Cora has total player support
Two years ago in January, Alex Cora held a microphone in his hand, looked out at a ballroom audience of a couple hundred Red Sox fans and made a proclamation. “If you thought last year was special, wait ’til this year,” he said, smiling. Cora got a huge applause. The Red Sox went on to win 84 games in 2019, 24 fewer wins than the year before. Cora lost his job a few months later following a detailed report of how he created a sign-stealing scheme for the 2017 Houston Astros.
It didn’t seem possible that Cora could go from wonder-boy manager to unemployed in less than 15 months.
But it seemed inevitable he’d get his job back.
Eleven months later, he did.
Now, as Cora prepares to begin his second chance as the Red Sox skipper, he’s making a similar prediction to the one he made in 2019.
“We will be better than last year, let’s get that one out of the way,” he said. His players think so, too.
For all his sins in ’17, Cora never lost his clubhouse in Boston. Red Sox players were careful never to say a bad word about their former skipper. They made it clear they wanted Cora’s bench coach, Ron Roenicke, to replace him, a sign of continuity. And as soon as Cora was hired back, it felt like the dawn of a new day.
“It was like he never left,” said Chris Sale. “I stayed in contact with him throughout all of last year, all of last offseason, and I didn’t play last year.
“It’s awesome. I know what he brings to the table. You guys know what he brings to the table. Our players, our fans know what he brings to the table. We’re excited about it. I think having him back is a key part to this whole thing moving forward more smoothly.”
Sale had been a Cora believer from the beginning of the 2018 season, when he quickly called him “the captain” and credited the manager for the team’s incredible season.
“Camaraderie, trust, passion,” Sale said when asked what Cora brings.
It was strange to hear the word “trust” used with a manager who had just been banned from baseball for one year due to cheating, but it spoke volumes.
“You can’t talk to him about anything and not know that he’s all-in,” Sale said. “There’s no question he brings it on a daily basis. He wants to win. Everything he does is to better either himself, the coaching staff, the team or the organization.
“Being able to have that trust in the captain, he’s the guy that’s running the show… There’s no doubt we’re going to find a way to make this thing great.”
Cora reached out to most of his players in the off-season. On the first official day of spring training, he spoke to the entire organization. What was said? He chose not to share that publicly. But he’s made it clear he’s not trying to run away from the issue altogether.
“If I don’t talk about it, there are some books coming out that are going to talk about it,” Cora said. “It’s not going to go away. I’m ready for it. This is part of the process. I’m not one who hides from making mistakes or admitting mistakes. I’ve been doing that. I’ve been saying all along, this is something that’s going to follow me the rest of my career. “But at the same time, I’ve got a job to do. My job is to help this team get back to where we belong… That’s what I’m more proud of – that I haven’t changed, hopefully. Hopefully when people saw me win in ’18, they didn’t say, ‘This freaking guy. What a punk.’ I’m still the same guy, man. The highs are highs, the lows are lows. I’m still here. I just made a mistake. That’s it.”
Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said it wasn’t an easy decision to bring Cora back a second time. From the outside, though, it seemed like an obvious one.
“He just has a charisma about him where people feel lifted up by being around him,” Bloom said. “He can bring the best out of people. That’s what we’re looking for in a manager. He connects as well as anybody I’ve seen.”
Rafael Devers, who reverted to some bad habits on defense and struggled throughout the 2020 season, welcomed Cora back with open arms.
“Just the confidence he has in me and the belief and the way he pushes me,” Devers said. “That’s something that has helped me tremendously. He’s someone that I can talk to about anything. He’s someone that just knows how to communicate with me, no matter what it is that I’m talking to him about. He understands me, and that’s something that is extremely helpful for my growth.”
Said Eduardo Rodriguez, “He’s like a father. He’s like a brother. Sometimes I feel like he’s a teammate when I talk to him.”
Cora knows he’s on thin ice. Another mistake like the one he made in ’17 and his career should be over.
The Red Sox only guaranteed him two seasons on his contract. They have an option for a third year, but don’t have to decide until after the 2022 season. Cora has to prove himself all over again. “He brings a lot of calmness, like, ‘everything is going to be alright,’” said shortstop Xander Bogaerts. “More times than not, it kind of works out the way he says it will.”