Red Sox part with first-base coach Goodwin

BOSTON -- The Red Sox have parted ways with first-base coach Tom Goodwin, the club announced on Monday afternoon.

Goodwin last coached for Boston in the club’s final home game of the regular season against the Yankees on Sept. 26. After MLB mandated that all coaching staff be vaccinated for the playoffs, Goodwin, who is unvaccinated, missed the last two series of the regular season and the entirety of the Red Sox’s postseason run.

“I think it’s important to clarify because of that situation, [that] his vaccination status had nothing to do with this decision. It’s a baseball decision,” chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said.

During the 2021 regular season, Goodwin had two stints away from the team (in early and late August) after being deemed a close contact with personnel who tested positive for COVID-19. Goodwin then missed all of the Red Sox’s 11 postseason games, with quality control coach Ramón Vázquez filling in at first.

According to Bloom, the club plans to retain the rest of the coaching staff, minus Goodwin, for the 2022 season.

“That aside, obviously it’s early and we haven’t put pen to paper with everybody who we need to,” Bloom said. “But the intent is that everybody else will be back.”

After his 14-year playing career, Goodwin took on various coaching positions in Boston’s Minor League system. In 2011, Goodwin was hired as the first-base coach for the Mets, where he worked until rejoining the Red Sox organization at the Major League level in ‘17 as the club’s first-base coach.

“I think it should be said, you know, it’s certainly true in this case, I think it’s true in almost every case in a good organization ... even though we’re making this change, it doesn’t diminish how we feel about him as a person,” Bloom said. “What he helped accomplish here ... he helped bring this organization and this city a championship, and it’s a tough decision. So it doesn’t take away from any of that. And we’re so appreciative of all that Goody helped happen here.”

Goodwin’s replacement has not yet been selected, and his vacancy will be one of the various offseason decisions the club will work through in the coming weeks.

“In baseball, there’s always changes,” manager Alex Cora said. “We love Goody. ... But, you know, we felt, I felt [that] as a group that we needed to move forward. And there’s not a specific thing that we’re looking for. There’s a lot of things that we need to do as a group. And not only in that position, but other positions. We have to keep improving.

“This is not a knock on Goody. It’s just what we’re trying to do as a group, and that was part of the conversation. And we’ll see where we get, but whoever we decide [on as] first-base coach, you know, [they're] going to be a good one and [they're] going to help us win games.”