Early in Spring Training, Red Sox principal owner John Henry raised some eyebrows when he said the team made major changes over the offseason. At that point, the Red Sox had not yet signed J.D. Martinez, meaning they were returning virtually the same roster from last year.
When pressed about his comments, Henry pointed to the remade coaching staff. The Red Sox fired John Farrell at the end of the season, hiring Alex Cora to replace the embattled skipper. In addition, they brought aboard a new bench coach, hitting coach and replaced the pitching coach.
In an interview Monday with OMF, Dustin Pedroia, the longest-tenured player on the team, talked about the significance of the coaching staff overhaul. According to Pedroia, Cora's approach is less draining than Farrell's.
"It's more 'put your work in and stick with the process, don't worry about results that day, because over the course of the season, you're going to be the type of player you are throughout 162 games,'" Pedroia said. "You don't stay away from what your strengths are. If you're facing a tough pitcher that day, and my strength is pulling the ball, and he throws every pitch on the corner away, and I go 0-for-4, it's not panic, show up the next day and try to become a guy who hits the ball the other way all of the time. It's more process oriented than result-that-day oriented."
There were numerous clubhouse incidents with the Red Sox last season, including David Price berating Dennis Eckersley on the team plane and Pedroia not publicly supporting teammate Matt Barnes after he had hit Manny Machado with a beanball. Pedroia said the issues stemmed from the high-intensity environment that was propagated by the previous regime.
"The overall approach, every day, would wear on guys. It wasn't people not liking each other. We all love each other. Trust me," Pedroia explained. "There's the mindset of, 'You show up to the yard, you put your work in, you have your approach that day, and you try to execute it. If you don't, guess what? You're going to show up tomorrow and still be in the lineup. We're all going to have confidence in you. We're all going to show up and try to win and accomplish the same thing.' That's what wore on guys and made the season that much more grueling –– when everything that day was more magnified. It put a lot of pressure on our young guys, it put a lot of pressure on our veteran guys. That's the part, when you wear Mookie (Betts) or (Xander Bogaerts) say they weren't having much fun, you don't ever have a chance to enjoy yourself if you don't go 4-for-4, throw a complete game shutout, or we don't win by 10. You don't look ahead to the end of what we were trying to build for."
While Pedroia praised Cora's approach, the veteran second baseman has been forced to watch Spring Training from the sidelines, due to offseason knee surgery. Peoria said he's not going to rush into a return.
