SEATTLE — Uncertainty hangs over Alex Cora as Opening Day of the 2024 season arrives.
Cora, who has managed the Red Sox for five seasons, is on the final year of his contract. New chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has yet to address his manager’s future, though ownership has made clear that Cora’s future is in Breslow’s hands.
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It’s unusual for a manager to enter a lame duck season. Under current ownership, the Red Sox have a history of extending their managers — Terry Francona and John Farrell, as examples — before it gets to that point.
So with Cora’s future with the organization unclear, will it be awkward?
“Well, first of all, it would be awkward, let’s be honest, if you didn’t have the type of leader in Craig Breslow that we have or the type of person that we have in Alex Cora,” team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said on MassLive’s latest episode of the Fenway Rundown podcast. “Both parties recognize they have an obligation and responsibility to the Boston Red Sox to do everything in their power to help us win.
“Therefore, given we made the change at the general manager position, we put Bres and Alex in a position that you could say would be awkward the way that we dealt with that was to ensure open, honest, transparent communication, which Craig Breslow has taken the lead on and Alex Cora has reciprocated and those two had a pre-existing relationship they’re building. This is the most important, it’s the most precious relationship in baseball, in my opinion, the the relationship between your general manager and the manager. It’s critical for overall team success anytime….So they have been building that relationship, building that trust, building that communication.”
Even without a new contract, Kennedy said he can’t remember Cora being this invigorated at the start of a season.
“I’ve known him a long, long time and I’ve never seen him as energetic, optimistic, confident, excited about a season as he is for the 2024 season,” Kennedy said. “I think he admitted, he said he was in a down sort of spot last year. I’m not really sure the rest of us saw that all too often because he is so engaging and optimistic. He’s in literally his playing shape. He weighs what he weighed as a player, which is remarkable. He feels good. He’s got a ton of energy. He is totally comfortable with where things stand. He’s been very open about that. And, and we really appreciate how he’s handled it.
“More importantly, we appreciate how Craig Breslow has handled it. Bres is in charge of our baseball operation. He needs to make this decision when it’s right for the organization. And we’ll have those discussions as we go forward from here, but there’s just been great communication, very open, very honest and I anticipate that continuing. Obviously, you get into the emotion of the season and things can change. So I think we all have to be mindful of that. And we’ve had those discussions too, that once you get into the season, wins and losses, things change, things get emotional, We’ve discussed that and, and we’ll be monitoring all of our approaches as we continue those discussions.”
