When you're the Boston Red Sox' chief baseball officer, you get to hire whoever you want. Including your old friends.
The Red Sox are "nearing an agreement" to hire San Francisco Giants pitching coach Andrew Bailey as their new pitching coach, The Boston Globe's Alex Speier reported Tuesday. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal first reported that Bailey was "close" to joining Boston's staff.
Bailey has an important connection in Boston: The former MLB reliever was teammates with Craig Breslow for five seasons with the Oakland A's (2009 to 2011) and Red Sox (2012 to 2013), winning a World Series with his now-boss in 2013.
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Per Speier, Breslow and Bailey are "very close;" the two lived near each other while playing for the Red Sox, and Bailey was even on the board of directors of Breslow’s Strike 3 Foundation, which fundraises for pediatric cancer research.
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Bailey's resume goes beyond his friendship with Breslow, however. During his four seasons as San Francisco's pitching coach from 2020 to 2023, the Giants compiled a 3.81 ERA, good for sixth in the major leagues over that span. Bailey also served as the Los Angeles Angels' bullpen coach in 2019 after retiring as a player following the 2018 season.
Bailey will have his work cut out for him in Boston: The Red Sox ranked 21st in baseball last season with a 4.52 ERA under pitching coach Dave Bush, a year after finishing 25th in team ERA.
Boston is also in the market for a third base coach after firing Carlos Febles along with Bush in early October.