Cora fired in sign stealing scandal
Twins finalize 3-year, $30m deal with Sano
BOSTON, Jan 15, (AP): The Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora on Tuesday, a day after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred implicated him in the sport’s sign-stealing scandal.
Cora was the bench coach for the Houston Astros when they won the 2017 World Series and led Boston to the title the following year in his first season as manager. Astros manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were fired on Monday, an hour after Manfred suspended them for the 2020 season for their role in the cheating scheme.
Manfred’s nine-page report mentioned Cora 11 times, describing him as a key person in the planning and execution of the cheating scheme. Cora met Tuesday with Red Sox management.
The Red Sox begin spring training in less than a month.
The Minnesota Twins on Tuesday finalized a three-year, $30 million contract with third baseman
Miguel Sano, a deal agreed to last week to avoid salary arbitration. The 26-year-old Sano, who made $2.65 million last season in his first year of arbitration eligibility, bounced back from a rough 2018 with a career-high 34 homers in just 105 games in 2019.
Eric Cressey has been hired by the Yankees as director of player health and performance, a move made after New York had a record 30 players make 39 trips to the injured list last year.
New York set a big league record for sidelined players. The 2016 Los Angeles Dodgers had 28 players on what was then called the disabled list.
The 38-year-old Cressey founded Cressey Sports Performance in 2007 and will continue as president of the company, which specializes in kinesiology and biomechanics and maintains facilities in Hudson, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. New Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake was a pitching coordinator for the company.
The Nationals finalized an $11 million, two-year deal with reliever Daniel Hudson on Tuesday that figures to shore up the reigning World Series champions’ bullpen.
Hudson will be back with Washington after a successful half season and more that ended with him striking out Houston’s Michael Brantley for the final out of the Nationals’ Game 7 World Series win. The right-hander went 4 for 4 in save opportunities during the postseason and allowed no runs in seven of his nine postseason appearances.
The Chicago White Sox finalized a $6 million, one-year contract with free agent reliever Steve
Cishek on Tuesday. The 33-year-old right-hander will earn $5.25 million next season under the deal reached last week. The White Sox hold a $6.75 million option for 2021 with a $750,000 buyout. Cishek is heading to the South Side after spending the past two seasons with the crosstown Cubs. The side-armer went 4-6 with a 2.95 ERA and seven saves in 70 appearances last year.
The Philadelphia Phillies have cut outfielder Odubel Herrera and claimed outfielder Nick Martini off waivers. Herrera was designated for assignment on Tuesday to make room on the roster for Martini. Herrera was suspended last season under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy following his arrest at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on domestic assault charges.