The fact that baseball managers and coaches wear uniforms is so weirdly delightful. It’s one of those things that, like gravity, we all just accept because it’s always been there, despite the fact that it is obviously absurd. None of them play the game on the field. Many of them probably use the back pockets for cigs instead of batting gloves. Hell, there have been plenty of managers and coaches through the years who were so old that you’d be tempted to stand behind them as a spotter when they climbed up the dugout steps. They don’t belong in uniform.

And yet we stuff them into clothing designed for athletic performance and end up with this:

This is hilarious and wonderful. But it’s also very ironic. Because the truth is that, compared to every other major team sport, baseball managers have by far the smallest influence over what actually happens on the field. Baseball players win and lose baseball games, not the coaches. Complain about pitching changes and batting order all you want, but know that you’re complaining about things on the margins. The game is about the players.

For this reason, I’ve probably been a little bit more sanguine about the Alex Cora mess than a lot of other fans. To the extent that I believe the firing was significant at all, I believe it was significant as to how it relates to the overall operations of the Boston Red Sox. Cora clearly played an outsized role in player personnel decisions. This was causing internal rifts and the organization as a whole seemed to suffer from large-scale dysfunction caused in no small part by a perpetual power struggle with Cora at the center. That needed to change.

But I categorically do not think that Cora’s firing will have much of an impact on the way the 2026 Red Sox perform on the field. That is and was always going to be decided by the players.

So for that reason, the most important thing that’s happened to the 2026 Red Sox over the last five days probably isn’t the Cora firing at all. It’s this:

Garrett Crochet to IL with left shoulder inflammation.

Now let’s all take a moment to pause and yell into the void.

Garrett Crochet is the best player on the 2026 Red Sox and there isn’t a close second. The team will not go anywhere if he’s not there to lead the rotation. Now, it’s far too early to write off the rest of the season. Shoulder injuries are much less scary than elbow injuries for one thing. For another thing, Crochet has already come out and dangled the tantalizing possibility that this is just a minor little thing in front of our sorrowful eyes:

Garrett Crochet is “pretty confident, in this moment” that he’ll only need the minimum 15-Day IL stint, per @SmittyOnMLB.Crochet said he began to feel some fatigue in his shoulder on Saturday against the O’s. Apparently the discomfort has been trending better each day. pic.twitter.com/7IlsguOWBr

So there’s no need to start looking at next offseason’s crop of free agents just yet. But make no mistake: this is bad and it has the potential to go from bad to disastrous.

Get well soon, Garrett. We need you back on the field, where the game is actually played.