The Boston Red Sox didn’t finish the season with a World Series trophy, but for the most part, it was a successful campaign.
After an eight-win improvement and the team’s first trip to the playoffs since 2021, the Red Sox bowed out in the first round of the playoffs, losing to the hated New York Yankees in three games. They were a young, talented, yet flawed team, and it wasn’t an easy task to coach them on a day-to-day basis.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the vast majority of the coaching staff that guided the Red Sox through the 2025 campaign will return in 2026.
According to a report from WEEI’s Rob Bradford, the Red Sox are keeping hitting coach Pete Fatse, pitching coach Andrew Bailey, first base coach José Flores, third base coach Kyle Hudson, bullpen coach Chris Holt, and bench coach Ramón Vazquez in those same roles for next season.
Of course, manager Alex Cora was already under contract and was never in danger of any sort of job status change.
Fatse was the subject of some debate at the end of a high-variance season for the offense, but it turned out he was brought back relatively quickly. Hudson, meanwhile, caused some consternation with his decisions to hold runners at third base throughout the season, most notably speedy outfielder Nate Eaton in Game 2 of the wild-card series.
One notable name not included on that list is game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek, the former Red Sox catcher and captain of the team for much of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Varitek’s contract was up at the end of this season, but his job status has not been announced in any direction.
There will be more news to trickle in all offseason about the composition of the 2026 Red Sox. But when one looks in the dugout (and in the base coach boxes), the faces will look quite similar to what they’ve had in the past.
