Chad Tracy has the Red Sox on a roll. Is he more than their interim manager?
NEW YORK — Are 66 games enough to judge whether the Red Sox should make Chad Tracy more than the interim manager?
The team’s oldest players, Aroldis Chapman and Danny Coulombe, have seen enough to make up their minds.
“He’s been good with us,” Chapman told the Globe on Saturday before the Sox beat the Mets, 4-0, at Citi Field. “The communication is there. I think he’s done a good job.”
Chapman, 38, has played in the majors since 2010. Dusty Baker was his first manager and still his favorite. He also has played for Bruce Bochy, Joe Girardi, Joe Maddon, Aaron Boone, and several others along the way.
“I like old-school managers,” Chapman said. “But [Tracy] is like that. You know he’s been around baseball a lot.”
Coulombe, 36, has been with nine organizations since signing with the Dodgers in 2012. He’s played for older traditionalists like Bochy and Don Mattingly, and then 38-year-old Rocco Baldelli with the Twins in 2020.
Like Chapman, his opinion is based on experience in a variety of markets.
“Absolutely,” Coulombe said when asked if Tracy should get the job. “He’s level-headed, and he’s a player’s guy. Everybody who had played for him [in Triple-A Worcester] was singing his praises when he first got the job, and I saw why they were.”
Coulombe appreciates how Tracy has fostered team chemistry with something as simple as a group text message.
“Stuff like, ‘Hey, I’m with you guys. We’re all in this together.’ I think it means a lot to guys to hear that,” he said. “He feels what we’re going through and when we’re struggling.”
Tracy has a 35-31 record as interim manager despite Garrett Crochet being on the injured list the entire time and Roman Anthony playing only eight games before he landed on there, too.
He’s had to mix and match at shortstop with Trevor Story and Marcelo Mayer on the IL. The latest obstacle was Connelly Early and Ranger Suarez landing on the injured list within six days of each other.
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Through it all, Tracy has used the players available to him and not made excuses. There have been days — too many of them — when the lineup looked more suited for a spring training road game. But Tracy hasn’t even hinted at being dealt a tough hand.
He’s instead made it work. The Sox have won eight in a row and 13 of 15 to get into postseason contention.
How much is Tracy enjoying the job?
“I like it,” he said. “It’s really fun when we’re playing like this. So yeah, I’m enjoying it.”
Would he like to keep it?
“Would love to. We’ll get into that later.”
Is that something he’s talked to the front office about?
“Nope. And I mean it dearly that it’s the furthest thing from my mind right now. It’s all on our guys and trying to keep this thing rolling the way it is right now.”
Tracy is the first Red Sox manager since Grady Little not to have played in the majors, as his career topped out at Triple-A.
But that’s not much of an issue. Tracy grew up around the game when his father, Jim, was managing in the minor leagues and coaching in the majors. There’s nothing about managing at the highest level that has surprised him.
“He understands the game, and we trust him,” said Coulombe, who pitched two scoreless innings to finish the game Saturday, then was designated for assignment. “He’s never wavered in his belief in what we could do. He’s comfortable with us; you can see that.”
Obviously, how the season unfolds will determine how the Sox proceed. But Tracy is clearly the best in-house candidate given his experience with the roster and demonstrated ability to handle the on- and off-field demands of the job the last three months.
The Sox haven’t conducted a true managerial search since Alex Cora was hired before the 2018 season. Bench coach Ron Roenicke was an obvious choice when Cora was fired before the 2020 season in the wake of the Astros’ cheating scandal.
Then Roenicke was fired, and Cora returned in November. Now Tracy has the gig and the chair suits him well.
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