In addition to firing pitching coach Dave Bush, the Red Sox have also fired third base/infield coach Carlos Febles, according to multiple industry sources.
The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier was first to report both moves.
Febles, 47, has been a member of the organization since 2007 and part of the major league coaching staff since Nov. 2017, when he was hired as third base coach on manager Alex Cora’s first staff. In six seasons, he worked closely with the team’s infielders on defense; a source indicated that Boston’s poor infield defense was a major part of the decision to part ways with Febles. The move comes as a bit of a surprise because Febles is a close friend of Cora who has been on Cora’s staff for his entire managerial tenure (2018-19, 2021-23). Bench coach Ramón Vázquez is the last remaining coach from Cora’s original staff still with the organization.
It’s unclear if more changes are coming to Boston’s staff. The Red Sox have already confirmed Cora will be back as manager despite not yet having Chaim Bloom’s successor in place leading the baseball operations department. At last week’s year-end press conference, Cora issued a challenge to his coaching staff to be better in 2024 after back-to-back disappointing seasons.
“Us as the coaching staff, we’ve gotta get better,” Cora said. “Push these guys to be a lot better and it’s on us to do this in the offseason, do that in spring training and do it throughout the season next year. That’s my challenge this year. Me and the coaches. We have to be better.”
Asked a week ago if he believes staff changes are needed for the Red Sox to improve, Cora said no.
“I don’t believe so,” Cora said. “I think we just have to be better, in a sense. We have to be willing to go and talk to people and adjust our routines. That’s something that we’ve been talking about the whole season. I know people talk about the coaching stuff and everything but the people that followed us the whole time saw that we did a lot of things that we don’t usually do. It didn’t work but it’s not lack of trying. It’s not lack of effort. It’s not lack of knowledge. It’s just that you’ve gotta keep trying to find ways for these guys to be better.”
Story by Chris Cotillo, masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
