McCarthy: Alex Cora positioning himself to be next Red Sox GM

On Friday's Felger & Mazz program, Matt McCarthy explains why he thinks Alex Cora could become the next general manager of the Boston Red Sox. Jul 23, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora (13) celebrates a two-run home run scored by outfielder Tyler O'Neill (17) (not pictured) in the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports Alex Cora Next GM? Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity. Matt McCarthy: Why would Alex Cora sign here? He got a three-year deal instead of getting 5 years and $45 million. That's what he should have gotten to beat Craig Counsell on the open market.   The giveaway in this is the number of years he got, three more. Alex Cora entered this year as a lame duck, which rarely happens as a manager.   Can you remember the last time a general manager entered their final year as a lame duck? I mean, it rarely ever happened for a good reason. You cannot have somebody running your baseball team who you don't know will be around in a year.   It's one thing to have your manager do it, which rarely happens anyway. It's another thing to have your general manager do it.   We know that Alex Cora wants to be a GM. He has said this publicly. He has said so privately. Cora only signed for three years. Chaim Bloom got a five-year deal. Which really in in the grand scheme of things is a four-year deal. Right? That is before you either have to fire him or move on.   I bet you Craig Breslow got the same thing. I bet you Craig Breslow got a five-year deal as general manager and chief Baseball officer of the Red Sox. This three-year contract for Cora puts him directly on line with the decision they would have to make on Craig Breslow 3-plus years from now.  I was stunned by the news. I didn't expect it to come down price-wise. I'm shocked he's back. This is Cora positioning himself to be a general manager one day, and potentially here in Boston.  He has said he doesn't want to manage all that much longer. Three years feels like a good amount of time for him. He could become GM here. He has a good relationship with ownership.   We'll see how the Breslow thing goes. If Breslow truly wanted to bring in his own manager, he would have been able to bring in his own guy. If Cora wanted to stay, it was going to be up to him because he's got that good relationship with ownership.  I think he's staying because he's positioning himself to be a general manager. Here or elsewhere. So, if I'm Craig Breslow, I'm paying attention to that timing. Three years. That should put him right along the same track as Breslow. Keep an eye out for that. That's why I think Cora took the three-year deal.  Segment Audio https://omny.fm/shows/felger-massarotti-1/boston-olympics-disaster-felger-mazz/embed?size=square https://youtu.be/yZkmt1tE6vo Ryan Beaton is a producer for 985thesportshub.com. You can follow Ryan at @ry_beaton on Twitter. Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!