Cora’s departure saddens Red Sox
Team now has little time to look for its next manager
BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox need to find a new manager, and it sounds like they haven’t gotten over their old one.
Heaping praise on Alex Cora a day after showing him the door, Red Sox owner John Henry said on Wednesday the team was going to miss “just about everything” about the man who led Boston to the 2018 World Series title only to be torpedoed in a cheating scandal.
“It was a sad day because we all have such respect for Alex,” said chairman Tom Werner, who was one of several Red Sox officials keeping in touch with the deposed manager since his departure. “He admitted that what he did was wrong, but that doesn’t mitigate, in our opinion, the extraordinary talent that he has. And we continue to be very fond of Alex.”
A player on Boston’s 2007 World Series-winning team who led the club to another title in his first year as a rookie manager, Cora was ousted Tuesday, a day after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred identified him as the ringleader in a signstealing scheme when he was the bench coach for the 2017 Astros.
Major League Baseball is also looking into whether Cora installed a similar system in Boston after arriving the following year. No conclusions have been reached, and there is no timetable; the Astros investigation took two months.
“We would ask that everyone to reserve judgment until MLB completes its investigation and determines whether rules were violated,” Henry said. “I can tell you that we are working with baseball to the fullest extent possible.”
The Red Sox insisted that Cora’s departure was a mutual decision because he could not continue to lead the team effectively. The decision leaves the Red Sox, who went 84-78 and missed the playoffs last year for the first time since 2015, without a manager and less than a month to find one before spring training. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, who was hired in October, said he hadn’t had time yet to formulate a short list.
Complicating the search for a replacement is that the Red Sox don’t know if anyone else will face sanctions from the commissioner. And with just a month before spring training other teams may be reluctant to grant permission to interview members of their staffs.
The Astros are also looking for a manager.
METS: While the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox took decisive action in jettisoning their managers after Major League Baseball concluded they were involved in nefarious sign stealing, the Mets have stayed silent on Carlos Beltrán’s future.
Houston fired AJ Hinch one hour after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred released his findings Monday. Boston’s management took 29½ hours to announce Alex Cora’s departure Tuesday.
Beltrán remains in limbo, with the Mets refusing to say whether their new manager stays or goes. In Manfred’s nine-page statement, Beltrán was the only player identified as a participant in the cheating scheme.
“They have to fire Carlos Beltrán,” a former New York Yankees teammate, Mark Teixeira, said Wednesday on ESPN, where he works as an analyst.
“There’s no way that Carlos Beltrán, especially in the pressure cooker of New York, there’s no way he can be the manager of the Mets. … You cannot have that guy lead your team. The New York papers, the Daily News and the Post and all of the tabloids will eat up Carlos Beltrán every single day until he’s fired.”
TRADES: The Texas Rangers acquired first baseman/outfielder Sam Travis from Boston on Wednesday in a trade that sent lefthander Jeffrey Springs to the Red Sox.
The addition of Travis came on the same day the Rangers announced the signing of Todd Frazier, another right-handed hitter who can play first base. Texas plans to use Frazier primarily at third.
Left-hander Stephen Tarpley was traded from the New York Yankees to Miami on for third baseman James Nelson and $50,000 payable on Feb. 15.