The Red Sox’ summer turnaround and postseason berth will lead to leadership continuity for the foreseeable future. The team announced Tuesday that it has exercised 2029-30 club options on chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and removed the “interim” label from manager Chad Tracy, who has signed a three-year deal covering the 2027-29 seasons. Tracy’s new contract also contains a 2030 club option.

“Craig and Chad are two exceptionally talented leaders who have earned these opportunities in very different ways,” Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy said in a statement within this morning’s press release. “Over the last three years, we have watched Craig bring clarity, discipline, and conviction to the work of building our baseball operation. Chad was asked to step into a difficult situation with little notice, but the trust he immediately commanded at the major league level was earned through years of work across our organization. What this team has accomplished over the past several months has been historic. Results matter greatly in this business, but so do judgment, character, and the ability to bring out the best in others. Craig and Chad have demonstrated all of those qualities, and they have earned our confidence in leading us forward.”

Breslow was hired away from the Cubs following the 2023 season. The Yale grad and former big league reliever had been Chicago’s director of pitching and assistant general manager. The length of his original contract went unreported at the time, but it now seems clear that Breslow’s original contract was a five-year pact spanning the 2024-28 seasons. Boston’s 2026 performance has been impressive enough that ownership will proactively exercise options and give Breslow a chance at a seven-year run atop the team’s baseball operations hierarchy.

The 46-year-old Breslow has overhauled the core of the Red Sox since taking the reins a few years ago. His most notable transaction saw Rafael Devers shipped off to the Giants in exchange for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and minor league righty Jose Bello.

It seems the Sox were more interested in clearing Devers’ salary, as Hicks, Harrison and Tibbs were all traded within a few months of that deal. Tibbs went to the Dodgers just a month later in exchange for a Dustin May rental. Hicks’ salary was dumped on the White Sox in an offseason trade that also sent pitching prospect David Sandlin to Chicago. Harrison went to the Brewers alongside Shane Drohan and David Hamilton in what was (early in the season) a much-maligned Caleb Durbin trade. That swap is in many ways a microcosm of the entire season: disastrous early results that have swung the polar opposite direction as the year has progressed. Durbin carries a .294/.378/.453 line dating back to Memorial Day weekend.

The Red Sox stumbled out of the gates in 2026. With their record sitting just 12-17 in late April, the team fired manager Alex Cora, replacing him on an interim basis with Tracy, who’d previously managed the organization’s Triple-A affiliate in Worcester. The Sox treaded water for much of May and June and sat a colossal 11 games under .500 before a 15-game win streak flipped their season on its head. Boston looked like surefire trade deadline sellers even as the calendar flipped to July; they were 37-48 entering play July 3, when that miraculous streak saved the entire season.

Boston wound up going 21-4 in the month of July and followed with a 17-12 showing in August. They’ve played .500 ball in September, with nine wins and losses apiece. Since taking over the team, Tracy has led the Sox to a 74-55 record. He’s done so without ace Garrett Crochet, who’s been on the injured list since April 25 — the day Cora was fired. Touted young outfielder Roman Anthony has also missed nearly the entire season. He landed on the IL just ten days after the managerial change and didn’t return until Aug. 30.

Tracy’s Sox have outperformed all reasonable expectations, particularly after that start to the season. While he alone can’t be credited for the shift, he’s overseen terrific performances from Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock. Rookies Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett have been excellent. Durbin has been one of the best all-around players in the league dating back to early July. Breslow augmented the roster at the deadline, paying big prices to acquire Adley Rutschman, Erik Miller and Curtis Mead.

Those trades cost the Red Sox top prospects Anthony Eyanson, Kyson Witherspoon and Enddy Azocar, as well as former top prospects/building blocks Marcelo Mayer and Connelly Early. Breslow’s willingness to deal prospects of that nature — at a time when most front offices cling to their high-end prospects more tightly than ever — only added to his reputation as a front office leader who’s unafraid to take big swings.

That much was evident not only at this year’s deadline but throughout his tenure. Beyond those moves and the Devers and Durbin trades, Breslow has swung deals to acquire Gray, Contreras, Crochet, Tyler O’Neill and Johan Oviedo. The Sox gave out nine-year contracts to Alex Bregman and Ranger Suarez in free agency, though Bregman of course opted out of his deal and wound up signing with the Cubs on a deal that narrowly topped what Boston seemed willing to offer.

Not all of Breslow’s moves have panned out. One of his first trades on the job sent oft-injured ace Chris Sale to Atlanta in exchange for former prospect Vaughn Grissom. Sale has reemerged as an ace with the Braves and could win his second Cy Young Award in three years with Atlanta this season. Grissom made no impact with the Sox and is no longer in the organization. An April 2025 trade sending Quinn Priester to the Brewers looks a bit less regrettable now that Priester missed the 2026 season due to thoracic outlet syndrome, but Priester was a breakout star in Milwaukee last year and played a key role in the Brewers’ run to the postseason (and the game’s best regular-season record).

Every GM/president — or, in the Red Sox’ case, “chief baseball officer” — is going to have his share of misses. The Sale trade, in particular, stings and stands as a blemish. However, poor results from that one trade don’t appear to have curbed Breslow’s courage and willingness to make risky transactions.

At this juncture, the results speak for themselves. The Red Sox are playoff-bound for the second time in three seasons under his direction, and they’re well-positioned for the future. Crochet, Suarez, Tolle and Bennett will lead the rotation next season. Aroldis Chapman — a Breslow signing who was subsequently extended — and Garrett Whitlock will anchor next year’s bullpen. Anthony, Contreras, Rutschman, Abreu, Rafaela, Durbin and hopefully Mead will form the nucleus of a productive lineup in 2027. Franklin Arias, one of the game’s top 10 prospects, could debut at shortstop next year.

Some of that core was inherited from the prior regime under former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, but the current version of the Red Sox unmistakably have Breslow’s fingerprints all over them, and their successes and failures moving forward rest on largely on the shoulders of this newly extended duo.