Chad Tracy on Jarren Duran outburst, a day later: ‘More to that than maybe what’s getting put out there’
LOS ANGELES — Chad Tracy did not consider benching Jarren Duran for his public outburst Thursday, the interim manager said, so for the Red Sox’ series opener against the Dodgers on Friday, Duran was right back in there, playing left field and batting eighth.
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Tracy spoke at length before the game to further downplay the episode, during which Duran appeared to show up Willson Contreras and/or interim third base coach Chad Epperson during the Sox’ finale at the Athletics. He said it was “not even close to as big of an issue as it’s being made” out to be.
“The group is in great spirits,” Tracy said. “Everything is in a really good spot, and there’s more to that than maybe what’s getting put out there, which I won’t discuss.”
He teased those themes — no big deal, but more to it behind the scenes that everybody else doesn’t know — and declined to elaborate.
“During the course of [a season], there’s going to be different things that happen,” Tracy said. “In our case, in our line of work, some of that stuff gets put on TV and it gets blown up.”
On Thursday, in the sixth inning of a tied game, Duran flied out to left field for the second out. Contreras, on third base, did not try to score on the medium-depth fly ball. Duran seemed frustrated on his way back to and in the dugout, waving his arms and shouting, while looking at third base.
Since then, Duran had spoken with Contreras, Epperson, and Tracy, according to Tracy.
“Those two are in a great place,” Tracy said of Contreras and Duran.
How about Duran and Epperson?
“Fine. Yeah, fine. And totally fine,” Tracy said. “And as far as some of the stuff being said about that, as far as oh, it’s because he didn’t tag — not necessarily true. And I’m not going to get into it. It’s our stuff, but they’re perfectly fine. Actually, they spoke too. Perfectly fine.”
Why did Tracy not consider sitting Duran?
“He’s a good player,” he said. “I just want him in there.”
Duran entered the day batting .195, worst among qualified hitters. His .589 OPS was second worst.
Tracy rattled off baseball reasons for Duran to continue playing, including his defense, his production with runners in scoring position, and his ability to “bunt against lefties.”
“Jarren expects a lot out of himself. He’s a really good baseball player that’s having a rough go of it this year,” Tracy said. “I’m still hoping that as we move along here, if we get another month like he had in the month of May, we get one more of those months, you look up and go, dang, that’s a pretty, pretty productive season. I’m still waiting for that.”
Late Thursday night, in the immediate aftermath, Tracy said Duran was “just cursing himself.” A day later, Tracy maintained that frustration with his own performance “was part of it too.” And he spoke with Duran about now being so hard on himself.
“There’s a big part of it that’s like, man, I didn’t hit that ball deep enough,” Tracy said. “And that there was a chance to score a run that’s part of it. There’s other parts to it, but I’ll keep those with us.”
More memories
For Tracy, the trip to Dodger Stadium was a special occasion. He was 15 years old when his father, Jim Tracy, was hired to be the Dodgers’ manager heading into the 2001 season, making this ballpark a landmark of his youth.
“Love this place. A lot of cool, cool memories here,” he said. “The first thing that comes to [mind is an] ’04 walkoff for the division title. I could actually probably show you where I was sitting. Lost a pair of Oakleys. They fell off my head from the second deck to the lower deck. This place is awesome. So it’s cool to be back.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who played for Jim Tracy’s Dodgers in 2002-04, gave Chad Tracy a big hug when they met for the lineup card exchange at home plate.
In attendance Friday: One of Tracy’s brothers, Brian, a scout for the Pirates who lives locally and came with his family.
Prospecting
The Red Sox’ first two draft picks, shortstop Jake Schaffner and outfielder Owen Hull, will make their professional debuts Saturday with High-A Greenville. They remain teammates after playing together at the University of North Carolina … Righthander Anthony Eyanson — the Sox’ top pitching prospect and, thus, one of their best trade chips — put on a show in his last start before the trade deadline. With Double-A Portland, he racked up 10 strikeouts (two walks) across 4⅔ innings, allowing two runs … Shortstop Franklin Arias, the Sox’ top-ranked prospect, played second base for the first time since being promoted to Triple-A Worcester a week ago. He played five games there in his final month with Portland.
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