Red Sox Poach Yankees Triple-A Skipper Shelley Duncan for Tracy's Staff

The Red Sox have struck an early blow in the offseason rivalry, hiring Shelley Duncan away from the Yankees. News broke on Wednesday night that Duncan, who has managed New York's Triple-A club at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre since 2023, is signing on to join Chad Tracy's staff in Boston. The move was reported by MassLive's Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam, two of the best-connected Red Sox insiders, and it stings for the Yankees. Duncan earned International League Manager of the Year honours in 2025 and was widely seen as a rising coach inside the New York organisation, with some even viewing him as a future bench-coach candidate. Losing him to Boston, of all places, is the kind of quiet organisational defeat that hurts more than the headlines suggest. Duncan is a former major-league player who knows the American League East from both sides, and his experience running a Triple-A clubhouse should translate quickly to a big-league staff. Exactly where he fits remains to be settled, with the reports noting that his role — and that of fellow addition Jason Bell — is still to be determined. For the Red Sox, it is a smart, low-cost addition as Tracy builds out his staff. For the Yankees, it is another hole to fill before spring training.