The Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox entered the 2026 Major League Baseball expected to be contenders.
Philadelphia went 96-66 in 2025 and the Red Sox went 89-73. This past offseason, the Phillies were able to retain slugger Kyle Schwarber. The Red Sox lost Alex Bregman, but added Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Ranger Suárez, among others.
While this is the case, Philadelphia and Boston were two of the biggest disappointments in the league across the first month of the season. So much so that both the Phillies and the Red Sox believed that changes needed to be made. The Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson. The Red Sox fired former manager Alex Cora and a handful of coaches.
It’s just May 5 and we’ve already seen two monumental decisions made across Major League Baseball. But how have the clubs responded?
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox fired Cora on April 25 after taking down the Baltimore Orioles, 17-1. Since then, the Red Sox have gone 4-4, including a 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday night. That is surprisingly a step in the right direction. At the time of Cora’s firing, the Red Sox were 10-17.
On top of this, Red Sox slugger Willson Contreras said that after Boston let Cora go, “the guys got loose a little more.” Now, of course, things aren’t perfect. Boston is 14-21 on the season. The club hasn’t lost any more ground since firing, Cora, but it hasn’t gained any either. Plus, young outfielder Roman Anthony was forced to leave the club’s contest on Monday night with right wrist discomfort. Boston isn’t out of the water yet.
Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies have played seven games since they fired Thomson and have now won six of them after beating the Miami Marlins on Monday, 1-0. After the game on Monday, Phillies superstar Bryce Harper opened up about what has changed, as transcribed by Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.
“I think we were all just waiting for that ball to drop, waiting for something to happen. If Topper was going to get fired or he wasn’t, it was just kind of, ‘We need to get over this hump and get through this,’ whatever that looked like.
“So as a team, I think it’s just coming out, playing our game, understanding that we didn’t play well the first couple weeks of the season. April’s behind us. We’ve got to step forward and understand that we’re stacking days and playing better and just keep it going, no matter where we’re at, what’s happening in the game or anything. Just stack the days and be where we want to be at the end.”
Sometimes, a change causes a spark, like it has seemingly done with Philadelphia. For Boston, things have been slightly better, but there isn’t a spark yet.
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