Connor Wong in Red Sox shake-up as Craig Breslow fires Alex Cora
connor wong was part of a Red Sox clubhouse that changed overnight in Baltimore. Craig Breslow fired Alex Cora and five of the club’s most experienced coaches after a 17-1 win left Boston at 10-17. The move came with 135 games still to play.
Boston’s Baltimore reset
Breslow delivered the news in person after the victory at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The firings reached Jason Varitek, Ramón Vázquez, Pete Fatse, Dillon Lawson and Joe Cronin, a broad cut that removed both the manager and several of the staffers closest to the day-to-day work.
He said the remaining five months of the season led him to act when he did. Breslow also rejected the idea that the change had been lined up before the season began. “The idea that this was some predetermined outcome is just not true,” he said.
Varitek and the hitting staff
The split did not come out of nowhere inside the clubhouse. Multiple people in the Red Sox room in 2025 said the disconnect between Breslow and some coaches was already well known last season, and Breslow had questioned the abilities and methods of Fatse and his assistants.
Alex Bregman was reported to have gone to bat for the embattled hitting coaches at one point last season, a sign that the friction reached players as well as the front office. Bregman later signed a five-year, $175 million contract after the season.
Breslow brought a different background into the job than the coaches he dismissed. He carved out a 12-year career in the majors as a left-handed reliever before taking over at Fenway Park after the 2023 season.
Breslow’s authority in Boston
The firings leave Breslow’s imprint on the staff far more clearly than before. The change also strips away five of the most experienced voices around Cora’s dugout, with a 10-17 start and 135 games left giving the club little room to treat April as a small sample.
For Connor Wong and the rest of the roster, the immediate reality is a dugout run by a front office that has already shown it is willing to move fast. Boston no longer has the luxury of waiting for the season to sort itself out; the next stretch will be shaped by the staff Breslow chose to keep and the offense and pitching support that now have to answer for a 10-17 record.
