Casas and Story Updates! Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer, Craig Breslow, joins! Breslow on Casas: "We are nearing the end of his rehab assignment." Breslow on Story: "I wouldn't say surprised that he wants to be back".
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00:00And Craig Breslow the chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox joins us this morning. Hey, Craig
00:08Hey, good morning has Theo given you the backstage meet-and-greet
00:13Eddie Vedder and offer yet for September 17th at Fenway
00:18He he hasn't yet, but my hope is it's coming. Okay. Yeah. How often do you see Theo? Is he around the ballpark?
00:26I
00:28Talked to him significantly more than I see him. He was up for a couple days
00:33About a week or so ago. Yeah, but more more phone calls quick check-ins via text
00:39And he obviously knows that he is welcome to be around as much as he'd like
00:44Has he been checking out the basketball in town a little bit more of late or?
00:51My conversations with him are exclusively about baseball
00:55Before we get well, you might not want to get to last night, but before we get to that
01:00As a player you got to experience the what the Jimmy fund does Dana Farber?
01:06This your first time the last couple days as the chief baseball officer
01:12It's pretty incredible what the Red Sox do and what the city does when it when it comes to helping those who are fighting cancer
01:20Yeah, no, no question about it
01:21there's just a different atmosphere different or around Fenway around the team for these couple of days and
01:28So many people have a hand in making it such a successful
01:32Radio telethon including all of you at WBI and then want to extend our appreciation, but the work that goes in is
01:39Incredible this year was especially meaningful and poignant
01:44Given how much Larry and wake had meant to to this
01:48But the ability to raise the almost four million dollars over a couple of days
01:52Toward cancer research is truly remarkable
01:55All right on to last night
01:57we were talking earlier about the bullpen and I think prior to the
02:03all-star break the the combined ERA was three
02:08Little over three three six seven or whatever. It's now over six. What what if anything?
02:13Task it the way Alec Lally would
02:16What do you see being the issue there?
02:19Yeah, you know, I think this comes down to execution and
02:23You know, we've got to figure out if this execution driven by fatigue isn't it execution driven intent?
02:28But you know, we're getting ourselves into two strike counts at about the same rate that we had in prior to the all-star break
02:35but we're not missing barrels, especially with two strikes and we can
02:40think about a handful of
02:43Breaking balls spin that stayed close to
02:46Standards that you know damage was done on and I think we've got to figure out a way to execute better
02:52I will take a look at whether it's pitch mix though
02:55The usage has been pretty consistent with what it was before the all-star break or what but obviously, you know
03:01We've got a pitch better
03:02we've got to figure out a way to hold leads as we get into late innings and
03:06Get the ball to guys like Martin who has been really good when when he's been healthy and Kelly who's been really good all
03:12Craig bullpen aside Alex Cora emphasized the importance of playing defense and in the need to play defense to be able to play into
03:20October
03:22Standing where you guys are right now. What is your biggest difficulty your biggest challenge to make it to October when it comes to this team?
03:30Yeah, you know I think
03:32Pitching and defense certainly stand out and in the first half
03:36It was the pitching that carried us and coming out of the all-star break. We swung the bats really really well
03:41We've got you know an offense that can score runs with any other team in the league
03:45But we've got to prevent them as well. And it's true. We've got a young team. That's
03:50athletic and
03:52Plays fast, but we've got to figure out a way to slow things down on defense and it's not from a lack of
03:58Effort or care or work?
04:00we've just got to continue to
04:02To you know force these guys to develop at the big league level and on the pitching side
04:06Like I said, you know, I think we've got to figure out how to preserve leads
04:10You know with
04:12The last turn through Tanner's been better cutters been better and getting bailed back as I've been good to that
04:17I will go tonight and so hopefully we can stabilize the rotation a bit and see some positive performances on that side as well
04:24Craig when you look at where you guys are in the standings and the importance of this series against Baltimore and
04:31Really being able to come away with winning this series to kind of keep pace in this tight wild-card race
04:39What what's the mindset? Is that the mindset in the clubhouse is to not split to come away winning this series against Baltimore?
04:48Yeah, you know
04:49I think the mindset has been pretty consistent except early a credit to
04:53Alex and the coaching staff and the players in the clubhouse that have focused on the task in front of them
04:58And so I don't think there's a ton of scoreboard watching and you know trying to root against the teams that we're facing
05:05I think there's a focus on the work that we have to do and that starts with winning tonight's game
05:10and you know, it's easy to get caught up in you know, the pitch to pitch and and
05:17Certainly last night's loss
05:20Was was incredibly difficult at the same time, you know
05:23We're in the middle of August and we're two games out of a playoff spot
05:26And I think we've got some guys returning that should help us and we've got a we've got to win the games that we can
05:32Win and that's the most important thing for us
05:35I would just ask Craig what's going on with Tristan Casas?
05:40Yeah, so I think we're nearing the the end of his rehab assignment
05:44I I would expect that he's going to be back with us soon. I think he was just kind of working through
05:51The
05:53Acclamation to swinging and hit the ball hitting ball hard with the recovery and recognizing that you know
05:59It's not going to feel in the ribcage area exactly like it did before he got hurt
06:04But figuring out, you know how to kind of manage this and work through it given that
06:10This is a base, you know, this is a baseball decision at this point medically, you know, he feels
06:15Pretty good. He feels probably as good as he's going to and the timing is coming back. He's had a couple good games
06:21And he feels like he's very very close to being ready
06:24How do you balance that with the need to get him up here him being cleared medically and then just waiting for the okay?
06:33Tristan feeling like he can actually do it
06:35Is there any encouraging that Alex or you or anybody on the staff does to tell him he could you know?
06:40He's ready to go up here to get it. We bet you the team needs him
06:45Yeah, I think he I think he knows that I think he also knows that a healthy
06:51Tristan is going to impact us far more than one who has reservations or hesitant. And so
06:59He's been very honest. We've been very honest with him
07:02And also should give some credit to you know, a guy like Dom who has stepped up in Tristan's absence and and contributed to a number
07:09of wins
07:10There's no question that we're you know, we're a better team with Tristan Constance's is on it, but that's only the case if he's
07:18Producing at the level that we're used to out of him speaking of getting guys back
07:23Were you surprised?
07:25When it came to Trevor's story that he wants to be available is available
07:30That was everybody kind of described that as season season ending in April. It was the organization surprised by that
07:37Pleasantly so you're very very excited about that. I wouldn't say
07:42Surprised that he wants to be back
07:45Super competitive guy that was just crushed, you know when this when this injury happens
07:51back in April, but I think
07:55Over the last two or three weeks
07:56We've seen such rapid progress that this went from you know
08:00a pipe dream to
08:02Potentially a reality watched him take batting practice on the field on Monday kind of joke
08:07He hit the ball over the monster and I said, I think you're gonna be ready tomorrow
08:11But it's been great to have him around the team, you know
08:14You always you looked out of the in the dugout you see him sitting sitting next to Alex right now
08:17It's like he's an additional coach another set of eyes, but hopefully pretty soon
08:21He's gonna be a guy who's playing shortstop for us
08:24We know that you can impact the game on both sides of the ball
08:27And I think we saw that a little bit in spring training and in April before he went down
08:30So I think just the idea that he might be back on the field has really uplifted the group and having him around it's had
08:36Such a positive impact on others Craig. It was a hard week for Jaron Duran for a player
08:41That's been pretty outspoken about his mental health struggles
08:44How important was it for the team to make sure that he took responsibility, but was also taken care of with the backlash?
08:51For sure, you know
08:53we felt like the incident warranted a very strong response from the organization and we certainly
08:59Recognize the the damage that had been done at the mistake that this was at the same time
09:03I think we also can recognize that Jaron is a good kid who made a mistake and you know
09:09Both of those things can be true and it's important that we and his teammates support him
09:13And I think you're seeing that because you know, I think Jaron took
09:18significant initiative in
09:21speaking to the media in showing a ton of
09:26accountability
09:27And in committing to doing the work to repair the damage that he's done
09:33Craig Breslow, thanks for taking the time and we will talk to you again soon
09:37Thank you. Appreciate it. There is as we would call him Craig Craig