Red Sox fire coaches Bush and Febles
Pitching, defense struggled
The Red Sox have fired pitching coach Dave Bush and third base coach/infield instructor Carlos Febles.
Bush had been the pitching coach since the 2020 season, following three years as a Red Sox minor league pitching coordinator. But with the pitching staff having struggled to a 4.52 ERA this season (21st in the big leagues), the team elected to go in a different direction.
The Sox promoted Bush to oversee their big league pitchers following the 2019 season, viewing him as the right person to blend traditional hands-on instruction with feedback and game-planning informed by the analytics department. While the 2020 staff was gutted by injuries and endured one of the worst seasons in the big leagues with a revolving-door rotation, the Sox bounced back behind a healthy rotation in 2021 to reach the playoffs and advance to the ALCS.
The 2022 and 2023 seasons saw the Red Sox integrate a growing number of young pitchers into their staff, including Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Josh Winckowski, and Chris Murphy. Moreover, Nick Pivetta re-emerged from a significant struggle at the start of 2023 — which resulted in his move to the bullpen — to become one of the more effective pitchers in the big leagues over the final 3½ months.
That said, and while the Sox enjoyed considerable success from a bullpen anchored by Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin, the season-long struggles of the rotation played a significant role in the fall from contention. Sox starters posted a 4.68 ERA (22nd in the big leagues) and averaged just 4.8 innings per start (fourth fewest).
Febles, a longtime minor league instructor, was add
ed to the coaching staff for the 2018 season. But while he drew praise for the progress of Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, the team’s defensive collapse in 2023 contributed to the change.
According to Statcast, the Sox ranked last in the big leagues in both Outs Above Average (50 outs below average) and Runs Allowed (40 runs below average). While the Sox engaged in more on-field pregame infield work, it didn’t yield the desired improvement.
Last Monday, before any changes to the staff were announced, manager Alex Cora made clear that the Sox expected to raise the bar in terms of their coaching work with players.
“We just had a meeting an hour ago with our coaching staff, and the tone of our conversation was we have to find ways to improve our players,” said Cora. “You have to be willing to adjust what we have tried to do the last few years for them to be better.”
Cora was asked if the need for improved methods meant a need to alter the coaching staff.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think we just have to be better. We have to be willing to go and talk to people and adjust our routines. That’s something we’ve been talking about the whole season.
“I know people talk about the coaching staff, but the people that followed us the whole time, you guys saw it, we did a lot of things we don’t usually do. It didn’t work. It’s not lack of trying, lack of effort, lack of knowledge. You’ve just got to keep trying to find ways to be better and it’s on us.”
One week later, however, it appears that the Sox decided to alter their staff in pursuit of that change in methodology.
The Sox also fired Japanese translator Keiichiro Wakabayashi, who joined the staff following the signing of Masataka Yoshida. The team felt the communication between Yoshida and the coaches needed to be improved.
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A pair of highly regarded members of the coaching staff in Triple A Worcester have been informed they won’t be back with the Red Sox organization in 2024.
WooSox pitching coach Paul Abbott and assistant hitting coach Mike Montville have been told by the organization that their contracts won’t be renewed, Red Sox farm director Brian Abraham confirmed.
Abbott, a veteran of parts of 11 big-league seasons between 1990 and 2004, spent 13 years as a pitching coach for the Red Sox, starting with the short-season Lowell Spinners in 2011-12, then moving to Single A Greenville (201314), High A Salem (2015-17), and Double A Portland (2018-19). He took over as the Triple A pitching coach the last four years — first with Pawtucket in 2020, then in Worcester the last three years.
In the last four years, the Red Sox have seen their steadiest influx of homegrown pitchers impacting the major leagues in more than 15 years. Nearly every homegrown pitcher (and some pitchers from outside the organization) who came to the big leagues over that time — including Tanner Houck, John Schreiber, Kutter Crawford, and most recently Nick Robertson — cited changes made with Abbott’s assistance as a factor in their reaching the big leagues.
“I’m very proud of the 13 years I’ve been a Red Sox, and I feel very proud of the last four years, working through COVID, working with some people who helped me grow as a pitching coach, growing into the new age of technology,” said Abbott. “I’m very proud of the last four years, watching guys go up there, perform well, and start showing signs of blossoming. Working with the staff up there has been a tremendous honor and helped me grow. It’s opened up a new adventure. As a player, the game took me to places I never thought I’d be. And I look forward to the next journey.”
Montville, a Portsmouth, N.H., native who joined the Sox in the 2019-20 offseason, had spent the past three years as an assistant hitting coach with the WooSox, working in tandem with Rich Gedman. His work was praised by Gedman as well as players such as Jarren Duran.
But at a time when the Sox are overhauling a number of their player development processes, the team elected to move on from a pair of respected coaches.
“We’re always asking our staff to be open to new things, challenge themselves, create competitive environments, and environments that represent growth in not only success but also pushing failures to ultimately have that success,” said Abraham.
“Sometimes changes in voice, changes of staff ultimately allow for more improvements, more impact, and various ways of helping. I certainly don’t want to undermine what they did. They’re incredibly good coaches, incredibly good people, incredibly hard workers. But again, changes are needed at times.
“We haven’t had the success that we’ve wanted at the major league level and sometimes it’s developing certain aspects of players. I look at myself and take responsibility for that as the head of [player development]. Other members of the staff do as well.
“Ultimately, we just felt like it was time to make some changes and adjustments with the staff and mix some things around.”