FORT MYERS, Fla. — Over the past few years the Red Sox pitching program has been completely transformed.
Since Craig Breslow took over as chief baseball officer, the Red Sox have gone from one of the worst organizations at developing young pitchers to one of the best, and now the club is overflowing with talented arms who are already making their mark in the majors.
That hasn’t gone unnoticed, and this past offseason one of the people most responsible for executing the club’s turnaround — former director of pitching Justin Willard — was hired away by the New York Mets to be their new major league pitching coach.
Now the Red Sox are handing the baton to two others, who they hope can keep the train rolling and ensure the club’s pitching pipeline keeps flowing.
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This winter the Red Sox promoted Ben Buck to succeed Willard as the club’s director of pitching while also hiring away Quinn Cleary from the Seattle Mariners to serve as his No. 2. The two have already begun working to make their mark on the organization, though both emphasized that the Red Sox already have a solid foundation in place and that they plan to continue emphasizing Willard’s core tenet of “throwing nasty stuff in the zone.”
“That is the mantra,” Buck said. “Because it is simple to say, our guys remember it, and you can branch off from each one of those words and they become very complex.”
“It’s a perfect one sentence one-liner that really sums up the two big components of being a successful pitcher in the majors,” Cleary said.
Buck earned his promotion after just one year with the organization, joining the Red Sox as a pitching coordinator following the 2024 season after previously serving in a similar role with the New York Yankees. Upon coming to Boston, Buck worked closely with many of the Red Sox’s top pitching prospects, including Payton Tolle, one of the club’s biggest recent minor league success stories who rose from High-A to the majors in just his first year of professional baseball.
“The first time that I talked to him or heard him talk about pitching, I was a lot dumber then (than I am now),” Tolle said of Buck. “He’s one of the smartest guys that I’ve ever been around in the baseball world so to now have him as the head of development, it’s huge.”
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Another Red Sox pitcher who Buck has worked with is Garrett Whitlock, serving as the future Red Sox right-hander’s pitching coach during his rookie ball days as a Yankees farmhand.
“I think he’s going to be great for the organization,” Whitlock said. “He’s a very good pitching mind. He’s going to bring a lot of wisdom to the table when it comes to the movement side of things, the preparation, how to build up arms, that kind of thing. He’s very, very good at that.”
Before making the jump to the professional coaching ranks, Buck spent 15 years as a college coach after playing collegiately at Lamar Community College in Colorado and at the University of Utah. He also played a year of independent baseball before spending two years away from the sport working in a poker room, first as a dealer and then as the boss.
That job prepared him for coaching in ways you wouldn’t expect.
“There are a lot of skills that I learned from poker and from running a poker room that I still use to this day,” Buck said. “We had a VIP list of something like 280 VIPs, so attributing people’s names to their faces and not forgetting. Dealing with conflict, like for them this is higher stakes, it’s win or lose money. In some regards (baseball is) win or lose money. They’re putting themselves on the line thinking in bets. What are you willing to risk? What is not worth the risk? And how aggressive are you? How unaggressive are you? All these are transferable skills to life and this job.”
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Red Sox assistant director of pitching Quinn Cleary. (Mac Cerullo/Boston Herald)
Cleary’s journey to the Red Sox is equally fascinating.
Just 26 years old, Cleary is only a few years removed from his college playing days at Yale. He has quickly risen through the front office ranks since, first interning at Cressey Sports Performance before landing with the Philadelphia Phillies and then the Mariners, with whom he served as pitching coordinator.
This past offseason the Red Sox hired him as their new assistant director of pitching and head pitching strategist, specifically requesting permission from the Mariners to interview him.
“What a great hire,” Buck said. “Sharp mind, huge feel, I can’t imagine being as young as he is, as smart as he is, with as much feel as he has.”
How has he done it at such a young age?
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“I think a combination of being in the right place at the right time,” Cleary said. “I’ve been able to learn from a lot of really good people at all the stops I’ve been at. I hope to continue to do that here.”
Cleary also has a fascinating family history. His grandfather, Bill Cleary, was a member of the gold medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic hockey team and was the longtime men’s hockey coach and athletic director at Harvard. His parents were both Harvard athletes too, and his three brothers all attended Harvard as well.
Naturally, Cleary going to rival Yale was a bit of a departure from the family tradition.
“I am like truly the black sheep of my family,” Cleary said. “We joke that I sit at a different table at Thanksgiving but other than that it’s not too bad.”
Cleary described his new role as a hybrid front office and coaching/player development role that helps with both the majors league and minor leagues. He will also be among those assisting injured big leaguers with their rehab process, and he said he hopes to add value wherever he can.
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Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey said Buck and Cleary have both been great to work with so far.
“It’s been fantastic, the communication lines are really solid,” Bailey said. “A lot of bright ideas and thoughts and visions, and what’s really good is the open-mindedness and the ability to listen and take in information and what’s worked and what hasn’t worked.”
With three pitchers ranked inside Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list and a huge crop of young arms coming up from the past two years’ pitcher-heavy draft classes, Buck and Cleary find themselves in a much different situation than the one Breslow and Willard inherited after the 2023 season. They said a lot of smart people put in a lot of work to help get the club’s pitching program on the right track, and they hope to build on that progress in the months and years to come.
“Justin did such an amazing job when he was here of laying this unbelievable foundation, things are really going in a real good direction and our job is to search for the one percents and two percents to keep improving,” Buck said. “It’s less about change and more about continuing on the path where evolution can happen.”
Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello will take the mound in his native Dominican Republic this Wednesday ahead of the World Baseball Classic. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Bello’s big homecoming
Years from now Brayan Bello probably won’t remember his first two starts of spring training, but you can be sure he’ll never forget his next one.
This Wednesday the Red Sox right-hander will take the mound for Team Dominican Republic in a pre-World Baseball Classic exhibition against the Detroit Tigers at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo. Bello has never pitched at the historic stadium before, and getting to pitch there will mark a special homecoming for the 26-year-old.
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“It’s going to be my first time after I was a big leaguer that I’m getting to pitch in the Dominican Republic in front of my friends and family, in front of my home country,” Bello said Friday via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “For me it’s going to be very emotional, I’m very excited to be able to pitch there and I’m looking forward to it.”
A native of Samana, a town roughly two and a half hours away from the Dominican Republic’s capital city, Bello hopes to help pitch his country to its second World Baseball Classic title. The Dominican team previously won it all in 2013 and this year features All-Star standouts like Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr., among others.
Hometown kids coming up
Almost anyone who grows up playing baseball around New England dreams of one day playing for the Red Sox, and this spring several local standouts hope to take the next step in their journey towards making that dream a reality.
Shea Sprague and Jack Winnay, both recent draft picks by the Red Sox with Boston-area ties, are among the many minor leaguers populating the Fenway South complex this spring. Sprague, a BC High alum from Hanover who starred at the University of North Carolina, is entering his second full professional season after being selected as a 13th-round pick in 2024. Winnay, a Newton resident who starred at Belmont Hill and Wake Forest, is in his first spring training after going as a 13th-round pick himself last summer.
Brian Abraham, the Red Sox’s senior director of player development, said the organization is really excited about both, noting that the pair also played for the same travel ball club as his son, North East Baseball.
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Sprague appeared in 22 games in his first pro season, earning a promotion from Low-A to High-A along the way and finishing with a 3.82 ERA in 96 2/3 innings, which was the eighth-highest innings total of any Red Sox minor leaguer.
“Really good pitchability,” Abraham said of the 23-year-old lefty. “Trying to increase his fastball velo, because he already has a good pitch mix and has a good way on the mound with his mix.”
Winnay debuted as a professional weeks after being drafted and made a strong first impression, batting .321 with a home run, three doubles and 11 RBI in only 15 games at Low-A Salem. The 22-year-old infielder will be a candidate to start this season at High-A, and Friday he was among a handful of minor leaguers who traveled up to North Port with the big league club.
“Jack has been playing mostly third but can play first, has really good power, moves well, really exciting I think,” Abraham said. “A lot of tools that we like and value.”
Burt signs with Tigers
North Andover’s Max Burt, a former St. John’s Prep and Northeastern University standout, signed with the Detroit Tigers as a minor league free agent this past week. The longtime New York Yankees minor leaguer spent his first eight professional seasons with the organization, playing the majority of that time at Double-A Somerset.
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According to the Somerset Patriots, Burt departs as the team’s all-time franchise leader in hits (241), runs (179) and games played (361). The 29-year-old will now get a fresh start as he looks to make a push to the majors with a new organization.
JetBlue will terminate all service to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire this summer, with the airline’s final flight scheduled for July 8, airport officials said Thursday.
Airport officials said on social media that they were “very disappointed” that the airline will be pulling its service. Manchester-Boston is the largest airport in New Hampshire and sixth largest in New England.
“MHT has worked diligently to promote JetBlue service at MHT, providing air service incentives, a substantial marketing budget, and conducting various promotional activities to create awareness,” officials wrote. “Unfortunately, those efforts were not enough to overcome their ongoing business challenges, which have only been exacerbated by the recent spike in jet fuel prices.”
While JetBlue has long been one of the largest carriers at Logan International Aiport in Boston, some of its routes to Manchester, roughly 50 miles north, have seen lower passenger numbers.
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Aviation publication SimpleFlying reported that the airline’s least popular route last year were flights to Manchester from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, seating just 47 passengers on average.
JetBlue told the airport its decision came as they “make a tough call as to how to best support national connectivity in a time of capacity crisis,” officials said.
The announcement comes just weeks after JetBlue unveiled major route expansion plans in South Florida to fill gate spaces vacated by budget-friendly Spirit Airlines, which ceased its operations in May. A bid from JetBlue to buy Spirit Airlines was blocked in 2024 by the Biden Administration over anti-trust concerns.
JetBlue could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Bryan Hecht can be reached at bryan.hecht@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @bhechtjournalism.
Mass General nurse-turned-author Karen Winn brings Beacon Hill to life in her latest book. Add this to your beach bag.
“The Society” by Karen Winn. PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE/SLY PHOTOGRAPHY PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE/SLY PHOTOGRAPHY
Massachusetts General Hospital nurse-turned-author Karen Winn often writes in the Boston Athenaeum, watching tours pass by.
One day, in 2023, she joined one. And the seed for her next novel was planted.
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“We passed by an oil portrait of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, a major benefactor to the Athenaeum in the 1800s. The docent alluded to this dark history as to how he’d amassed a large portion of his fortune in the opium trade,” she tells me.
“The tour group moved on — but I was stuck there thinking. I went home and fell down this rabbit-hole of research and learned, to my surprise, just how many of the Boston Brahman families made their fortune in the opium trade. It was fascinating.”
I went down a similar rabbit-hole. The Boston Brahmin opium fortunes are well-documented, including a past Harvard Art Museum exhibit, articles, books and website info including, speaking of Perkins, the Perkins School for the Blind.
Winn, who lives on Beacon Hill and was in a secret society (I asked) added bits and pieces from her own life into the novel-creating mixing bowl: What if there was a secret society built on old opium money in Beacon Hill, and a Mass General nurse was somehow involved?
“The Society” was born.
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If you’re looking for a Boston-set page-turner — an “alternate universe Beacon Hill,” as Winn puts it — to kick off your summer reading, add this suspense to your beach bag.
Nutshell: The Knox, standing proudly on Mount Vernon Street in Beacon Hill, houses meetings of a secret society. Some in Boston believe it’s an elite social club — others believe it hides something sinister.
When Boston antique dealer Vivian Lawrence sees her family fortune vanish, she turns to a family legend that ties her to the Knox, seeking a way into the exclusive secret society.
Taylor Adams, a 20-something Mass General ER nurse who recently moved to Boston, becomes almost obsessed with old-moneyed Vivian, “a creature of wealth,” after Vivian lands in the ER one night. When Vivian disappears from Mass General without a trace, Taylor’s search for answers pulls her into the Knox and its dark history…
What interested me — before I knew anything of Winn’s backstory— was that it felt like it was written by someone who just moved to Boston and was in awe of the city.
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Living here, we might think of Rachel Dratch and Jimmy Fallon and Denise and Sully in those old “Boston Teen” SNL sketches, or Casey Affleck as the “King of Dunkin” as summing us up, at least in terms of how outsiders see us.
But Taylor, the Mass General nurse, almost fetishizes Boston, and old-moneyed New Englanders she imagines walking down every street.
Example: when old-Boston-money Vivian lands in the ER: Taylor “swallows, a flurry of excitement building in her chest… she envisioned that the city would be teeming with these ladies… That she would get to move among their world, learn from them, drink in their fanciness… letting that old New England generational wealth rub off on her until she glimmered with something of its gold dust…It is Boston, after all: the city of cobblestones and beauty, of Harvard and MIT, of sophistication and history.”
Winn, who grew up in New Jersey, moved to Boston 20 years ago after meeting her Boston-native husband Gil at UPenn. They now live in the Beacon Hill area with their two kids and 100-pound (yup) Bernedoodle.
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After two decades here, she’s still “in awe.”
“I grew up in a 5,000-person town in New Jersey. When I came to Boston, I was struck by this beautiful city. Beacon Hill is one of the most historic and charming neighborhoods,” she tells me. “Living here, one might almost be inured to it, but I have this awe. I’m always struck by the cobblestone streets and the gaslit lamps.”
Winn even started a TikTok account for @theknoxsociety, documenting life on Beacon Hill.
This is Winn’s second novel, after 2022’s “Our Little World.” But “I’m not an overnight success by any shape or form,” she says with a laugh.
“I was a nurse and a nurse practitioner, but always loved writing and wrote on the side,” says Winn, who left Mass General in 2010. “It’s a typical writer’s story: I had hundreds of rejections for short stories.”
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One of those rejections — from JFK Jr.’s “George Magazine” in 2000 — actually landed her in Newsweek recently.
I called Winn to talk opium, strange graveyard tour, a terrifying house fire, TikTok, and more.
Taylor arrives in Boston with a burning curiosity about the city. “What is Boston? Who are these people?” questions swimming in her head.
“Absolutely. When I came to Boston, I was so struck by this beautiful city. In my head, I could very clearly see the Knox building: The front is on Mount Vernon Street, and the back, I imagined to look like Branch Street. Branch isn’t the back of Mount Vernon, so I gave it a fictional name.”
I love that level of detail, though. No one outside Boston — or maybe even Beacon Hill— would ever know: oh, Branch Street isn’t in back of Mount Vernon. You have other specific references, like dining at 1928.
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“I almost wish I’d been a little craftier [with adding more]. For instance, at one point I had Taylor get her knives sharpened at Blackstone’s. And it was just too much detail, so I pared it down. But sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, I wish I kept that!’ [laughs]”
[laughs] That’s how it goes.
I don’t think I realized the effect each reference would have. There are book clubs now that tour Beacon Hill and go to spots mentioned. A few toured the Boston Atheneum, or dined at 1928. I didn’t realize how much people would connect to the sense of place. It feels like it’s been embraced by people in Boston, which is so fun.
Now 1928 has a cocktail named for your book. What are more specific inspirations that went into the novel?
“For the Knox, I took inspiration from The Somerset Club and The ‘Quin — the beautiful room with fireplaces and ornate details.
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“And I was in a secret society in college: Tabard Society at UPenn.”
Wow, what was that like?
“I can’t tell you. [laughs]”
[laughs] Fair enough.
“But I loved that experience. When I was rushing [or trying to get in] you’d find out if you were invited by getting handwritten notes slipped under your door. I tapped into that with The Knox sending notes.”
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You said your husband went with you on midnight strolls through Boston?
“Yes! I dragged him to some graveyard tours. We did one that —it was funny, because I’m not sure how I found it, but it definitely, like, wasn’t very legit.”
[laughs] OK.
“It was just us and this guy — we weren’t allowed inside any of the cemeteries. We’d watch the tours go on the inside, and the three of us would be standing on the outside. [laughs]”
[laughs] Amazing.
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“My husband’s like, ‘Where did you find this guy?’ I don’t know.”
[laughs] This feels like a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode.
“It was quite an experience [laughs] And then, of course, I had to go back. We had to go back and do an official tour.
“And I toured the Nichols House Museum in Beacon Hill, which was neat to see another historic building and learn about family that lived there. I toured the Forbes House Museum in Milton. Forbes family was one of the Brahman families, they made their fortune in the opium trade.
“Also we had lived, at one point in the South End, and actually had a house fire. We were home at the time. Luckily, we were fine. But our house was a total loss.”
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Oh my god.
“We each grabbed a kid and ran out at the door. It was pretty traumatic. Five minutes later, we would not have been able to go out that door. So, I tapped into that when I wrote the fire scene.”
Wow. That’s terrifying.
“As a writer, you store all these things up, and then go into your basket of experiences, and you get to use them.”
You also created a TikTok for the Knox. What sparked that, and how long will you keep that going?
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“I’m having fun with it. I had no expectations when I started. I wasn’t big on TikTok. But having the account for the Knox itself allowed more creative freedom because I wasn’t putting myself out there — I was putting the Knox out there. So I’ve enjoyed creating these videos. Especially since the next novel is brewing in my head.”
What are you working on now?
“My next book focuses on a minor character mentioned in “The Society” — the bookstore owner, Nicholas. I was telling you earlier about those rejections — I actually wrote a short story about him years ago that was never published. It’s been living on my computer and in my head for all these years. I’m ready to tell the story. It will be another very Boston book.”
Catch Karen Winn on July 29 at Quincy’s Next Chapter Books & More.
Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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Lauren Daley is a longtime culture journalist. As a regular contributor to Boston.com, she interviews A-list musicians, actors, authors and other major artists.
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