Cora hedges on White House visit
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, a Puerto Rico native who has been outspoken about its need for hurricane relief, indicated Thursday that he may skip the World Series celebration at the White House over President Donald Trump’s policies toward the island.
Cora previously said he would make the traditional champion’s visit to Washington to argue for more help for the American island that was devastated by Hurricane Maria. But in the wake of reports this week that Trump tried to redirect funds from Puerto Rico to Florida and Texas, Cora repeatedly prefaced his comments Thursday with, “If I go.”
“We’ll see what happens,” Cora said before the annual dinner of the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. “There’s a lot of stuff going on right now as far as the government and the shutdown and all that. If I go, I’ll represent Puerto Rico the right way.”
Once a routine, non-partisan perk of winning it all, the traditional champions’ visit to Washington has become especially politicized lately, with some teams declining the invitation; in other cases, individual players stayed home.
The Red Sox have said they will go, while leaving it up to individual members of the organization.
And Cora wavered. “Right now I can say yes. It might change tomorrow,” he said. “It’s not that I’ve changed my mind. But we’ll see what happens in the upcoming days.”
Cora said one issue is whether he can accomplish more by going or by staying home. He made it clear that he would not attend to “make a scene,” but to “represent them the right way.”
While shying away from high-priced free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, the Yankees are boosting their bullpen.
Reliever Adam Ottavino and the Yankees agreed to a $27 million, three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Thursday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal is subject to a successful physical.
Ottavino, 33, is a New Yorker who went to Berkeley Carroll High School in Brooklyn and Northeastern University. He wore No. 0 with Colorado, a number not likely to be assigned by the tradition-bound Yankees.
He had a career-high 112 strikeouts in 772⁄ innings
3 last year for the Colorado Rockies, going 6-4 with a 2.43 ERAin75 relief appearances. The right-hander reduced his fastball percentage, relying primarily on sliders and sinkers. He walked 36.
Taken 30th overall by St. Louis in the 2006 amateur draft, Ottavino made his big league debut with the Cardinals in 2010 and was claimed by Colorado off waivers in April 2012. He had Tommy John surgery in May 2016 and returned to the Rockies for the start of the 2017 season.
Ottavino will join righthander Dellin Betances and left-hander Zach Britton as the primary setup men for closer Aroldis Chapman, part of a bullpen that includes right-handers Chad Green and Jonathan Holder and left-hander Tommy Kahnle. He is the second free agent to leave the Rockies for the Yankees this offseason, following infielder DJ LeMahieu. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki also signed with New York.
Ottavino’s deal increases the Yankees’ projected luxury tax payroll to $222 million, well over the $206 million threshold for the 20 percent tax. New York would pay an additional 12 percent surtax on the portion above $226 million.
New York is among only three teams projected to pay tax this year, along with the Red Sox and Cubs. The Yankees’ offseason moves included acquiring lefthander James Paxton from the Seattle Mariners, adding LeMahieu for $24 million over two years and resigning Britton ($39 million for three years), left-hander J.A. Happ ($34 million for two years), left-hander CC Sabathia ($8 million for one year) and outfielder Brett Gardner ($7.5 million for one year).