Sox may opt for internal fix
Players, coaches stay loyal to Cora
Without a manager three weeks before the Red Sox open camp in Fort Myers, Red Sox front office leaders Chaim Bloom and Brian O’Halloran have one central question to answer.
Are they better off keeping the status quo or shuffling up the roster and/or coaching staff to push this team in a new direction?
It should come as no surprise which route the players and coaches want.
J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and others have referred to departing manager Alex Cora as one of their all-time favorite bosses to play for.
Their loyalty to Cora hasn’t faltered, not even after MLB detailed his crimes while he was with the 2017 Astros, a team that knocked the Red Sox out of the postseason after outscoring them 16-4 in two games at Minute Maid Park.
With their love for Cora still shining bright, the preference from those already on the team is that the Sox don’t make any wholesale changes. They’d prefer continuity. They want to keep going with the same energy and clubhouse atmosphere they’ve had for two years, despite their 2019 season finishing as arguably the most disappointing in MLB.
“I think this is a very easy team to come into and take over, just because the guys we have are professionals,” Martinez said Saturday at Red Sox Winter Weekend. “We have guys who know what to do, know how to get ready. We don’t, in a sense, need a babysitter. We need someone who’s going to give us the best chance to win and know how to handle our clubhouse and the players in it.”
And the best way to do that? Getting another manager in the same mold as the last one.
“Someone like (Cora),” Bogaerts said. “First year he came in and won. Everything seemed so easy. Last year we had some rough stretches. We still ended the season over .500. That’s not where we wanted to be but he did a great job with us. It’s hard managing 25 guys, old guys, keeping them all on the same page. Not letting that clubhouse break apart is something that’s not easy to do.”
Martinez suggested the Sox hire Cora’s bench coach, Ron Roenicke, the former manager of the Brewers from 2011 until he was fired in 2015, going 342-331 in that time.
“Ron is a great candidate,” Martinez said. “He knows our team. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Ron or something.”
The 63-year-old Roenicke said he’s disappointed in the sign-stealing revelations but is open to managing again.
Promoting Roenicke could change the energy only slightly, given Cora was evidently going all-out to steal signs and Roenicke doesn’t even believe in giving signs to the batters from the coaching box at third base. If players want to keep pressing the envelope to get every advantage possible, it sounds like Roenicke could be at odds with that. At the very least, he said he likes his guys to play the right way.
Cora, too, once said the same thing.
But Roenicke does represent continuity as a playerfirst type of skipper.
“I think for me, it’s that open book,” Martinez said when asked what he wants in his next manager. “Being able to say, ‘Hey J.D., you’re going to be off next Tuesday.’ Or, ‘Hey, I need you today, how you feeling?’ Because at the end of the day we’re all men. Being open and straight-up is the most valuable asset a manager can have.”
Dusty Baker, an accomplished managerial candidate who has a reputation for being down to earth and honest, remains available. He’s been to the playoffs in each of the last two seasons he’s been fired, in ’13 with the Reds and in ’17 with the Nationals. He’s averaged 95 wins per season his last four years at the helm of two different teams. He’s 15th alltime in wins. He’s bilingual.
And he will interview for the Astros’ opening, according to The Athletic.
There’s a handful of other external candidates who should be considered too, though no names have leaked out of the Red Sox front office just yet.
If the Sox are going to shake up their roster — they’ve yet to shed any salary and still intend to get under the $208-million luxury tax threshold, as indicated by owner John Henry on Friday
— it might make sense to look outside the organization for a new voice, someone who demands respect and wants to implement his own vision.
Instead, the Sox will consider fulfilling the players’ and coaches’ wish of staying inside the organization. Sam Kennedy, team president, said that’s where the search will start.
Third base coach Carlos Febles said he’d throw his hat in the ring.
Like the rest of these guys, he has his fingers crossed the team stays internal.
“There’s an advantage because you don’t have to work hard to build relationships,” Febles said. “I’ve already been around here a long time. It’s their decision, but it will make it easier for all of us, coaches and players, because it’s going to be hard if whoever comes in tries to build relationships at this point, this late.”