The Boston Red Sox's coaching exodus from earlier in the 2026 campaign continues to be a major talking point around the organization.
Boston fired former manager Alex Cora, along with hitting coach Peter Fatse, third base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. Boston also "reassigned" Jason Varitek, but he isn't expected to return.
The decisions sent shockwaves through Major League Baseball and naturally led to a wide range of opinions. Boston's offense was mightily struggling, but there has been a lot of positive takes about Fatse specifically since his firing. For example, former Red Sox fan-favorite Dom Smith, who is now a member of the Atlanta Braves, credited Fatse for helping to turn his career around.
"A few years ago when I played here in Boston I got with Pete the hitting coach ... He really just broke down my swing a lot and a lot of it was just going back to the basics and stuff I did in high school," Smith said on "Foul Territory." "He pulled up some of my high school video and he just asked why I stopped doing this. I kind of laughed and said, 'Well, a lot of coaches said this wouldn't work.' And he said, 'C'mon, this would definitely work. This is how you swing. This is how you create power. This is how you are. This is how you grew up. ...' We just really dove into that just me being athletic in the box and from there on it really clicked."
Dom Smith said he was approached by Peter Fatse about retooling parts of his swing back to his high school days.
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) May 27, 2026
"A lot of coaches said this wouldn't work, and he said this is how YOU swing, how YOU create power, and this is how YOU are." pic.twitter.com/jbcWi3Vv3S