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The Boston Red Sox Wednesday, November 4, 2020 * The Boston Globe Alex Cora is the right choice for the Red Sox, so what is taking so long to rehire him? Peter Abraham To what degree that includes chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is hard to assess. Bloom arrived Oct. 28, 2019, and Cora was prodded out the door Jan. 14 after Major League Baseball identified him as a protagonist in the sign-stealing scheme the Houston Astros ran in 2017. They worked together for only 2½ months, but Cora and Bloom appeared in concert about the offseason moves a year ago. Here is what Cora said about Bloom last Dec. 9 at the Winter Meetings: “I think we see the game very similar. Obviously he’s going to bring some cool ideas. We’re going to make some adjustments in a few things, but I don’t think it’s going to change that much. I think in the end as an organization our goal is to win the World Series and be consistent.” Now the choice for Bloom is whether to restart his professional relationship with Cora or hire Sam Fuld, Don Kelly, Carlos Mendoza, or James Rowson as the team’s third manager in three years and the fourth in the last five. Fuld, a former big league outfielder from New Hampshire, joined the Phillies as their player information coordinator in 2017 before being promoted to director of integrative baseball performance. That’s a fancy way of saying Fuld bridged the gap between the analytics staff and the clubhouse. But he hasn’t had an on-field position. Kelly was Pittsburgh’s bench coach last season after coaching first base for Houston in 2019. He scouted prior to that. You may remember him as a utility player for Detroit. Mendoza had one year of minor league managerial experience with the Yankees, then joined their major league staff in 2018. He was the bench coach last season. Rowson was Miami’s bench coach last season. He has 19 years of coaching experience, mostly as a hitting coach, and has never managed. Prior major league managerial experience isn’t as meaningful as it once was. Eleven of the 16 managers in the postseason this year had no prior major league experience before landing their jobs, 12 if you count Sandy Alomar Jr. filling in for Terry Francona with the Indians. Fuld, Kelly, Mendoza, and Rowson could all become excellent managers. Fuld and Rowson in particular are seen as having bright futures. But I believe having meaningful experience in Boston is meaningful to succeed as a manager of the Sox, if not required. From his time as a Red Sox player and an ESPN broadcaster, Cora had a finely tuned sense of the palace intrigue at Fenway Park, the expectations of the fan base, and what needs to be said (or often, more importantly, not said) in front of the media. He knows what it’s like to be a Sox player and how to deal with the demands that entails. What made Cora the right choice when he was hired in 2017 makes him the right choice now. If you feel compelled to run for the moral high ground and reject Cora for his actions in Houston, so be it. But you can’t honestly believe that organization was on the straight and narrow until Cora showed up. That doesn’t excuse what he did, but Cora served his sentence. The manager of those Astros, A.J. Hinch, got a second chance, hired by the Tigers. Cora should get his. The Red Sox have been a chaotic organization for 10 years with their dramatic highs and lows, a rotating cast of GMs and managers, and team-building philosophies that change on a whim. Bloom and Cora offer the best chance at long-term success. So why is it taking so long? A closer look at the Red Sox managerial finalists beyond Alex Cora Alex Speier With the Red Sox managerial search in its late stages, the simplest way to distill it is to present a simple either/or: Will they rehire Alex Cora or not? While that isn’t an unreasonable prism through which to view the process, it does a disservice to what those familiar with the search (inside and outside the organization) characterize as a tremendously impressive candidate pool. In addition to Cora, there are four other candidates who had at least a second interview: Marlins bench coach James Rowson, Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza, Pirates bench coach Don Kelly, and Phillies integrative baseball performance director Sam Fuld. Here’s a brief look at each: James Rowson Marlins bench coach/offensive coordinator Rowson, 44, has spent 19 years coaching in the minors and majors for the Angels, Yankees, Cubs, Twins, and Marlins following a three-year minor league playing career in the 1990s. Despite considerable strengths as a coach and leader, he rarely received mention as a manager, likely a reflection of how rarely a hitting coach finds his way onto another coaching/managerial track, as well as Rowson’s lack of self- promotion. “I’ve known James for a long time — from lunches, BS-ing, getting together in the offseason," said Yankees vice president Damon Oppenheimer. "I never even had any clue that he wanted to manage. “I think he’s definitely capable of [managing]. He has leadership skills. He had a real good feel for how to talk to players, talk to other members of a staff, and just be professional. I didn’t see it coming, but I can see him having the strength and being able to do it.” That notion has gained credence in recent years. As the Twins hitting coach from 2017-19, Rowson drew raves for his ability to take modern swing concepts and individualize them to the strengths of hitters, helping the team set a major league record for homers in 2019. Yet beyond his intelligence, communication skills, and knowledge of the swing and hitting, Rowson also helped Minnesota build an identity through its “Bomba Squad.” “That felt like something that would happen under James Rowson," said a major league source. "He cares about culture. He cares about identity. "He’s just this dynamic person. Calling him a hitting coach feels so limiting.” The Marlins, who have several executives with a long history with Rowson from his Yankee days, felt he was ready for an expanded profile, tapping him as a bench coach and their offensive coordinator in 2020. In that role, Rowson was praised for his ability to take player-development concepts from his minor league background and apply them in the big leagues. For instance, he used individualized workouts and instruction for players during summer training rather than a more traditional approach where they perform the same drills in groups. Even as a hitting coach, Rowson built relationships with pitchers and other staff members. In 2020, his first as a bench coach, he was part of the running dialogue about game management. “Obviously the results [in Miami] were good,” said Oppenheimer, “and he had something to do with that.” Carlos Mendoza Yankees bench coach Mendoza, 40, played in the minors for 13 years before spending the last 12 seasons as a coach and manager in the Yankees organization, first in the minors (2009-17) and more recently on the big league staff (2018- 20). He has been part of the Yankees as they transformed into an organization that heavily employs analytics, getting credit for making that process comfortable for players. “The thing I’ve noticed with Carlos that’s really special, he gets the respect of the player," said Oppenheimer. "He gets the respect of the clubhouse. He gets the respect of people in the organization — scouts and other coaches. "He was always able to connect with the analytical side and use that to help the player perform at the best level he could while understanding that the player is actually a human being and things affect him. "The player is not just a chess piece that you give a number to and he makes this move every time no matter what the pressure is. The player has a heartbeat. That’s one of the big things that Carlos, to me, seemed to understand. He got both of these things.” Mendoza is credited with playing a role in the development of Gleyber Torres into a two-time All-Star, a sign of his ability to aid player development at the big league level. In his work as both a quality-control and infield coach in 2018-19 and bench coach in 2020, Mendoza spent plenty of time working with front-office analysts and staff members and dealing with in-game decisions in real time. Don Kelly Pirates bench coach In 2016, Kelly’s 16-year playing career — which included parts of nine seasons in the majors — wound down as he shuttled between Triple A and the Marlins. The Triple A setup in New Orleans wasn’t glamorous. “It’s 1,000 degrees, humid, even when you get there out of spring training," said former Red Sox coach Arnie Beyeler, the manager in New Orleans that year. "We’ve got 100 people in the stands every night. Tough place to play. Trying to keep that come-to-the-ballpark culture there was a challenge for everybody.” But Beyeler had an ally in Kelly, who regularly checked in to see if there were messages he could help deliver to the players, and who likewise was able to relay player grievances to the manager.