Save the best for first
On many levels, Cora right man to fill Sox post
The Red Sox managerial search does not need to be a long one.
That’s because the choice isn’t a complicated one.
And I think Dave Dombrowski understands that.
The presence of Dombrowski and members of the Red Sox baseball operations staff in New York City yesterday easily could be read as an early indication of whom they’re leaning toward hiring.
They weren’t in the Big Apple to catch the Bruce Springsteen show on Broadway.
They were there to meet and to greet, to charm and to be charmed by the candidate who is the most logical and most deserving to become the next manager of the Boston Red Sox.
And that’s Alex Cora.
The interview “went fine,” said Dombrowski in an email. There’s nothing at all to be read into that vague assessment, but who among us believes the Sox president of baseball ops would tip his hand so early in the process or at all? This is going to take awhile. Cora, after all, is the bench coach of the Astros and they hold a 2-0 lead over the Yankees in the ALCS. That means Houston and Cora are likely headed to the World Series, and the Red Sox are not going to flout MLB convention or interfere with Cora until the Astros’ season is over.
In the interim, interviews for the Sox managerial gig are still expected to take place with at least a couple of names more from a list that includes Brad Ausmus, Ron Gardenhire, Gabe Kapler, Hensley Muelens and DeMarlo Hale.
The Mets and Tigers are also in on Cora and so, because Cora is smart, he will listen to what they have to say as well.
But here’s what I hope transpired in New York yesterday.
I hope that in his first extended sit-down with Cora, Dombrowski was struck by the man’s confidence, drive plus emotional and baseball intelligence. Anyone who has spent a couple of minutes in the presence of Cora has walked away with the understanding that he is a shrewd and driven competitor who still retains an easygoing demeanor.
That’s a rare enough combination but in this town and especially in this clubhouse, it’s a necessity.
A couple of veterans in the Red Sox clubhouse who consider themselves leaders, like Dustin Pedroia and David Price, are pretty picky when it comes to what flies and doesn’t fly on their team. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that both gave up on John Farrell at some point this season.
But Cora would be much more their kind of guy.
Pedroia knows Cora well. Cora played for the Sox from 2006-08; 2006 was Pedroia’s first MLB experience while ’08 was Pedroia’s best year, when he was turning double plays with Cora for much of the second half of the season.
We don’t know much yet about Cora’s relationship with Price, but the pitcher has been in the big leagues since 2008. Price watched the Astros closely this September and October and talks to plenty of players who played with Cora and/or speak highly of him.
That Cora is from Puerto Rico and would count as a minority hire for the Red Sox is a nice bonus, and one not to be discounted. The Sox have never had a minority manager. For a team that is in the process of changing the name of the street where they do business because the name harkens back to the racist legacy of a former owner — well, you can see how the Cora hire makes sense on that level.
But that’s not Cora’s main asset. Yes, being able to speak his native Spanish with such key players as Rafael Devers, Christian Vazquez, Sandy Leon and Eduardo Rodriguez is not to be undervalued.
It’s Cora’s youth that is going to play well with the Red Sox. As a 41-year-old, Cora is just a year older than David Ortiz. That matters. As much as winning over Pedroia and Price will be, far more important is the relationship Cora can build with the club’s young core. Besides Devers, Vazquez and Rodriguez, there’s Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. These are the impressionable youth who witnessed poor behavior from their elders like Price (with Dennis Eckersley) and Pedroia (“It’s not me, it’s them”) that were never satisfactorily addressed by Farrell or anyone else in uniform.
Lastly and most importantly, Cora played in Boston. As Dombrowski noted in his non-specific press conference about Farrell’s firing, he seems to understand better now that not everyone is suited to play or manage in Boston.
While Cora does not have the big league managerial resume of Ausmus and Gardenhire, he has the distinct and unique advantage of being exposed to this market. Cora thrived here. He got it. He dealt with the media with a directness and civility that was refreshing. Cora was all about playing winning baseball. He saw everything that happened on the field. A postgame discussion with him was as revealing as any with the manager.
Dombrowski surely knows all this by now after meeting Cora.
His next move should be to start working with Cora.