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Crochet: Alex Cora, Red Sox coaches ‘paid the cost of our own crime’ with firing
"Ultimately, I blame myself a lot for where we’re at this year."
The mood in the Red Sox’ visiting clubhouse in Baltimore on Sunday was one of confusion, anger, and sadness — an expected sentiment after Boston fired Alex Cora and several coaches the previous evening.
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Several veteran players acknowledged ahead of Sunday’s matinee game against the Orioles that they were still seeking answers from Boston’s top brass after such a seismic coaching overhaul just 27 games into a new season.
“Obviously, it’s kinda up in the air what the true direction is,” shortstop Trevor Story said. “Those are conversations that need to be had and they’ll be had today and onward going forward, too. Some of the direction needs to be cleared up a little bit, in my opinion.”
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Amid that confusion, Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet was candid about the role that an underachieving Boston roster played in Cora’s exit.
“We’ve been playing terrible,” Crochet said on Sunday to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “I kind of feel like those guys paid the cost of our own crime. That’s the tough part you have to battle internally, I suppose. It caused a lot of us to be introspective.
“I consider myself, whether it be in the clubhouse or on the field, a leader of this team. There were a lot of times I either had the chance to reverse momentum or keep our momentum going and I let the team down. Ultimately, I blame myself a lot for where we’re at this year. Even if I’m throwing once every five days, it’s really just a statement thing. When I go out there and pitch well, it allows the rest of the guys to keep doing their thing and for the cog to keep churning.”
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Crochet — the runner-up for the AL Cy Young Award last season with Boston — has been one of many key cogs on Boston’s roster that have labored so far in 2026.
Even after recording six shutout innings in Saturday’s win over Baltimore, Crochet is only 3-3 with a 6.30 ERA across six starts so far this year.
Even with Story and several other veterans seeking more answers from Craig Breslow and Red Sox executives about the direction of the franchise, Crochet stressed that the onus falls on the players to right the ship on the field.
“Ultimately, it’s our job as a team to go out there and play,” Crochet said. “It’s the front office’s job to put us in position to win games and put us in a position to succeed.
“Maybe this is just speaking personally but I feel like we have been put in position to succeed and we haven’t gotten the job done, you know? And that’s why it sucks, because something like that falls on the players, not the staff.”
While the Red Sox are now moving forward with interim manager Chad Tracy, Boston lefty Connelly Early also delivered a hat tip to his former manager when asked about Boston’s bounce-back play in Sunday’s 5-3 win over Baltimore.
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“I just think we played really good baseball,” Early, the winning pitcher, said. “We played hard baseball today. We stole some bags, got some really big knocks in there, pitched the ball really well. So that’s the way [Alex Cora] wants us to go out there and play. And I think we did a really good job just sticking with what we do.”
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