AL WILD CARD SERIES: RED SOX VS YANKEES

September 28, 2026

Chad Tracy

Yankee Stadium

Boston Red Sox

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Can you talk about Payton, why you chose him?

CHAD TRACY: I think we had a good idea even going into last week that we were leaning that way, which is very much why we arranged the rotation at the beginning of this past week the way we did. Not only did we think we were going to do that, but also it allowed us the flexibility, if we wanted to, as we assessed the week and we wanted to make changes, we could because we knew all three guys would be on a seven-day. So it gave us some flexibility to change it if we needed it.

Just felt like with his power stuff, that that was the best choice for Game 1.

Q. Did him being a lefty have anything to do with it, kind of splitting up the lefties?

CHAD TRACY: Maybe to a degree, but with Payton, when he's starting, you're not as much worried about who's in the lineup, you trust him either way. I just feel like we're pretty confident in who he is as a pitcher and what he brings to the table regardless of who he's facing as far as difficulty to hit. That's what we felt like was best.

Q. There's not a lot of 23-year-old rookies that you would kind of entrust in this spot. What makes him different?

CHAD TRACY: You know the answer to that. As far as, yes, I know his age, I know he's a rookie, but as far as the way he approaches baseball and big moments, that part won't bother him. Like he's just -- he's pretty special personality that's been through a lot and doesn't take things too seriously that don't need to be taken that seriously. Just going to go out there and pitch his game regardless of what it is. So don't have any concerns on that.

Q. At risk of asking the obvious, Sonny in Game 2 then?

CHAD TRACY: How come you got a microphone?

Q. Because he handed it to me.

CHAD TRACY: Sonny in Game 2, yeah. Ranger will be in Game 3.

Q. What is Crochet's status?

CHAD TRACY: We're still seeing. Again, like I said, he threw the live BP, came out of it well. We obviously just got here a little bit ago.

We're going to be here for a while, let guys go through treatments, let guys go outside and play catch. Even if there's a little drizzle, they can go out and play catch. They can get in the cage. Even if we're not able to get on the field much, get guys through the paces today.

We'll see as we get to the end of the workout if we can key down on making decisions like that.

Q. Realizing that you haven't made a final decision on Garrett, is there a sense of his usage? Could he be used more than once? Could he go back-to-back? What are you looking to find out about his capability and what's unanswered in your mind?

CHAD TRACY: I think the answer to that is up in the air. If we're able to activate Garrett and we do that and we decide to do that, obviously he's available, right? I think beyond that, if you were to use him, the availability, whether that's the next day or for another game in the series, it's still going to be contingent on us continuing to evaluate him.

We know where he's at. We know he's worked very hard to get everything back strong the way it needs to be, but we're still going to be evaluating him daily to see where he's at. So I can't answer beyond like knowing that, if we were to activate him, that would mean he's available to pitch. Whether he's available to pitch again this series, I don't know the answer to that yet.

Q. What should we read into that? Just how cool is it for him? He's never played in a Major League game.

CHAD TRACY: There's nothing to read into yet. As you come into this when you're still in an area where you haven't fully decided which route you're going to go on your roster is important. We've got some people moving yesterday. It was important just to have some people here that we knew could be contingent on whatever we decide to do just to have some options here.

I wouldn't read into it too much. We still have to get to the end of the day and make decisions on what we do with our roster. Him being here is an option depending on what we want to do. We just haven't decided yet what we want to do.

Q. You look at pitchers like Payton, like Schlittler, how would you have handled that velocity every day in your playing days?

CHAD TRACY: I like to -- I like to think when I was hitting, I was pretty confident against who -- that doesn't always mean I was going to have success, but I think most hitters f you're worth your salt, you're going to get in there and feel like you're pretty confident regardless of who you're facing.

That said, there are guys that are really good and they're good for a reason and they're harder to hit than others, and that's always been the case. These two guys are pretty good.

Q. How much has it changed in 20 years?

CHAD TRACY: It's changed. It's absolutely changed. I know there's a lot of debate about that and back and forth. I've been now in the game in the professional level for 22 straight years and I haven't taken my eyes off it. No, I've been watching it evolve, and it is -- from a sheer consistency of velocity across the board, it's different than -- it's definitely changed over the years.

Q. Chad, you got to tell Payton he was going in the Major Leagues last year. What was it like getting to tell him he was starting Game 1 this year?

CHAD TRACY: It was great. Not quite as emotional. I think he's pretty well established now as to who he is as a pitcher, but I know he was very excited about the assignment. I know the one last year was pretty emotional being told you're going to the Big Leagues. There were some tears and stuff. This one is more smile and ready to go and excited about it.

Q. How do you look at Contreras going into this series? Is he a full play? Do you have to monitor anything?

CHAD TRACY: You're always monitoring. I don't think we're the only ones, though, as far as this time of year, players banged up. The adrenaline will kick in tomorrow, and guys tend to go.

He's in a good spot. Like we got him some live at-bats on Saturday, was able to get him in the game Sunday. The plan was two at-bats. He felt pretty good after the second one. When we shut it down, he was able to get some more looks in the cage inside.

Obviously we're going through a workout today. We'll make sure we get everybody through and see where we're at, but I think he's ready to go.

Q. How do you think tomorrow night will compare to April 26 in Baltimore for you?

CHAD TRACY: It will be drastically different.

Q. In what way?

CHAD TRACY: It's the playoffs. It's going to be -- there's more riding on it. To be perfectly honest with you, on April 26, getting in at whatever time it was in the middle of the night that I got in and we had a day game, I knew that also there was going to be six new staff members arriving that day, so I gave myself some grace on like you're probably not as prepared for this game as you normally would be. You'd just gotten stuff thrown in front of you.

So like go out and be with -- in that case, it was go out and be with the guys, as many of whom I had, and give them a hug and enjoy being with them and let the game go be what it is.

This is the playoffs. We're at the point in the season for the teams that are remaining where it's a three-game series. You've got to win the series or you go home. There's more riding on it, but that's what our players and competitors live for that. So it will be fun.

Q. Is there anything you anticipate being different about your job specifically in October compared to the regular season, both from a game management perspective and then also from like a player management, ego management, man management perspective?

CHAD TRACY: Not really. I have to talk to you guys more. Abby was giving me the rundown on there's probably more time of different scrums and things like that. But as far as everything, I think everybody pretty well knows when you get to this part of the year it's all hands on deck. I think everybody's pretty aware in the playoffs it's high intent and winning moments and being aggressive and all those things.

I don't think most of our guys -- all of our guys that have been around that understand that. So you're just -- you're going to go out and they're going to play their butts off, and we're going to manage and try to do whatever we can to win the game. That's what it is on every single day basis, and I think everybody's aware of that.

Q. Chad, you told us last week at Fenway you grew up watching Red Sox-Yankees. You've managed Red Sox-Yankees in the regular season, and you've been part of the organization when they've played each other in the postseason. But how much are you looking forward to actually being part of Red Sox-Yankees postseason as a manager?

CHAD TRACY: Yeah, I said that the other day just to portray that it's not just the people in the Northeast that get engaged in Red Sox-Yankees. It's like all across the country. It's well-known what these two franchises mean and when they get together. So like you don't shy away from that. It's pretty obvious. Everybody makes a huge deal about it.

At the end of the day, as a player, as a staff member, you've got to go out -- it doesn't matter who it is. You're approaching it the same way. Like your goal is to go out and win the game. I don't think that when you're in the playoffs, if you win a Wild Card series, whether it's against the Yankees or somebody else, you're going to be equally pumped about that.

I don't like to give that way more attention than it needs, but I won't shy away from its historic -- two historic franchises, big rivalry, well aware of that.

Q. When you face a pitcher who has had the kind of year Schlittler has had, what's the right mindset that you want your hitters to have going into the game and when they go up to the plate?

CHAD TRACY: I've answered that like the same way all year with our people, and that is it's for me, regardless of who you're facing, your job is to go up there and grind at-bats, grind at-bats. If it's an out and you're able to see six pitches, fine. If it's a line-out, fine. If it's finding a way to get two people on base, fine.

I don't think that changes regardless of who we face. That always plays, right? I just think it becomes even more prevalent when you're facing really good pitching. I've always said the goal isn't -- there's never a goal of like go out and get his pitch count up. Well, if a guy's filling up the strike zone, you've got to be ready to hit. The goal is to go up and take good at-bats. The more good at-bats you put together as a group, the more you give yourself a chance to score runs.

Whether that's Cam Schlittler or whoever, that should always be the goal, and then you kind of work your way through the game and see where the game's at from there and make choices from there.

I do think it's heightened facing good, good pitching that you have to grind at-bats.

Q. I think you saw Cam pitch for once or twice for the Minor Leagues. I'm just wondering if you remember what --

CHAD TRACY: Once in Scranton.

Q. Just wondering if you remember what your first impressions were of him and maybe what's changed since then?

CHAD TRACY: My first impression was this guy's a pretty darn good pitcher. My impression hasn't changed since then. I think he threw against us in Scranton, and I think but a couple weeks there. Seen him there; obviously seen him now here. Well aware of the quality of pitcher that he is, and it's our job to try to go out there and try to beat him.

Q. Related to some of the other postseason questions, but what, if anything, have you done to prepare for managing the postseason?

CHAD TRACY: Just I've been looking at lineup possibilities. Obviously you don't know -- I've held our starters until today. So you didn't know what they were going to do. We had an idea of who it was going to be.

So I've just been spending the week in free time outside of making sure that you're still prepared for the games you were actually playing, looking at who could they pitch, what do I think we can do from a lineup standpoint, lineup construction standpoint, like who would we have on the bench in those scenarios, and how do I think I can utilize those players to the best of our ability?

The interesting thing about it is you do all that, and as you go along, you still get things change. Like in the meantime, Mickey Gasper hurts his bicep and Tyron hurts his lat. So you're still preparing, but it's constantly adjusting. You don't know what's going to happen in that week's time between early last week to now, like things can change.

But have been glancing at it, looking at it, have had one eye on what was going on currently with the games we had to play and also another one on preparing for what we could do in different scenarios here, and that will intensify here over the next couple of days once we actually for us finalize our roster and once we see what the Yankees do to finalize their roster, then you have a better idea of what you're dealing with on the other side and you go from there.

Q. For today, Yankees have like a midafternoon workout. I thought you guys would be after them. How did you end up going early?

CHAD TRACY: We had either this slot or a much later slot that would have pushed us pretty late in the evening. It really was a matter of keep in mind our travel changed too as far as going to Tampa. So it was like today, knew we wanted to do some stuff. If we were able to get on the field, great. If we didn't, we knew we had a game yesterday, did a bunch of stuff yesterday, and then played.

Just spoke with the players on here's the two scenarios. If we do the early one, it could be raining, we're still going to be able to get in the cage, we're still going to be able to get the guys to throw and play catch. Based on our travel, left up to them what they wanted to do. This was what we preferred knowing that with an 8:15 game tomorrow, we're likely going to be on the field taking BP and getting all kinds of pregame work and defensive work we need prior to the game.

Either way we were in a good spot, and this was our preference.

Q. In a unique series like this where you only need three starting pitchers, how much do you spend mulling the last few days about all your various bench options that you can put together when in a normal, regular season game you have four bench players?

CHAD TRACY: Those conversations have been going on for the better part of last week, and you still haven't decided. You know the different options you have, and some of that's going to be contingent on if we do this, we'd rather do this, but if we do this, we'd rather do this. So we go back and forth.

To your point, yeah, you know if you just need three starters, it gives you the ability to do it different ways, and each club will probably do what's best for them depending on what they're carrying. Yes, we're still talking through that, but it has been ongoing for about a week.

Q. You know even in the early innings, unlike a regular season game, you have a bunch of righty-lefty options on the bench available?

CHAD TRACY: Yeah, it depends on what we do and what you have. Obviously we've taken some hits as far as health. So that's why you start talking about it, and then as things happen and people get banged up, it changes the narrative, and you've got to get to this point where we are now, get through the workout, and then kind of decide from there.

Q. How much of that roster decision-making depends on just guessing what the Yankees would do? Because they have a lot of sort of questions right now with their bench and their pitching.

CHAD TRACY: I don't think at this point where we're at as far as the roster, like I don't think it's much guessing. I think we're at least conversationally like kind of down to that last spot or two, and I don't think it's too drastic depending on what they're going to do.

Q. Did October seem like a world away when you took over that day in April?

CHAD TRACY: Yes. Yes, it did. It went by fast and slow at the same time. You guys are well aware of the season that we had and what was going on when I first got here and the amount of time it took to get turns, like that early part we were grinding through to try to get the team on track. Those days felt long.

Then in the summer it felt like it went by like that. So it's been a crazy journey, but here we are. They accomplished it. We got here. Obviously this is not our end goal. Any of the 12 teams remaining, this is not their goal just to get here and be satisfied. But it was a wave of emotions for our season, for our players, staff, and everybody involved.

Q. Did Wilson come through everything --

CHAD TRACY: Everything was okay after yesterday. Again, we'll get him in here today and see what he was able to do, but he came through and everything was okay.

Q. You think he'll be able to play first, right?

CHAD TRACY: Yeah, as long as he's okay. We've got to get through the workout today and make sure everything was fine. DH'ing yesterday was strictly to manage the load. Obviously if he is able to get through everything today and we're in a good spot, the intent would be to have him at first base.