Red Sox should remove Chad Tracy’s interim tag after season-changing turnaround originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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In a few moments, the Boston Red Sox have a chance to make franchise history, as they try to set the record for the longest win streak, by sweeping the Baltimore Orioles for their 16th win in a row.
Boston is now 52-48, and a contender in the American League. However, if you looked at where they were in mid-April, you would think this would be impossible. So what changed? Boston fired their 2018 World Series and Manager of the Year skipper Alex Cora, and replaced him with their AAA Worcester manager, Chad Tracy.
The Red Sox were horrible under Cora
Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
To start the season, the Sox did awfully under Cora. They were 10-17, had a team OPS of .667, and a team ERA of 4.44.
In the past four years of Cora’s tenure as skipper, the Red Sox made the playoffs once, which was a Wild Card series appearance against the New York Yankees, which they lost. Overall, the team was also 336-339 during that time.
Boston was playing worse than .500 baseball, so it was time for a change.
The “Tracy Turnaround” is totally real
© Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
Enter Chad Tracy. Tracy took over the reins from Cora, and introduced a new playstyle. No more going for two runs in extra innings, and more stealing on the bases. Because of that, Boston has been 41-31 under his tenure as interim manager, with a team OPS of .729 and ERA of 3.22, higher than the league averages.
In the past 22 games, Boston has also gone 20-2, and has swept five of their past six series, which the media has dubbed the ” Tracy Turnaround”. And now, they are trying to make history.
Boston might have their next manager already
Eric Canha-Imagn Images
With that in mind, a change in title might be in order for Tracy. As to not disturb the streak, whenever it ends, whether it be today or the end of the season, Boston should drop “interim” from his title, and give him a long-term contract.
This goes doubly if Tracy is acknowledged for what he has done to turnaround this team, and wins Manager of the Year. Not many people could turn one of the worst teams in baseball into a contender in just a few months, and yet Tracy has done it.
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