Dave Bush makes a visit to the mound with Red Sox catcher Connor Wong on Aug. 23, 2023. Bush was fired as the Red Sox pitching coach, sources confirmed on Monday. Kevin M. Cox/Associated Press
The Red Sox have fired pitching coach Dave Bush and third base/infield coach Carlos Febles, multiple industry source confirmed Monday.
The news was first reported by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.
Bush had been in charge of Boston’s pitching department for four seasons after joining the major league staff in October 2019. Under Bush, Boston’s pitching staff struggled in 2023. Boston ranked 21st in team ERA (4.52), 24th in opponent average (.256) and 24th in homers allowed (28) during a season in which they finished in last place in the American League East with a 78-84 record.
Bush, 43, pitched in parts of nine major league seasons with Toronto, Milwaukee and Texas before retiring in 2013. He joined the Red Sox as an analyst in 2016 and worked with minor leaguers for a couple seasons before being hired to Manager Alex Cora’s staff in 2019 after the firing of Dana Levangie. Bush spent his first season under Manager Ron Roenicke, then Cora for the last three seasons.
Boston’s Rafael Devers, right, gets a congratulatory handshake from third base coach Carlos Febles on June 5, 2022. Febles was fired as the Red Sox third base/infield coach, sources confirmed on Monday. Ross Cameron/Associated Press
Febles, 47, has been a member of the organization since 2007 and part of the major league coaching staff since November 2017, when he was hired as third-base coach on 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.
Febles managed the Portland Sea Dogs for two seasons before he was promoted to Boston. From 2016-2017, Febles went 120-158 in Portland.
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.”
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