BOSTON — No matter what happens next for the Boston Red Sox, it’s all on Craig Breslow now.

Saturday will go down as one of the most stunning days in Red Sox history. Hours after the club wrapped up a 17-1 drubbing of the Baltimore Orioles, news broke that the organization was cleaning house.

Gone was Alex Cora, who has led the organization for most of the last decade, along with five of his assistant coaches. Franchise legend Jason Varitek, also a member of Cora’s staff, was relieved of his duties as well and will be reassigned to a different role that has yet to be announced, the club said.

In one fell swoop, the old guard had been ushered out.

While the Red Sox have undeniably fallen short of expectations, the full-scale gutting of the coaching staff is unprecedented in recent franchise history. The Red Sox had never fired a manger in-season since John Henry purchased the team in 2002, and throughout the franchise’s existence no manager had ever been dismissed midseason so early in the campaign.

The only other time a managerial change occurred as early as April was in 1907, when the club cycled through multiple player-managers after the team’s original manager died during spring training.

While it will be a while before we know whether these moves will pay off, one thing is for sure. Breslow’s consolidation of power within the Red Sox hierarchy is complete, and there is no debate about who is calling the shots now.

Just look at who’s sticking around.

Andrew Bailey, one of Breslow’s first hires following his arrival in late 2023, will remain Red Sox pitching coach. John Soteropulos, who while hired before Breslow was elevated under the new regime and recently promoted to assistant hitting coach, was the only member of the big league hitting staff spared.

Devin Rose, who has followed a similar timeline and trajectory as Soteropulos, is staying on as MLB pitching strategist. Parker Guinn, who was hired by Breslow as a catching instructor after the 2024 season, remains as well. Most interesting of all is Jose David Flores, who was promoted to the big league staff following 2024 after previously spending three years serving as Chad Tracy’s bench coach with the WooSox.

With Tracy now being elevated to interim big league manager, keeping Flores around to help ease that transition is a no brainer.

All of those guys were either hired by Breslow or promoted to their current roles after his arrival. Now the same will be true for everyone who fills in the remainder of the coaching staff, both for the duration of this season and in the years to come.

Presumably those people will share Breslow’s vision.

It’s reasonable to expect there could be more changes coming. Perhaps Cora was resistant to certain moves or philosophical changes that Breslow wanted to see implemented. Maybe Cora wasn’t fully bought in to Breslow’s analytical ways or simply had his own ideas about how to best move forward. Cora is highly respected within the game and had a lot of clout within the organization, but with him now gone it stands to reason those who remain should be fully in lockstep.

That’s great for Breslow, but it also means now there’s nowhere to hide and no one else to blame.

If the Red Sox turn things around and go on to realize their long-sought goal of sustainable championship success, then Breslow can take credit for being the one who finally made that happen. But if things go from bad to worse, he’ll be the one shouldering the responsibility.

This is Breslow’s team. He assembled the roster, he’s revamped the player development infrastructure and now he’ll have his own manager and coaching staff.

The Red Sox are firmly in his hands, but if these moves don’t work out, he could be the next one in the crosshairs.

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