Mazz: Alex Cora sounds happier than he has been in some time
For a day, at least, Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently sounded happier than he has been in some time.
And, notably, it was after a loss.
Despite a 3-1 defeat to the San Francisco Giants, the Red Sox concluded a homestand at Fenway Park this week with a 4-2 record. In the process, Boston took 2-of-3 from both the Chicago Cubs and Giants, improving to 18-14 entering a five-game road trip to Minnesota and Atlanta. But before the Sox boarded a plane on getaway day at Fenway Park, Cora and a reporter had this exchange that illustrated a level of contentment that Cora has seemingly lacked for some time during his tenure as the manager of the Red Sox.
So why is this notable?
Because for a few years now, Cora’s frustrations with team management have been obvious. Most of those annoyances have seemingly been directed at Chaim Bloom, whose passive approach to team building led to three last-place finishes in four years and had Cora all but beating his head against the wall. Did the Red Sox farm system improve during that time. Yes – at least some. But there always seemed to be a lack or urgency at the big league level, where competing seemed to take a backseat to organizational development.
So what has changed?
Craig Breslow seems to be acting on the needs at the big league level instead of putting them off, which appears to have at least given a voice to those in uniform.
For example: early in the season, after the season-ending injury to Trevor Story, Breslow suggested that Ceddanne Rafaela would remain in center field. After a comedy of defensive errors at the position in Story’s absence, the team immediately moved Rafaela to the infield, after which the Red Sox defense stabilized – and the team started to win. (Conspiracy theory: Cora pushed for this given the ineptitude of replacements like David Hamilton, and Breslow did something Bloom would not: acquiesced to his manager.)
Nonetheless, Rafaela is only part of the story. When first baseman Triston Casas, too, was lost to injury, Breslow acted swiftly in acquiring proven veteran options that could at least get the Red Sox professional play at the position, from Garrett Cooper to Dominic Smith. Is either of those players an All-Star who can fully replace Casas? No. But neither is Franchy Cordero, a developmental project whom Bloom acquired in the trade for Andrew Benintendi. (Even when the Sox acquired Kyle Schwarber from the Washington Nationals at the 2021 trade deadline, Schwarber did not fill the need for the team at first base.)
Does all of this now mean that the Red Sox are headed for the playoffs again? No. But it does mean that Breslow isn’t putting player development ahead of the big league operation. Rather, it means that he is trying to accomplish both tasks at the same time. And instead of allowing developmental and project players to stay at the major leagues, the Sox are now asking them to develop at the club’s minor league affiliates, which is precisely where those players should have been all along.
As former Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy was often fond of saying about the big leagues, “This isn’t player development.”
Cora, of course, seems content to be in the final year of his contract this season, which suggests that the Bloom (and ownership) approach in recent years has worn him down. Could that change if Breslow’s approach empowers those in uniform? As the saying goes, it isn’t over `til it’s over. And if the Red Sox can prove that their early-season success – especially on the pitching side – is a sign of the future, well, the outlook for the Red Sox, Cora and Boston baseball fans could be quite different by season’s end.
