York Yankees. They lost a lot of points in the season. And the hitting side of Cora and his coaching staff is gone. Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow effectively cleaned house, hoping that a change in leadership would solve some of the team’s problems.
After last weekend, not only did this not work, but many players openly disagree with each other in the media. It’s the opposite of solving problems.
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora walks back into the dugout during the sixth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts on April 7, 2026. (Barry Chin/Boston Globe/Getty Images)
Willson Contreras and Marcelo Mayer disagree on players taking blame
The Houston Astros came to Fenway on Friday having been one of the worst teams in baseball early in the season. The pitching staff has been decimated by injury for the most part, with Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier and Josh Hader suffering various arm-related issues. Framber Valdez is in Detroit and his replacement, Tatsuya Imai, looked underwhelmed in his first few starts, then blamed his right to live and travel in the U.S. on arm fatigue.
Boston played its first game on Friday, but a 6-3 loss on Saturday and a 3-1 loss on Sunday continued the team’s problems. Sunday was especially tough for Red Sox fans, as Rafaela had a chance to tie the game with the bases loaded or win the game in extra, but it ended in a double play.
And then the players started blaming each other. According to Contreras Bulk LiveHe said it was “different” not having Cora at the shelter.
“It’s different not having Alex here,” he said. “But after Cora was sacked, the players relaxed a little more because I felt the tension was gone… That’s how I felt too. This is my own opinion. The team was a little looser when Alex wasn’t on the bench (anymore). But that doesn’t matter. We have to play better. We have to find consistency. We have to be better, we have to be better.”
He then became even more specific, pointing out the lack of experience of the young players in the squad.
“It probably won’t help to have a number of young players in the squad who don’t have much experience in dealing with crises,” he added.
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Marcelo Mayer, one of the young players, heard these words and clearly did not appreciate them.
Responding to Contreras’ criticism, Mayer said, “To me, this is a kind of excuse: blame the young people.” “But at the end of the day, we’re all playing baseball, we’re all professionals. We all know what we’re supposed to do. I don’t think we do a good job with runners in scoring position. You can’t score runs when you don’t do that.”
Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras looks on after his first at-bat against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minn., on April 14, 2026. (Jesse Johnson/Imagn Images)
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So key players are underperforming. The rotation has been hit by injuries, with Crochet now out with shoulder inflammation. They fired the coach and most of the coaching staff, and there are public disagreements between the experienced players and the young players. Despite being one of the sport’s richest and most successful organizations and playing in one of the league’s largest markets, its playoff chances have fallen to just 24%. Exactly what you want to see, with a month and a half left until the end of the season.
Boston Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow speaks to the media at JetBlue Park at Fenway South on February 11, 2026 in Fort Myers, Florida. (Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
Mayer is also right when he points out the team’s struggle with runners in scoring position. Boston has just a .695 OPS in such situations so far this season, which puts them 23rd out of 30 teams in the league. The team’s batting average is .243, while the league-leading Braves are hitting .300 overall. How much of this is random variance and small sample size? Red Sox fans better hope that’s most of the explanation, because otherwise this early-season swoon and dysfunctional bench could quickly end their hopes of a postseason run.
