Boston Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow Discusses Slow Start

After an offseason that had many national pundits pegging the Boston Red Sox as one of the favorites to come out of the American League, Boston has come out of the gate limping to an 7-11 start that has them in last place in the American League East. Amid the slow start, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow made his bi-weekly appearance on WEEI's The Greg Hill Show . Here's everything you need to know: Frustration over the start While Breslow acknowledged some amount of frustration with the 7-11 start to the season, he remained focused on the longer-term outlook, focusing rather on why the inconsistencies exist, rather than the results of the games, saying, "Sure, there's frustration in terms of the inconsistency to the play, and there's frustration in terms of the results...

We try to balance frustration because we want to win games. We know that we can't go back and reverse the outcomes, but also recognize that we're 18 games into this. " Breslow is right, the Red Sox do still have 89% of the regular season to play, though there are plenty of concerning metrics to start the season.

The team ranks in the bottom five in baseball in both home runs and slugging percentage . For an offense that was constructed based on putting the ball in play, that alone is not cause for alarm. However, they also haven't done a great job of that, striking out 23.

4% of the time, the 11th highest strikeout rate in baseball. After years of having one of the worst infield defenses in baseball, Breslow constructed the 2026 lineup to improve upon that, especially with the additions of Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray, yet, through the first 18 games of the season, the Red Sox have committed the fourth most errors in baseball (14). The anchor of the infield defense, shortstop Trevor Story , has committed four.