Zolak & Bertrand: Reacting to Alex Cora’s new extension
Zolak and Bertrand are live from Patriots Training Camp Thursday but start the show with news about Alex Cora’s three-year extension worth $7 million per year, according to multiple reporters.
Why wouldn’t he wait?
Zolak: I was floored because at this point where you’re approaching the trade deadline next week, and the big question is, are they going to invest? Are they going to sell? Are they going to stay the course? What is it? It didn’t really seem like he was on board with the way things have been trending the last couple of years, and how he was left hanging at the deadline, and just based on his comments, ‘Do you want to be manager here again?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I’m going to show up every day and do the best I can.’ He didn’t affirm it. They did the right thing here, and he took it. He could have got more, probably. That’s what I feel. I know Mazz talked about this yesterday when it was breaking but he’s the second highest paid per year average manager now, why shouldn’t he be the highest? I think it’s one of two things that they’re not going to do anything, and this is going to be their big signing at the trade deadline to make you feel good about the team. Or Theo (Epstein has), gotten involved. They convinced Cora that they’re going to invest maybe not this trade deadline, but in the off season.
Bertrand: I don’t think that’s it. Why not wait? If you’re Alex Cora, and that’s the most important thing — I know Tim and I feel the same way about this — you can wait. He didn’t have to sign it now. That’s the part of it that floors me that he did it now in July, and he didn’t go get the most money, which we’ll get more into that. But why now? If it’s about those things, then he wouldn’t have done it now. He would have waited. That tells me it’s about all that other stuff he’s talked about, which is his family likes it here, he’s comfortable, and he likes being in Boston. He’s found this to be — he’s talked about being from Puerto Rico —in terms of his baseball home, it’s pretty much become Boston for him. He’s spent a lot of years here. Yeah, this is the place that he’s comfortable and he likes living here. His family is comfortable here. They’re settled in, and hey, $7 million a year is not a small number for a manager in baseball. It’s still a really good number, but he could have had more. He could have had more years. He could have had more money per year. He took a team-friendly deal. And when you’re taking team-friendly deals before any of those other things get proven, how can you say it’s about that style? ‘Oh, they’ve convinced him. They’ve convinced him. They’re going to be all in at the deadline.’ So why couldn’t he just wait two weeks and sign the deal in two weeks and see if they actually come through on that promise?
Listen to the full segment!