The Boston Red Sox surprised fans of Major League Baseball on April 25 when they announced the firing of manager Alex Cora and several members of the staff, a rare late-April maneuver even for a team that came into the new week with an 11-17 record, last place in the American League East.
Julian McWilliams of CBS Sports wrote an inside look at why Red Sox general manager Craig Breslow made the call he did, a move that left some players in tears. He mentioned the team’s trade with the Milwaukee Brewers during the offseason, which sent Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton and Shane Drohan to Milwaukee in exchange for Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler.
“The front office, though still confident in Hamilton, traded him to the Brewers during the offseason,” McWilliams wrote. “When he returned this month and played well against the Red Sox, the front office again began questioning the coaching staff’s developmental process with younger players.
“‘Why do a lot of players go to other places and get better?'” one source said of the questions being asked. ‘Why do other guys come here and get worse?'”
Hamilton ultimately had two hits and two walks in the three games between the Brewers and Red Sox at Fenway Park, though the Brewers won just the first of those three contests.
For the year, Hamilton has just a .605 OPS and collected his first extra-base hit of the season April 26 with a double against Pittsburgh. But he does offer speed (five stolen bases) and positional versatility.
The more eye-popping data point in the trade has been Harrison, who struck out a career-high 12 and allowed just one hit and one walk over six dominant innings in that same game April 26.
Harrison has 30 strikeouts in 23⅔ innings, the second-most strikeouts for a left-handed Brewers pitcher in his first five games with the team, and just four behind CC Sabathia.
The Red Sox half of the Durbin trade hasn’t gone well, though Durbin hit his first home run of the year in a 17-1 Boston win. He has a .530 OPS in 100 plate appearances, one year after taking third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. Durbin has four hits over the past three games, and Boston has won back-to-back games since the firings. He has 10 RBIs this season and three stolen bases.
Monasterio has been respectable in 45 plate appearances, with a .726 OPS, including a home run and eight RBIs.
Then again, the consternation for Boston fans might be over who made the trade, not who’s in charge of development.
The Red Sox also made an April trade with the Brewers last year, with Milwaukee acquiring Quinn Priester – who then went on to finish 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA in a key role for the 97-win team. On the other hand, Priester has been sidelined with an injury in 2026 and has yet to appear in a big-league game, while one of the prospects Boston acquired, John Holobetz, has been excellent in the team’s minor-league system since arriving.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Did Brewers trade contribute to Red Sox cleaning house?
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
