The Saturday, November 7, 2020

* The Boston Globe

Alex Cora to return to Red Sox as manager, 10 months after parting ways in wake of sign-stealing scandal

Alex Speier

Meet the new manager, same as the old manager.

The Red Sox announced they will bring back Alex Cora for a second term as manager. The decision comes almost 10 months and one dismal season after the two parties agreed to part ways in January amidst a mushrooming scandal. Cora’s new deal is for two years with a two-year club option after the 2022 season.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to manage once again and return to the game I have loved my entire life. … Boston is where I have always wanted to be and I could not be more excited to help the Red Sox achieve our ultimate goal of winning in October,” Cora said in a team-issued press release. “This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again. Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud.”

Cora’s 27-month tenure as manager ended abruptly in January when MLB determined he’d played a central role as the bench coach of the 2017 Astros in an illegal sign-stealing scheme and the Red Sox were under investigation for a lesser but similar infraction. Ultimately, Cora was suspended for the 2020 season by MLB for his role in the Astros infractions but received no further punishment from MLB for the Red Sox' own rules violations.

The latter determination helped clear a path for Cora to return to the big leagues once the concluded. His successor, Ron Roenicke, who was elevated to interim manager in February then shed the interim tag in April, was let go on the final day of a dismal 2020 season.

Yet despite speculation that long pegged him as the industry favorite to succeed Roenicke, Cora’s return to Boston was not a fait accompli.

While many in the organization had considerable familiarity and comfort with Cora, the person in charge of the search had a limited history with him. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, hired to head the baseball operations department in October 2019, had been on the job for just three and a half months of the offseason when Cora’s involvement in the Astros scandal and departure upended the organization.

Bloom and the Red Sox did not treat Cora’s return as a turnkey proposition for multiple reasons, including a desire to take a thorough approach to the search, Bloom’s lack of history with Cora, the team’s struggles under Cora in 2019 (some related to communication breakdowns between the team’s analytics department and field staff), and questions related to the rules violations in Houston in 2017 and Boston in 2018.

During the month between the end of Roenicke’s tenure and the completion of Cora’s suspension, the Sox conducted a broad search.

The team had first-round interviews with at least eight candidates beyond Cora and advanced to in-person second interviews with at least four: Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld, Pirates bench coach Don Kelly, Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza, and Marlins bench coach/offensive coordinator James Rowson.

On Oct. 30, Bloom and Red Sox GM Brian O’Halloran flew to Puerto Rico for a face-to-face meeting with Cora. That meeting was significant, representing an opportunity for Bloom both to explore a potential working relationship with Cora and to ask him any questions he had about his prior managerial , including anything related to the infractions by the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox.

“Because of all that had happened, I knew that I wanted to speak with Alex once his suspension ended, but I didn’t yet know if it made sense to consider him for the job as well,” Bloom said in the press release. “Our conversations were lengthy, intense, and emotional. Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it. My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full: strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures.”

Yet that face-to-face meeting did not mark the end of the process, as team officials met with another candidate on Monday. Even so, as the week progressed, Cora remained in consideration while the Red Sox narrowed their search to three finalists: Cora, Fuld, and Rowson remained in the mix on Thursday, according to major league sources. Eventually, the choice on Thursday came down to Cora and Fuld.

Fuld, a 38-year-old native of Durham, N.H., has been viewed as one of the top future managerial candidates in baseball since he retired from playing after the 2017 season. While he lacks managerial or traditional dugout coaching experience, his role over the last three years as a conduit between the front office and players and coaches with the Phillies offered what many saw as a valuable training ground. Fuld also had a good relationship with Bloom that formed from 2011-13, when both were in Tampa Bay — Bloom as an executive, Fuld as an outfielder.

Still, Fuld’s lack of experience introduced unknowns into his candidacy. Cora, by contrast, had demonstrated an ability to succeed in Boston while enjoying enormous popularity throughout the organization with players, coaches, front-office members, and owners.

In many ways, everyone interviewed profiled as similar to Cora when the Sox initially hired him in 2017: No prior big league managerial experience, bright and intellectually curious, grounded in analytics and current dugout/front office dynamics, and young enough (ages 38 to 45) to relate to players. Ultimately, rather than looking for the next Cora, the Sox decided instead to bring back a manager whom they already knew and never wanted to leave in place.

“Alex Cora is an outstanding manager, and the right person to lead our club into 2021 and beyond,” said Bloom. “The way he leads, inspires, and connects with everyone around him is almost unmatched, and he has incredible baseball acumen and feel for the game.”

But his selection is not without controversy based both on the role he played in Houston’s sign-stealing and questions about whether he was in fact Bloom’s choice or if the Red Sox chief baseball organization was pushed to accept Cora by others in the organization.

Moreover, Cora’s job description is different than the one that he encountered when he was initially hired three years ago. Then, he was tasked with taking a young core that had reached the playoffs in back-to-back seasons and helping it achieve a new level of success — something he did immediately in 2018, when the team won a franchise-record 108 regular-season games and stormed to a championship.

Now, he inherits a team that finished in last place with a 24-36 record and that seeks a return to competitiveness after a drastic roster makeover — including the trades of , , Mitch Moreland, and others, along with the free agency of Jackie Bradley Jr. — during the last calendar year. Cora has managed just 17 of the players on the current members of the Red Sox 40-man roster in a big league game.

At the same time, many of those whom Cora has previously managed — including Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi, Eduardo Rodríguez, and others — enjoyed the finest seasons of their careers with him at the helm in 2018 and 2019. The team is hopeful that Cora can once again draw the best out of a group that is coming off a painfully disappointing 2020 campaign. Members of the organization described player and staff reaction as exuberant – a sentiment captured in tweeted form by Rodríguez.

The excitement was reciprocated by the manager.

“I am eager to get back to work with our front office, coaches, and especially,” he said in the press release, “our players.”

Cora — one of seven managers in team history to win a championship — returns to the Red Sox with a 192-132 record, good for a .593 that ranks fourth best in team history by a manager with at least one full season at the helm of the roster. He is the third manager in Red Sox history to be hired multiple times on something more than an interim basis, joining Bill Carrigan and Pinky Higgins.

Alex Cora faces a long to-do list with Red Sox, but he’s the right man for the job

Peter Abraham

Strip away everything else — public perception, internal politics, the inevitable moral preening to come — and the only question the Red Sox had to answer was who best fits their team as manager moving forward.

That was Alex Cora.

The Sox are a rebuilding team with a core group of talented players, some intriguing prospects on the horizon, and money to spend in free agency.

They’ll need creative solutions for their pitching issues and a way to reignite Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers, and J.D. Martinez after poor seasons while working in more of the young players over time.

The challenge will be to focus on what they can accomplish with who they have, not what they have lost with the departure of Mookie Betts. There are fans to win back and minds to change about what direction the organization is headed.

The Sox need energy and leadership in the dugout and those are the primary qualities Cora brings to the job.

Via a press release, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said he went through a rigorous process to arrive at this decision and that Cora convinced him of his worthiness.

But once MLB absolved Cora of any wrongdoing with the Red Sox in 2018, it seemed inevitable.

That the news dropped Friday morning just as Joe Biden took a lead in Georgia and Pennsylvania in the presidential election showed the Sox are still treading lightly with how this will be perceived.

But they should stand up and own it. Boston is a difficult market to find a good fit as manager and it would have been foolish to let Cora land with another team for the sake of propriety.

His sins in Houston were forgivable, especially when taken in context of how morally bankrupt that organization was before he got there and after he left.

The focus now for the Red Sox should be on baseball and how best to build a competitive team as quickly as possible.

It starts from within. Cora was instrumental in helping turn Devers into a player who received MVP votes in 2019 after he led the majors with 359 total bases.

Devers also made strides defensively to a point where he was at least average at third base. There was across-the-board regression last season that has to be addressed.

A 24-year-old power hitter has far more value at third base than he does at first. The sooner Cora can address this the better.

Benintendi also needs work after what has been a two-season slide and a loss of confidence. He was one of the best players on the championship team of 2018 and has .255 with a .751 OPS since.

Martinez seemed disinterested last season, or at best out of sorts in the pandemic environment. He’s 33 and has two years and $38.7 million remaining on his contract. It’s imperative to get him back in a flow so that money isn’t wasted.

Eduardo Rodriguez, who flourished under Cora, missed last season recovering from COVID-19. He has resumed a throwing program but it’s unsure how many innings he’ll be able to throw in 2021.

The same is true for Chris Sale as he comes off Tommy John surgery and Darwinzon Hernandez as he returns from a virus-shortened season.

The Sox will have to be nimble in how they control their innings and manage their returns. That will require trust in the manager, something already established with Cora.

Alex Verdugo’s talent and gusto could make him a star. But how he handles the expectations, especially once fans are allowed back into Fenway Park, is something Cora can help guide.

In Bobby Dalbec, Tanner Houck, and Yairo Munoz, the Sox have young players who contributed last season and should have significant roles.

The Sox, finally, have a group of legitimate prospects who are closer to the majors than rookie ball. Cora’s ability to connect with young players should serve the Sox well as those players emerge.

Cora can have an impact on free agency, too. Whatever misgivings some fans may have about his return, players want a manager who will communicate his expectations and help create a good atmosphere.

In what will be a difficult market for free agents, Cora will be an effective recruiter.

Back in January, when the Sox took questions about why Cora had to go, I asked if they believed he’d manage again.

There was a five-second pause before team president Sam Kennedy responded with words that now help explain why Cora is back.

“I think Alex is an incredibly talented manager and accomplished great things with us,” he said. "He’s expressed remorse, apologized to us for the embarrassment that this caused.

“I think he’ll go through a process of rehabilitation and we’ll see what happens. It would be hard to speculate, but he is an extreme talent.”

Extreme talent is not something you let get away.

Return of Alex Cora a morale boost for Red Sox players

Julian McWilliams

At the end of the Red Sox' tumultuous 2020 season, the team’s star player and leader in Xander Bogaerts said that he and Alex Cora remained in contact throughout the year despite Cora serving a one-year suspension for his involvement in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.

“I still talk to him,” Bogaerts said. “Obviously he’s been a manager here and someone who’s had an impact on my life and my career also. He and Roenicke, those battery mates made us make that World Series in 2018.”

That 2018 run in which Cora and Roenicke led the club to a franchise-record 108 regular season wins and the organization’s ninth World Series feels like ages ago. But with the Sox' decision to rehire Cora Friday as their manager, this might be a new beginning for Cora, but more importantly for the franchise, the restoration of morale within a clubhouse that lauded his presence and

In his two seasons with the Sox, Cora proved himself to be a shrewd manager on the field. A skilled game planner. But another one of his gifts came with his ability to connect with players. Cora knew how to push and pull and ultimately get the best out of them. Rafael Devers, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Christian Vazquez, for example, didn’t reach their potential until Cora came into the picture.

On Friday, Rodriguez celebrated on , tagging his former manager in a series of emojis.

Rodriguez, who missed the entire 2020 season after contracting COVID-19 followed by myocarditis, had a career season under Cora in 2019. He was the Sox' best pitcher that season, tossing 203 ⅓ innings while striking out 213 batters in that span and registering a 3.81 ERA.

But Cora didn’t just leave an indelible impact on those who are still with the organization. Former Sox starter David Price, now a member of the Dodgers, knows just how much Cora meant to players within the clubhouse, including him.

“AC was respected by everyone in the clubhouse,” Price said in a text message Friday. “When he spoke we listened. He’s genuine and I appreciated everything he did for me and the team. Guys respond to AC well and he has a different relationship with everyone on the team.”

Just before the team’s Winter Fest, the loss of Cora was still fresh for Sox players who had to express for the first time publicly just what Cora meant to them. Front and center at Fenway stood Bogaerts, who also just had come off a career season under Cora, belting a career-high 33 homers and a .939 OPS.

“Obviously, it’s very unfortunate,” Bogaerts said at the time. “I know he’s something that we all enjoy playing for and I love to sit and have conversations with him baseball-wise. Obviously, me especially, we have such a great relationship. Knowing the team we have and everything we had going on was pretty special with him in charge was obviously great.”

Bogaerts will have a chance to duplicate that success with Cora again at the helm. The Red Sox players got their guy back.

A Red Sox fan’s dilemma: Does the return of Alex Cora make you happy or disappointed?

Dan Shaughnessy

The Red Sox are bringing back Alex Cora to manage for the 2021 season.

How does this make you feel?

The Sox made it official Friday, anointing Cora as the 49th manager in team history.

As a Red Sox fan, does this make you happy or disappointed?

It’s been almost six weeks since the Sox fired Ron Roenicke after an uninspired, underperforming team finished in last place in the 60-game pandemic summer of 2020. In this span, Boston baseball boss Chaim Bloom has interviewed at least nine candidates, including Cora. None of the others were former big league managers. None of them were Alex Cora.

The return of Cora brings two sets of reactions.

The pro-Cora crowd likes this move because it makes the Red Sox relevant again. It brings some star power to a team suddenly lacking household names. It reminds you of the good days when the Sox won 119 games and a world championship back in 2018. We know that Alex Cora tends to get the most out of a player such as Rafael Devers, who slumped when Cora was gone in 2020. We know that Chris Sale, Xander Bogaerts, Christian Vazquez, Eduardo Rodriguez, and J.D. Martinez all swear by Cora.

Cora knows how to handle the dreaded Boston Baseball Experience. He was a player here under . He understands the daily pressures of the Boston job. He remembers what it was like when the Red Sox really mattered in Boston. He deals well with a complex ownership group, a crowded front office, a clubhouse of diverse personalities, and a bloodthirsty media always looking for answers.

Cora is a known commodity and a proven winner. I have been in favor of his return since Roenicke, a good guy and team player, was let go. And I have been surprised at the amount of pushback from a portion of Red Sox fans who want no part of Cora’s return to Boston. Many fans are bothered by Cora’s cheating with the Astros and do not want to have him back in the Fenway dugout.

This is real, the Red Sox know it is real, and it probably explains why Bloom spent so much time interviewing analytics experts and multiple folks with little dugout experience.

Go back and look at the Red Sox ownership statement when the team “parted ways” with Cora in mid- January. The statement read, in part, “We collectively decided that it would not be possible for Alex to effectively lead the club going forward … ”

That was 60 games ago. Ten months ago. So what changed?

To his credit, Cora has made no attempt to make excuses or deny his transgressions. He wears a scarlet letter and he knows this is going to be awkward.

“I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud,” Cora said in a statement released by the Red Sox Friday.

And Red Sox upper management is pleased to have Cora back.

“We are excited to have Alex’s leadership and energy back in the Red Sox dugout,” president and CEO Sam Kennedy said in the statement. “He owns, and has learned from, his past mistakes, and with his incredible talent, he will build on the deep bonds he’s fostered over time to make us better in the years to come.”

The Cora-Bloom dynamic is also going to be awkward. Cora was already the Red Sox manager when Bloom was hired during the . This was Bloom’s first chance to hire his own guy to manage the Red Sox. Given Bloom’s background and his connections throughout baseball, it is difficult to believe that he would have arrived at a decision to bring back Cora, especially after interviewing so many other candidates.

Why did it take so long to circle back to what appeared to be obvious at the start? Was this ownership’s call or Bloom’s call?

I expect they will say it was "collaborative.'' But that’s going to be a tough sell.

Here’s hoping they play it straight. The Red Sox should just come out and tell everyone, "We believe in second chances. Alex Cora is our guy. He was our guy all along.''

Just say it, live with it, and move forward.

Nine thoughts on the Red Sox following the decision to bring Alex Cora back as manager

Chad Finn

Playing nine innings while assuming the Red Sox will win more than 24 games next year …

1. The Red Sox' decision to rehire Alex Cora as manager 10 months after parting ways because of his role in the 2017 Astros' sign-stealing scheme (and minor infractions in Boston) was not a complete no-brainer because of the baggage he carries from that scandal. There is a significant segment of fans who will always imagine a scarlet C — “cheater” — on his jersey, and he’s going to have to wear that for the rest of his career.

But if you can get past that — he paid his penance and I’m willing to trust that he learned his lesson — then there is no other way to see this as anything but a great move for the Red Sox, and did they ever need one. The franchise has hired so many nincompoop managers through the years that the opportunity to rehire an accomplished, modern leader who can relate to all sorts of different people and has already thrived in the Boston fishbowl is a baseball blessing that doesn’t come around often. He’s the second-best Red Sox manager of my lifetime, after Terry Francona, and there should be no second thoughts on giving Cora a second chance.

2. There will be much conjecture in the days ahead regarding whether chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom really preferred Cora to Sam Fuld, an extremely bright baseball mind whom he knows well from their time in Tampa. I suspect that in a vacuum, with none of the complicating factors surrounding this hire, Fuld would have been his choice. But I believe Bloom also recognized and valued those factors in Cora’s favor, which include the respect he has in the clubhouse from the Red Sox' most important players, his institutional knowledge of the organization compared to Fuld’s learning curve, and the generally positive buzz that comes from rehiring him.

3. That said, I do believe Bloom’s bosses drove this rehiring, and perhaps even had it in mind when they parted ways in January. While I think bringing back Cora was the right thing to do, I’m always wary when the Red Sox make a decision that is at least in part based on the desire to generate some good will after they’ve screwed up something. The ultimate example of this was signing Carl Crawford in December 2010 to a $142 million contract — despite his redundancy with Jacoby Ellsbury — because they thought it might help NESN ratings.

4. I imagine Cora, a legitimate baseball nut even by manager standards, paid close attention to the Red Sox during his year in purgatory. That is good, because if he didn’t keep up, he’d be in for a heck of surprise at what he’s coming back to, particularly considering the sorry state of the starting rotation and the bizarre lost seasons for the likes of Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez. It’s pretty close to unfathomable that the Red Sox, winners of 24 games last season, won the World Series just barely over 24 months ago.

5. Hiring back Cora is worth it alone just for the presumed effect it will have on Rafael Devers. The kid third baseman had a monster season under Cora in 2019 (.311/.361/.555, 32 homers, 115 RBIs) but was too often out of sorts in 2020, especially in the field, where he made 14 errors in 57 games at third base. Devers acknowledged missing Cora last season, and his return should help Devers return to the trajectory that suggested he could be one of baseball’s best hitters for years to come.

6. I’m surprised how much criticism of Bloom still shows up on my social media feeds and e-mail inbox. The Red Sox' decision to trade Mookie Betts is unforgivable, but that was not Bloom’s call, and it at least looks like he got a decent return, with trending toward fan favorite status. The deal that sent Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to the Phillies for Connor Seabold and Nick Pivetta looks like a heist. He got legitimate prospects back in deals for Kevin Pillar and Mitch Moreland. In a lost year, a lot of Bloom’s small maneuvers worked well.

7. The notion that Bloom wants the Red Sox to be the second coming of the Rays just isn’t accurate. The Dodgers — analytically wise but willing to pay for high-end talent — are the real model. I don’t think this is the free agent class to spend on the biggest names (Trevor Bauer would be a godsend to sports radio), but the Red Sox will pay for superstars when the right ones come along.

8. It bugs me that the Indians have all but acknowledged that they have to trade Francisco Lindor for financial reasons. He’s everything you’d want in a cornerstone player, one of the most charismatic stars in the game, and someone who plays with unbridled joy and a burning desire to win. He’d be the ideal player for the Sox to go after if they didn’t have Xander Bogaerts at shortstop. And as we know, he moves to third base only for Stephen Drew.

9. So with Cora back, the Red Sox get Mookie back now too, right, and get to reunite the whole band from 2018? Whaddaya mean that’s not how this works?

Timeline: A look at Alex Cora’s career, from his Red Sox playing days to his second stint as manager

Andrew Mahoney

The Red Sox are bringing back Alex Cora back as manager, 10 months after he and the team parted ways when the details of his involvement in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal came to light.

Cora was eventually suspended for the 2020 season by for his role with the Astros but did not receive additional punishment for the Red Sox' own rules violations.

Here is a timeline of events since Cora joined the Red Sox as a player in 2005:

▪ 2005-08: Cora spent three-plus seasons with the Red Sox, including the team for whom he appeared in 83 games.

▪ March 25, 2012: Cora is released by the St. Louis Cardinals at the end of and retires after 14 seasons.

▪ Feb. 19, 2013: Cora joins ESPN as an analyst for the network’s Major League Baseball coverage.

▪ Nov. 15, 2016: Cora is hired by the Astros as bench coach.

▪ Beginning of 2017 season: Astros employees in the video replay review room start using the live game feed from the center field camera to decode opposing teams' sign sequences. Once they were decoded, a player in the video replay room acted as a “runner” to relay the information to the dugout.

▪ Early in 2017 season: Cora begins to call the replay review room to obtain the sign information.

▪ Approximately two months into 2017 season: Cora has a video technician install a monitor displaying the center field camera feed just outside the the Astros dugout.

▪ During 2017 season: Team employees or players would communicate expected pitches by banging a trash can to signal offspeed pitches. Witnesses say the scheme was player-driven, and that with the exception of Cora, non-player staff had no involvement in the scheme.

▪ Sept. 15, 2017: The Red Sox are fined an undisclosed amount for using an Apple Watch to convey decoded signs to the dugout. Manfred issues a memo to all teams, putting them on notice that “use of electronic equipment to steal signs would be dealt with more severely by my office.”

▪ Oct. 5, 2017: The Astros and Red Sox begin their , which Houston wins, three games to one. Houston wins Games 1 and 2 decisively, rolling to 8-2 victories in both games at Minute Maid Park. The series becomes more competitive when the action shifts to Fenway Park, with the Red Sox rolling to a 10-3 win in Game 3 on Oct. 8 before succumbing in Game 4, 5-4, on Oct. 9.

▪ Oct. 22, 2017: Red Sox announce a three-year deal for Cora to become their new manager.

▪ Nov. 1, 2017: Astros win Game 7 of the World Series against the Dodgers. Houston goes 2-1 at home during the series and 2-2 on the road.

▪ 2017-18 offseason: Commissioner’s office informs clubs that phones in replay review room and dugout will now be monitored.

▪ March 29, 2018: Cora makes his debut as manager of the Red Sox.

▪ Oct. 18, 2018: Red Sox beat Astros in Game 5 of the ALCS to advance to the World Series. Houston takes Game 1 at Fenway and the Red Sox rebound to take Game 2. On the road at Minute Maid Park, Boston wins three games in a row to advance.

▪ Oct. 28, 2018: Cora manages the Red Sox to World Series win over Dodgers.

▪ Nov. 12, 2019: publishes a report detailing the trash-can scheme, prompting an MLB investigation. The next day, Cora declines to comment on the report to the Globe.

▪ Jan. 7, 2020: Major League Baseball announces it will investigate allegations that the Red Sox illegally stole signs in 2018 using the video replay room, following another Athletic report.

▪ Jan. 13, 2020: Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch are suspended, then fired, after commissioner’s report is released.

▪ Jan. 14, 2020: The Red Sox announce that the team and Cora have parted ways.

▪ April 22, 2020: MLB announces that Cora is suspended for his role in sign stealing while serving as bench coach of the Houston Astros in 2017.

▪ June 11, 2020: Speaking with ESPN Cora said he deserved the one-year ban, but roundly rejected the idea that he and Carlos Beltran — who also was implicated, and lost the Mets' managerial job as a result — were the only ones who deserve the blame in Houston.

▪ June 19, 2020: Cora conducts his first interview with a Greater Boston media outlet since his departure from the Red Sox, and tells Dan Shaughnessy that he “would love to be back in 2021 in some capacity.”

▪ Oct. 30, 2020: The Detroit Tigers hire Hinch to be their next manager.

▪ Nov. 6, 2020: Cora returns to the Red Sox as manager.

* The

Red Sox hire Alex Cora to return as manager

Jason Mastrodonato

The Red Sox weren’t fooling anybody, nor did they try to.

Alex Cora is coming back as the next manager of the Red Sox, the club confirmed late on Friday. He will return with a two-year contract through the 2022 season with a two-year club option for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

Cora, the 46th person to manage the Red Sox, joins Bill Carrigan (1913-’16, ’27-’29), Pinky Higgins (’55- ’59, ’60-’62) and Johnny Pesky (’63-’64, ’80) as the only men to get a second chance as the Sox’ manager.

All along, the path was paved for Cora to return after he and the club mutually decided to part ways in January following a detailed investigation by MLB that pinned the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scandal almost entirely on him. He served a year suspension that was lifted after the completion of the World Series last week and is now eligible to work in baseball again.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to manage once again and return to the game I have loved my entire life,” Cora said in a statement. “This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again. Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud.”

A press conference is scheduled for some time early next week.

The scar on Cora isn’t as bad as it seems in the baseball world, with other managers and baseball executives throughout the game voicing their acceptance for Cora, A.J. Hinch and others found guilty in the ’17 Astros scandal to return to the game after their due punishment was served. Hinch was hired to be the Detroit Tigers’ new manager last week.

“Alex Cora is an outstanding manager, and the right person to lead our club into 2021 and beyond,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said in a statement. “The way he leads, inspires, and connects with everyone around him is almost unmatched, and he has incredible baseball acumen and feel for the game. …

“Our conversations were lengthy, intense, and emotional. Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it. My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full: strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures. That is what I did with Alex in making this choice. He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball, and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance. I join our whole organization in welcoming Alex back to Boston and Fenway Park.”

Cora led the franchise to a historic 108-win season and World Series title in 2018, his first year as an MLB manager.

His 2019 season was disappointing, with the team winning just 84 games, and Cora faced some well- deserved questions over whether or not his club got complacent after their dominant season the year before.

But the manager’s success was enough to earn him a re-negotiated contract after the , and all indications were that he’d be the long-term skipper in Boston until last winter, when The Athletic reported a detailed sign-stealing scheme used by the 2017 Astros.

The Red Sox have been careful not to badmouth Cora at all, not even when they parted ways with him in January.

“We’ve had open and honest discussions with Alex, but we’re going to keep those private,” president Sam Kennedy said at the time.

This spring, the Sox decided to name Cora’s bench coach, Ron Roenicke, the interim manager for the 2020 season in Cora’s absence.

The hire of Roenicke was largely seen as a seat-warmer for Cora. The players were vocal about their desire for Roenicke, Cora’s bench coach who represented continuity in the clubhouse. And it had largely the same feel during spring training under Roenicke as it did under Cora one year earlier.

There were no reporters allowed in the clubhouse during the pandemic-shortened regular season that began in late July, making it difficult to gauge the new environment. But all indications were that the clubhouse continued to be a players-first atmosphere, with Roenicke giving the players a lot of freedom, as did Cora.

Roenicke fought against that idea when asked about late in the season, noting that while he was a kind and understanding person, he did hold his players accountable.

In truth, it didn’t matter how Roenicke’s team performed, as chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom later admitted during a press conference when Roenicke was fired after the ugly 2020 season. Roenicke was set up to fail with the team cutting salary in 2020 and several key players missing due to injury and coronavirus complications. It was quite clear to the public and the front office didn’t bother denying it.

It was announced on the last day of the 2020 season that Roenicke would not return. He was emotional in his press conference before and after the final game, which he managed despite knowing his fate.

Hiring Roenicke was seen as a bridge to Cora, as it turned out to be.

Cora will return to a Red Sox team in shambles, but a team that’s largely composed of the same cornerstone players that were here in Cora’s first tenure: Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Christian Vazquez, Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez. He has a close relationship with most players on the squad and is likely to be welcomed back with open arms.

One of Cora’s strengths was identifying bullpen arms. He seemed to have an affinity for Josh Taylor before many realized how effective he could be, and utilized Taylor on his way to a 3.04 ERA for the ’19 Sox. Ryan Brasier was also a Cora find, as Cora started warning people in spring training of ’18 that Brasier could be a weapon.

The current Sox roster is underwhelming, but there are a lot of young starting pitchers nearing big league readiness and Cora should get a chance to mold them to his liking as he helps build the next Sox’ rotation.

Cora also coached George Springer in Houston and was so fond of the power-hitting outfielder that he copied the model of Springer hitting leadoff and moved Mookie Betts to the leadoff spot in Boston. Springer is now a free agent and the Red Sox have no center fielder.

Red Sox’ Matt Barnes ‘very excited’ for Alex Cora’s return

Steve Hewitt

You can include Matt Barnes among the Red Sox players who approve of Alex Cora returning as their manager.

The Red Sox reliever, who is the club’s longest-tenured pitcher, appeared on MLB Network Radio on Friday afternoon after news broke that Cora was coming back, and his reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s very exciting,” Barnes said. “Obviously a lot of the players and the fanbase and everybody loves AC, and it’s kind of undeniable … you can’t talk about him without talking about what we were able to do in 2018, and just the relationship that he had with the players. I’m very excited to have him back. I think it’s awesome and I can’t wait to get after it.”

Barnes said he followed the Red Sox’ managerial search just like most people — through social media. He never ruled out the possibility that Cora, his manager in 2018 and 2019, would return.

The Red Sox had reportedly narrowed their search to five finalists this week, and it was trimmed to two by Thursday with Cora and Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld, who spent time with Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom with the Rays. News broke of Cora’s hiring on Friday morning.

“I was following it through social media on Twitter, and I kind of saw a bunch of names thrown around, and then it kind of got heavy towards AC the last couple of days,” Barnes said. “To be honest with you, I didn’t find out until somebody broke the news on Twitter, so I guess I thought there was always a chance, right? But definitely excited to have him back.”

Cora was always viewed as a popular and player-friendly manager since leading the Red Sox to a record- setting championship season in 2018, and the excitement seems to be palpable about his return within the Red Sox clubhouse. Barnes offered a reminder of what made him a successful manager during his first two seasons.

“From the people that I follow and the people that I know, even some of my friends were super excited to have him back,” Barnes said. “I think AC does a really good job, and I’ve said this before, I think AC does a really good job of being a player’s manager. He’s a guy that everybody gets along with, he communicates well, he’s a guy that’s just open with everybody, completely up front and a guy that you can just sit down and talk to him and he’s going to keep it straight and give you a really good idea of everything that’s going on.

“He keeps it light and keeps it fun in the clubhouse as well as in the dugout. I think a lot of people are really excited to see him back in a Red Sox uniform.”

It’s not much of a secret that at least some players were hoping Cora would return. Christian Vazquez said after the season during a Facebook Live video that he “would love” if Cora came back. And on Friday after the news broke, Eduardo Rodriguez made multiple social media posts expressing his excitement.

* The Providence Journal

Red Sox rehire Alex Cora as manager

Bill Koch

Ten months after he and the club mutually parted ways, Alex Cora will return as Red Sox manager.

Boston officially announced Cora’s rehiring in a Friday evening statement. He’s signed to a two-year deal through the 2022 season with a two-year club option through 2024.

Cora’s season-long suspension for his role in 2017 electronic sign-stealing while he was bench coach with the Astros ended after the Dodgers finished off the Rays in the World Series. He was one of five reported finalists for his old job.

“Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization, was extremely difficult,” Cora said in a statement. “I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud.”

Cora won two championships with Boston, one as a player and one as a manager, the last coming in 2018. One of the greatest teams in Red Sox history steamrolled to its fourth title this century, capturing 108 games in the regular season and battling past the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers in the playoffs. Cora was 192-132 overall in his two years in charge.

“During his Red Sox career as a player and manager, Alex continually made us better,” Red Sox CEO and president Sam Kennedy said. “He owns and has learned from his past mistakes and, with his incredible talent, he will build on the deep bonds he’s fostered over time to make us better in the years to come.”

Cora was at the center of an intricate scheme with the Astros, who ultimately captured a World Series title with him as their bench coach. Cora, Houston manager A.J. Hinch and Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow were all suspended for the 2020 season and lost their jobs. Houston also was forced to forfeit four total draft picks and pay a fine of $5 million to Major League Baseball.

Cora was implicated in lesser electronic sign-stealing accusations leveled against Boston in 2018. Club staffer J.T. Watkins was suspended for the season and the Red Sox forfeited a second-round pick in the 2020 draft. Boston was noncommittal throughout the season as to whether or not those penalties would be disqualifying in terms of bringing Cora back.

“Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said. “My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full — strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures. That is what I did with Alex in making this choice.

“He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball, and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance.”

The Red Sox conducted a pair of interviews apiece with four other candidates and reportedly selected between Cora and Sam Fuld, a New Hampshire native and the current Phillies player information director. Pirates bench coach Don Kelly, Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza and Marlins bench coach/offensive coordinator James Rowson were also considered.

Boston staggered to a last-place finish in the in an abbreviated 2020, finishing 24- 36. It was the fourth time the Red Sox have landed in the basement since 2012. Cora’s bench coach, Ron Roenicke, was promoted for one season after Cora took his leave in January.

“Alex should be managing,” Roenicke said on the season’s final day in Atlanta. “I don’t want to go into all the situations that happened in Houston. He knows what he did and what he shouldn’t have done.

“But Alex is a good person. He’s a good manager. He cares about the players. He cares about people. He did a really good job for just stepping in his first year. It was outstanding. I’m hoping he does this again.”

The Red Sox have retained the majority of their staff from Cora’s first term both in the dugout and in the front office. Hitting coach Tim Hyers, third-base coach Carlos Febles, first-base coach Tom Goodwin and staff coach Ramon Vazquez all had their contracts renewed for the 2021 season. Boston also retains general manager Brian O’Halloran and assistant general managers/executive vice presidents Raquel Ferreira, Eddie Romero and Zack Scott.

The lone major difference is Bloom, who was hired in October 2019 to replace Dave Dombrowski. Bloom’s relationship with Cora lasted barely three months before the organization was thrust into chaos. It was long believed Cora would be the favorite of Red Sox ownership to resume his prior role, but Kennedy went out of his way to make clear the decision would be Bloom’s alone.

“The way he leads, inspires, and connects with everyone around him is almost unmatched, and he has incredible baseball acumen and feel for the game,” Bloom said. “We considered a very impressive slate of candidates — the brightest managerial prospects in the game today.”

Cora made history at the time of his first hiring, becoming the first Boston manager of color in club history. He’s now the fifth to enjoy multiple terms in charge — Johnny Pesky was the last through his five-game cameo in 1980. Bill Carrigan, Mike Higgins and Eddie Popowski also hold that distinction.

Cora’s greatest strength the first time around was his ability to connect with players. His reintroduction should help the Red Sox maximize what remains of their young core. Eduardo Rodriguez was among those posting his approval on social media on Friday morning and others — Xander Bogaerts and Christian Vazquez among them — publicly lobbied for Cora’s return.

“I do talk to him,” Bogaerts said in September. “I still talk to him. Obviously, he’s been a manager here and someone who’s had an impact on my life and my career also.

“He and Roenicke, those battery mates made us make that World Series in 2018. All the coaches who were here for a while now. Those two guys definitely have made a big impact on me.”

* MassLive.com

Alex Cora officially named Boston Red Sox manager, gets 2-year deal with 2 club options to return to old job

Chris Cotillo

The Red Sox have officially re-hired Alex Cora as their manager, the team announced late Friday afternoon. The club reached a deal with Cora to return after nearly 10 months away as he served a suspension for his role in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal.

Cora’s contract is for two years with team options for 2023 and 2024, according to ESPN’s Enrique Rojas. The club will officially reintroduce Cora in a press conference early next week.

In a statement, Cora expressed contrition for his actions in Houston and thanked the Red Sox for his new opportunity.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to manage once again and return to the game I have loved my entire life,” Cora said. “This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again. Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud. I owe John Henry, Tom Werner, Mike Gordon, Sam Kennedy, Chaim Bloom and Brian O’Halloran my gratitude for giving me another chance. I am eager to get back to work with our front office, coaches, and especially our players. Boston is where I have always wanted to be and I could not be more excited to help the Red Sox achieve our ultimate goal of winning in October.”

Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and team president and CEO Sam Kennedy also issued statements, with Bloom noting that the sides had “lengthy, intense and emotional” conversations that led to the reunion.

“Alex Cora is an outstanding manager, and the right person to lead our club into 2021 and beyond,” Bloom said. “The way he leads, inspires, and connects with everyone around him is almost unmatched, and he has incredible baseball acumen and feel for the game. We considered a very impressive slate of candidates – the brightest managerial prospects in the game today. Because of all that had happened, I knew that I wanted to speak with Alex once his suspension ended, but I didn’t yet know if it made sense to consider him for the job as well. Our conversations were lengthy, intense, and emotional. Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it. My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full: strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures. That is what I did with Alex in making this choice. He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball, and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance. I join our whole organization in welcoming Alex back to Boston and Fenway Park.”

“We are excited to have Alex’s leadership and energy back in the Red Sox dugout," Kennedy said. "Our ownership group and leadership team appreciate the thorough search conducted by Chaim and the entire Baseball Operations department that led to this decision. Alex brings to this position a record of success at the highest level, an embrace of the intensity of the Boston market, a connection with our core group of players, and an appreciation for the culture and individuals within our organization. During his Red Sox career as a player and manager, Alex continually made us better. He owns, and has learned from, his past mistakes, and with his incredible talent, he will build on the deep bonds he’s fostered over time to make us better in the years to come.”

Alex Cora re-hired as Boston Red Sox manager; Chaim Bloom brings back skipper who was let go almost 10 months ago

Christopher Smith

The Boston Red Sox have re-hired Alex Cora as manager almost 10 months after letting him go. The club has offered him the job and the sides are working out final details, a source confirmed to MassLive on Friday morning. An announcement could come before the weekend.

MLB Network’s Jon Heyman was first on the news.

Cora beat out Phillies director of integrative baseball performance Sam Fuld, Marlins bench coach James Rowson, Pirates bench coach Don Kelly and Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza. Cora and Fuld were believed to be the two finalists with Rowson also in the mix until the end.

The 45-year-old native of Puerto Rico served a season-long suspension in 2020 for his involvement in the Astros' sign-stealing scheme. The Red Sox weren’t able to speak with Cora until after the World Series ended.

Cora led Boston to a combined 192-132 record (.593 winning percentage) in 2018-19. He managed the Red Sox to a franchise-regular-season record 108 wins in 2018 and their fourth World Series title since 2004. Boston went 11-3 in the ’18 postseason.

But the Red Sox let Cora go Jan. 14, 2020, for his involvement in Houston’s scandal. MLB concluded in its Astros investigation report that Cora, as Houston’s bench coach in 2017, played a central role in the electronic sign stealing scheme.

MLB also was in the middle of investigating the 2018 Red Sox for decoding signs illegally when Boston let Cora go. MLB released its report on the 2018 Red Sox in April and determined Cora had no involvement.

Ron Roenicke, who served as Cora’s bench coach in 2018-19, managed the 2020 Red Sox to a 24-36 record. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom moved on from Roenicke on Sept. 27, the final day of the regular season.

Bloom also announced Oct. 12 that he would not renew the contracts of bench coach Jerry Narron and bullpen coach Craig Bjornson. The rest of the coaching staff was invited to return.

Alex Cora’s return to Boston Red Sox made so much sense it was inevitable

Chris Cotillo

In the end, it was hard to imagine the Red Sox' managerial search ending with anyone other than Alex Cora.

After all the posturing and doubt-casting and an interview process that included nine candidates, Cora is set to reclaim his old job. An announcement could come as early as Friday, according to sources, meaning a reunion that has been in the cards for months is about to become a reality.

So how did we get here?

When Cora’s first tenure in Boston ended in January as a result of his role in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal, the Red Sox called the departure “a mutual parting of ways.” At the time, it looked like corporate speak to make it seem like Cora hadn’t been fired. But both sides have insisted the decision was amicable, with a long day of discussions about Cora’s future ending in a celebration of sorts inside the walls of Fenway Park.

That the sides left on friendly terms set the stage for a months-long tango, even after Ron Roenicke was hired and Cora received a one-year suspension for his misdeeds in Houston. Once Major League Baseball ruled that Cora didn’t do anything wrong in Boston, the door swung open for a reunion -- even if the team wouldn’t admit it.

Then came the posturing. On May 6, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom went on the radio and said a Cora reunion “wasn’t on the club’s radar.” Ten days later, Cora fired back on Twitter, responding to a fan’s comment by saying he might want to do something other than managing.

With every Red Sox loss in a brutal season, the remote chances of Roenicke coming back became smaller and smaller. All the while, Cora stayed tuned in with what was going on with his old club, even if his suspension meant he couldn’t help Roenicke or the coaching staff in any official capacity.

When Roenicke was let go on the final day of the season, that news wasn’t the story. Instead, Cora was once again the center of attention, even if Bloom’s non-answers about whether or not the club would consider him served as the 2020 version of the “What color is the dress?" debate.

Throughout the entire search process, the tea leaves suggested a reunion was in the offing. First, the Red Sox invited back almost all of their coaches, including four who were on the staff in 2018, when the Sox won the World Series in Cora’s first year. Then, the White Sox made the shocking decision to hire Tony La Russa, closing one door for Cora and setting up a Tigers-A.J. Hinch marriage that meant Cora wouldn’t manage anywhere but Boston in 2020.

With only one managerial job left, the stars were beginning to really align. Cora could theoretically have spent 2021 working in a front office, for a network or as an assistant coach somewhere, but none of those options were his first choice. If Hinch was going to manage in the big leagues so soon after being implicated in the scandal, Cora surely thought he deserved the chance, too.

The industry perception of the Red Sox' search was that it was a smoke-and-mirrors game, even if the club really did its due diligence on top non-Cora candidates throughout baseball. One source close to one of the candidates described the search this way late last week: “That’s Cora’s job. That’s all eye wash and an exercise, in my opinion.”

That doesn’t mean the Sox didn’t actually consider other options. The fact the club brought back Diamondbacks bench coach Luis Urueta after interviewing him in January said something about the process. So too did the leaks that Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza had blown away club officials with his interviews. The eleventh hour was Sam Fuld, who was known to have a great relationship with Bloom and seemed to have a legitimate shot by the end. As of Thursday, some intimately involved in the process believed Fuld may have had the inside track.

But Sox brass -- including Bloom and general manager Brian O’Halloran -- took owner John Henry’s plane to visit Cora in Puerto Rico late last week and it doesn’t appear they made special trips to visit any of the other candidates. Cora, for whatever reason, never came to Boston during the process, though the club hosted other candidates. Cora’s candidacy was treated differently than everyone else, and for good reason.

When push came to shove, the Red Sox went with a known -- albeit somewhat controversial -- candidate instead of choosing someone who would come with more risk. Instead of hiring an external candidate with zero managerial experience hoping they’d become the organization’s next version of Cora, they hired the man himself. This wasn’t just a matter of appeasing players, fans and Cora’s fans in the front office and ownership group. Even with some of the championship core gone, it’s safe to say the club felt strongly that Cora was the guy who could get the most out of its most important players, including Rafael Devers, Eduardo Rodriguez and Xander Bogaerts.

In January, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy said that Cora, after a process of “rehabilitation,” deserved a second chance at managing in the majors. It turns out that second chance is happening in a place that Cora knows well, and it’s not a shock to anyone who has been paying attention.

Alex Cora re-hired: Boston Red Sox made right decision because of how aggressively he managed in 2018 postseason

Christopher Smith

Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has re-hired Alex Cora who Boston Red Sox players love.

Cora gets the most out of his players. He holds them accountable. He demands they play hard and he makes them better. He made Xander Bogaerts a better defensive shortstop. He often scrutinized Eduardo Rodriguez in the media. He challenged the lefty to become a better starter and Rodriguez accepted the challenge. He went on to finish sixth for the 2019 AL Cy Young.

But Bloom could have hired a number of candidates who would have connected with the players in a similar way. This group also probably would have ended up playing hard for and loving Sam Fuld, James Rowson, Carlos Mendoza or Don Kelly.

Bringing back Cora was a smart decision because of his connection to the players. But it was the right decision because of his 2018 postseason in-game managing. That’s the why he makes the most sense. That’s why he should have been the choice, not Fuld, the other finalist. That’s what sets Cora apart from everyone else.

We don’t know how Fuld, Rowson, Mendoza and Kelly would have managed with a struggling closer like Cora dealt with in October 2018. We don’t know if any of the other inexperienced candidates would have sent David Price back out to face the middle of the Dodgers lineup a third time through with a three-run lead in the seventh in Game 5 of the World Series like Cora did.

Price retired Manny Machado, and Yasiel Puig for an easy 1-2-3 inning. Cora then went back to Price for the eighth inning before taking him out after he walked . Cora didn’t manage just based on the analytics. He saw Price dealing and kept him in there.

Meanwhile, we watched Rays manager remove , his ace, in a 1-0 game in the sixth inning in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series after he allowed a single with one out. He also replaced Snell with reliever who entered having allowed runs in his previous six outings. Choosing Anderson in that situation instead of another reliever actually was a more egregious decision than pulling Snell.

Cora also used Price, Chris Sale and Rick Porcello both as starters and setup men (and Sale as a closer) during the 2018 postseason with his bullpen struggling. He went to Sale instead of struggling Craig Kimbrel to close out Game 5. He creatively used Nathan Eovaldi as a Super Reliever.

He clearly out-managed Yankees' Aaron Boone in the ALDS and Dodgers' Dave Roberts in the World Series.

Connecting with players is the most important trait for a manger these days. But don’t overlook the importance of a manager’s decisions under pressure. Cora showed he’s one of the best.

Sure, Cora made some questionable in-game decisions in his two years with Boston. He’ll remove a pitcher too early sometimes. But every manager makes questionable decisions. A lot of questionable decisions have to do with how managers view the 162-game schedule as a marathon, not a sprint. Cora and others don’t try to chase wins in July.

He’s back and he automatically makes the 2021 Red Sox a better team.

Alex Cora rehired: Red Sox need returning manager confident and competitive, not contrite

Matt Vautour

There are going to be people that want some kind of huge public contrition from Alex Cora. In his second stint managing the Red Sox, they’ll want a humbler guy, grateful for his second chance as some sort of permanent penance for his role in the Astros sign-stealing scandal.

He should ignore them. If he’s that Alex Cora the Red Sox should have hired somebody else.

Part of what Cora successful last time was his confidence. But since then he’s been publicly shamed by Major League Baseball. Dave Dombrowski, the guy who initially gave him the car keys is gone. It would be human nature to go through that and be at least temporarily changed by it.

Cora issued his mea culpa in the press release announcing his hiring.

"This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again. Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud. I owe John Henry, Tom Werner, Mike Gordon, Sam Kennedy, Chaim Bloom and Brian O’Halloran my gratitude for giving me another chance.”

He’ll probably say something similar at next week’s press conference. That’s fine and it’s enough. The apology tour should end right there.

It would be a mistake to be a different Alex Cora. Obviously, he should steer well clear of anything that remotely resembles sign stealing. But beyond that Cora needs to resist any temptation to limit himself. He shouldn’t be more humble or hesitant. In 2018 and 2019, he managed on his toes forcing opponents to go back on their heels. His players fed off of that. He’s a smart guy with an impressive understanding of baseball numbers and baseball people and how to balance them in situations. He handled Boston effectively because he was confident. He should still be.

If his suspension took some of the shine off his World Series win in 2018, winning again would polish any smudge created by the suspension.

To win again, he’s going to have to explore an aspect of leadership that wasn’t required in 2018. In 2018 Cora took over a championship-capable club and helped guide it to the finish line. That’s an underrated skill and he had it mastered.

This time he’s going to have to mold, form and teach. The 2021 team won’t have Mookie Betts, David Price or Rick Porcello and who knows how much Chris Sale they’ll get and how good he’ll be when they do. There are lots of pitching questions from top to bottom. He’ll need to lift and push this group more than he ever did in 2018. He can’t do that if he’s holding himself back.

Whatever shame he’s feeling needs to get channeled. There are people that think he can’t win without cheating. He should think about those people often and manage 2021 with a big ol' chip on his shoulder.

That’s when he’s at his best.

Alex Cora rehired as Red Sox manager: What MLB concluded about his involvement in sign-stealing schemes in Houston, Boston

Christopher Smith

The Red Sox have rehired Alex Cora nearly 10 months after letting him go for his involvement in the Houston Astros' 2017 sign-stealing scheme. At the time, MLB also was investigating the 2018 Red Sox for using their video room to decode signs illegally.

What did MLB commissioner conclude about Cora’s involvement in both sign-stealing schemes?

MLB found Cora had no involvement in Boston’s 2018 illegal sign stealing. But the league named Cora, who served as Houston’s bench coach in 2017, as one of the ringleaders when the Astros used a center-field camera and trash can to relay signals in real time.

MLB’s report on the Astros stated, “Witnesses consistently describe this new scheme as player-driven, and with the exception of Cora, non-player staff, including individuals in the video replay review room.”

But Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal reported in February that Houston’s front office “laid the groundwork” for an electronic scheme and developed a system called “Codebreaker.”

Former Red Sox reliever insisted Cora and the coaching staff (Astros manager A.J. Hinch was fired) took the fall for what happened in Houston.

“All this goes down, everything goes down on Alex Cora,” Kelly said on the Ross Stripling and Cooper Surles' Big Swing Podcast in August. “Which if people knew the real story, (they) would actually hate the players even more.”

TIMELINE OF EVENTS AND PUNISHMENTS

Nov. 12, 2019: The Athletics' and Evan Drellich first reported about the Houston’s sign- stealing scandal.

Nov. 13, 2019: Rosenthal and Drellich followed up with specifics, naming Cora for the first time. They wrote that MLB planned to interview Cora, Hinch and Carlos Beltran (who played for Houston in 2017) as part of their investigation.

Jan. 7, 2020: Rosenthal and Drellich published another report about MLB investigating the 2018 Red Sox for decoding signals electronically.

Jan. 13, 2020: MLB released its report on the Astros and provided details on Cora’s involvement in 2017 when he served as Houston’s bench coach.

MLB’s investigation report on the Astros noted, “Early in the season, Alex Cora, the Astros' Bench Coach, began to call the replay review room on the replay phone to obtain the sign information. On at least some occasions, the employees in the replay review room communicated the sign sequence information by text message, which was received on the smart watch of a staff member on the bench, or in other cases on a cell phone stored.”

Astros players then put together a more elaborate scheme and Cora helped, MLB concluded.

Per the report: “Approximately two months into the 2017 season, a group of players, including Carlos Beltrán, discussed that the team could improve on decoding opposing teams' signs and communicating the signs to the batter. Cora arranged for a video room technician to install a monitor displaying the center field camera feed immediately outside of the Astros’ dugout. (The center field camera was primarily used for player development purposes and was allowed under MLB rules at the time when used for that purpose.) Witnesses have provided largely consistent accounts of how the monitor was utilized. One or more players watched the live feed of the center field camera on the monitor, and after decoding the sign, a player would bang a nearby trash can with a bat to communicate the upcoming pitch type to the batter. (Witnesses explained that they initially experimented with communicating sign information by clapping, whistling, or yelling, but that they eventually determined that banging a trash can was the preferred method of communication.) Players occasionally also used a massage gun to bang the trash can. Generally, one or two bangs corresponded to certain off-speed pitches, while no bang corresponded to a fastball.

“Cora was involved in developing both the banging scheme and utilizing the replay review room to decode and transmit signs. Cora participated in both schemes, and through his active participation, implicitly condoned the players’ conduct.”

Jan 14, 2020: The Red Sox let Alex Cora go solely for his involvement in the Astros' 2017 scandal. MLB had not yet released its report on the 2018 Red Sox.

Jan. 15, 2020: Red Sox principal owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner, team president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom held a press conference to take questions about Cora’s dismissal.

Feb. 7, 2020: Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal reported in February that Houston’s front office “laid the groundwork” for an electronic scheme and developed a system called “Codebreaker.”

April 22, 2020: MLB completed its report on the 2018 Red Sox and concluded that Cora was not involved. Video staffer J.T. Watkins was named for his involvement.

Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote, “I do not find that then-Manager Alex Cora, the Red Sox coaching staff, the Red Sox front office, or most of the players on the 2018 Red Sox knew or should have known that Watkins was utilizing in-game video to update the information that he had learned from his pregame analysis. Communication of these violations was episodic and isolated to Watkins and a limited number of Red Sox players only.”

Manfred suspended Cora for the 2020 season solely because of his involvement in the 2017 Astros' cheating scandal.

Manfred wrote, “Alex Cora will be suspended through the conclusion of the 2020 Postseason for his conduct as the bench coach of the Houston Astros in 2017. While I will not impose additional discipline on Cora as a result of the conduct engaged in by Watkins (because I do not find that he was aware of it), I do note that Cora did not effectively communicate to Red Sox players the sign-stealing rules that were in place for the 2018 season.”

This offseason: The Red Sox were allowed to speak with Cora once his suspension ended following the World Series. The Red Sox rehired Cora on Nov. 6, 2020.

Ron Roenicke endorsed Alex Cora for Boston Red Sox manager during meeting with Chaim Bloom, Brian O’Halloran after 2020 season

Christopher Smith

Ron Roenicke met with chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and GM Brian O’Halloran in Boston on Sept. 29, two days after being told he would not return as Red Sox manager in 2021.

“We talked a lot about the players. We talked about the coaches. We talked about Alex (Cora),” Roenicke told MassLive.com during a phone interview Friday.

Roenicke — who served as Cora’s bench coach in 2018 and ’19 — told Bloom and O’Halloran he thought Cora would be a strong choice to return as manager.

The Red Sox announced Friday that Cora is returning to the Red Sox as manager on a two-year contract. It also includes a two-year club option for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

“I was hoping that he would (return) because I know how I left it with Chaim and BOH," Roenicke said. “And I told them what I thought about Alex and how good he was. And I thought it would be a good hire for Boston. What I saw before and how he fits in — and the different requirements that are put on a manager in Boston are different than other places. I know I had to do it Milwaukee. I did it again in Boston. And it was a weird year this year (because of COVID-19) but I saw it. It’s a harder job. The fans, the media, everybody expects them to win. And so there’s different pressures put on you, and I think Alex does a really good job with that."

The 64-year-old Roenicke managed the 2020 Red Sox to a 24-36 record after Boston let Cora go in January because of his involvement in the Astros' 2017 illegal sign-stealing scandal.

The Red Sox named Roenicke interim manager Feb. 11, the day before spring training began. Bloom removed the interim tag April 22 when MLB’s investigation report on the 2018 Red Sox for illegal sign stealing showed Roenicke had no involvement. The investigation also concluded Cora was not involved in Boston’s 2018 sign decoding.

Bloom moved on from Roenicke on Sept. 27, the final day of the regular season. But it wasn’t because of his 2020 performance. Roenicke did the best he could with what he had. Chris Sale (Tommy John surgery) and Eduardo Rodriguez (myocarditis) both missed the entire 2020 season. The Red Sox also were in the midst of retooling their roster after trading Mookie Betts and David Price in February.

Roenicke didn’t want to comment much when asked about a potential return as Cora’s bench coach in 2021. He said he doesn’t feel he would be able to help Cora as much now as he did in 2018.

In November 2017, former president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski encouraged Cora, who then had no major league managerial experience, to hire a bench coach with experience. Cora chose Roenicke, who managed the Brewers from 2011-15 and finished second for the 2011 NL Manager of the Year.

“I don’t really want to comment on that just because Alex and I have talked about it,” Roenicke said when asked about the possibility of returning as bench coach. “And there’s some things with me and you know, I’ve done this a long time. I think it’s not as important ... as it was in the beginning. I think because he’s experienced two years where we’ve talked a lot, I think he’s a really quick learner. And so yes, I feel like I can still help him but not as much maybe as why I came over in the first place. So we talked about things. We talked this morning. We talked a couple days ago. And I don’t want to comment probably further than that.”

Roenicke also endorsed Cora on the final day of the regular season, when Bloom informed Roenicke he would not return as manager.

“Obviously I’ve been doing this a long time and I see different managers and I watch what they do. And Alex is really good at what he does,” Roenicke said. “And the communication part of it, he’s really as good as I’ve seen. For a first-year guy, he (had) great feel. He cares for the guys. And he’s a smart baseball guy. I think probably the role he was in when he played, you learn a lot more. You know more about what happens on the bench. You know about substitutions. And so he learned all that while he was playing. He’s got a good feel for this. And that’s why I know it was too bad what happened there in Houston but I just know what kind of guy he is and how smart he is. And I know he’s going to be a good manager. And he is a good manager."

Roenicke is back home in Southern California with his wife.

“It’s great getting home. It’s great seeing them (family),” Roenicke said. “The thing that still makes you anxious is whenever you leave the house. You know you’re dealing with the same thing. You guys (in Boston) have a big spike going on right now. California’s had it. I was going to take a trip up to Montana. They had it (a spike) so I canceled the trip there. While I’m home I feel really relaxed and comfortable, but the anxiety of still what’s going on is (there). ... Everyone’s still dealing with it. And I know for us as a country, too, hopefully we learn a lot from it."

Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez reacts to Alex Cora re-hiring with dancing, flexing emojis

Nick O’Malley

There has yet to be official word out of the Boston Red Sox organization or its players in response to the reports of Alex Cora returning as manager.

But we do have emojis.

Shortly after reports emerged that the Red Sox have chosen to re-hire Cora, Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez took to Twitter to show some positive reaction.

Rodriguez tagged Cora’s Twitter account and flashed some festive emojis, including dancing, sunglasses and a muscle flex.

Rodriguez missed the 2020 MLB season after contracting COVID-19 and developing heart complications as a result of the virus.

The 27-year-old lefty is projected to return to the Red Sox as one of the team’s most important players moving forward. It looks like Rodriguez will have his old manager back when he returns.

The news of Cora’s return to Boston marked the end of a wild 10-month run in Boston, starting with the manager parting ways with the team in the fallout of the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.

* The Lawrence Eagle Tribune

Cora has lots of proving (and improving) to do

Bill Burt

Alex Cora has some work to do. As in heavy lifting, of the fork-lift variety.

And we’re not talking about any collateral damage from the Houston Astros cheating scandal he apparently led. That’s a discussion for another day.

This is about the Boston Red Sox which hired – or rehired – Cora to return as the manager of the team going forward.

His year suspension after being implicated in the Astros cheating scandal of 2017 has been served.

This is different from 2018, when pieces were in place and Cora only had to make, it seemed, easy decisions with five players being named All-Stars (Mookie Betts, Mitch Moreland, J.D. Martinez, Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel), three finishing in the top 13 for American League MVP (Betts, first; Martinez, fourth; Xander Bogaerts, 13th) and a pitching staff with four high-end starters (Sale, Price, Rick Porcello and Eduardo Rodriguez) pitching every fifth day.

Amazingly, the 2018 Red Sox never lost more than three straight games, and the only three times they did in late August and late September, their cushion was too big to matter.

Cora was the perfect guy for that veteran squad. He had the likeable personality and let the guys play.

This is 180 degrees away from 2018.

There are enough question marks to fill an SAT exam.

There is no Mookie. There is a questionable and fragile pitching staff. There is one MVP candidate (Rafael Devers), maybe two if you count Bogaerts.

The Red Sox, for all intents and purposes, are not good. Technically, they are, with a few key additions, average.

Which brings us to the new-old manager, Cora.

There were reasons to want to Red Sox to go elsewhere in their search for a skipper. Cora’s 2019 was as bad as his 2018 season was special.

Cora’s arrogance in treating his second season as Part II of his first season was a huge mistake and so un- Belichickian. The Red Sox weren’t ready for the 2019 -- see 6-13 start versus 17-2 in 2018 -- and the luck, most of which was good the year before, was all bad.

But you know what? Before Bill Belichick became “Bill Belichick,” he had his Cleveland Browns experience. He did too much and didn’t have public relations on his side.

He got better.

Cora will probably be better. Better yet, Cora had better be better.

But this second Cora act might take some time, which isn’t going to be easily acceptable in New England, after back-to-back disappointments at Fenway Park.

Red Sox fans aren’t into a long-term rebuilds with short-term ticket bills among the highest in the game – Red Sox were No. 1 in average ticket price in 2019 at $167.

Red Sox president of baseball ops, Chaim Bloom, allegedly made this decision to bring back Cora.

That is important because Bloom’s work in Tampa Bay, over 15 years, was extraordinary.

Bloom is into – to put it simply – pitching and percentages, both of which were elite under his watch as Vice President with the Rays.

That means the Red Sox successes going forward will have less to do about Cora’s pleasant personality and more about his timely placement of talent.

Again, changing “culture” takes time. Developing homegrown talent takes time.

Cora needs to balance that line, inspire a few players like Devers and Alex Verdugo to upgrade their roles as a young talent to team leaders.

And, as a team, get better.

Cora’s job description as manager of the Boston Red Sox is different now. This isn’t solely about winning. This is about building a winner.

This Red Sox gig is going to be a tougher one.

* RedSox.com

Cora back as Red Sox skipper on 2-year deal

Ian Browne

BOSTON -- After an exhaustive search to find their next manager, the Red Sox landed in familiar company, deciding to bring back Alex Cora, the team announced on Friday.

Cora returns on a two-year deal running through 2022 with a two-year club option for the '23 and '24 seasons.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to manage once again and return to the game I have loved my entire life,” Cora said in a statement. " ... I am eager to get back to work with our front office, coaches, and especially our players. Boston is where I have always wanted to be and I could not be more excited to help the Red Sox achieve our ultimate goal of winning in October."

After interviewing as many as nine candidates, then whittling it down to five finalists, the last two in the mix by Thursday night were Cora and Sam Fuld, the director of integrative performance for the Phillies.

Ultimately, Cora’s experience in managing the Red Sox to a World Series championship just two years ago -- not to mention the strong relationships he has with ownership, the front office, the coaching staff and key players on the roster -- was too compelling for chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom to pass up.

Bloom was also thoroughly impressed by Fuld, a rising analytics guru and former Major Leaguer he had a strong relationship with during their years together with the Rays.

Speculation persisted for months that Cora -- who had a mutual parting of ways with the Red Sox in January due to his involvement in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal -- could reclaim his job in Boston once his suspension expired after the World Series.

It wound up being true, but only after Bloom reviewed several other options.

"We considered a very impressive slate of candidates – the brightest managerial prospects in the game today," Bloom said. "Because of all that had happened, I knew that I wanted to speak with Alex once his suspension ended, but I didn’t yet know if it made sense to consider him for the job as well. Our conversations were lengthy, intense, and emotional. Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it.

"My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full: strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures. That is what I did with Alex in making this choice. He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball, and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance."

Momentum started to build in Cora’s direction last week, when Bloom and general manager Brian O’Halloran flew to Puerto Rico to meet with the man who managed the Red Sox in 2018 and ’19.

Cora’s suspension, which spanned the entire 2020 baseball season, expired after the Dodgers beat the Rays in the clinching Game 6 of the World Series on Oct. 27.

"This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again," Cora said. "Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud."

The Red Sox initially hired Cora to be their manager in October 2017. Other than winter ball, Cora had no previous managing experience.

But as a rookie skipper in 2018, Cora guided the Red Sox to a franchise-record 108 victories and the club steamrolled the competition in October, going 11-3 to claim the franchise’s fourth World Series title in a span of 15 seasons. Boston slipped to 84-78 under Cora in ’19.

Bloom was hired to run the front office a few weeks after that 2019 season ended, and he had a couple of months that offseason to build a relationship with Cora before the results of the Astros’ sign-stealing investigation changed everything.

In the rare position of needing to find a manager with just weeks to go before Spring Training, the Red Sox elevated bench coach Ron Roenicke to the job vacated by Cora.

Amid tough circumstances -- including Mookie Betts being traded and a rash of injuries to key pitchers -- Boston finished 24-36 in the shortened 2020 season. On the final day of the regular season, Bloom informed Roenicke that the club wouldn’t be bringing him back as manager for the ‘21 season.

That led to a thorough search in which three bench coaches – the Marlins’ James Rowson, the Pirates’ Don Kelly and the Yankees’ Carlos Mendoza -- were the other finalists.

Speculation that the 45-year-old Cora might come back increased on Oct. 12, when the Red Sox announced that all members of the coaching staff were invited to return next season, with the exception of bullpen coach Craig Bjornson and bench coach Jerry Narron, the latter of whom was brought in by Roenicke.

With Cora back in the fold, the Red Sox hope to rebound from a tough 2020 season, in which they had all kinds of pitching problems and were never really in contention. Bloom will spend the winter trying to upgrade the pitching staff.

Cora’s return is great news for the core Red Sox players who had a strong relationship with him and felt devastated when he left the club in January.

Team leader Xander Bogaerts is one of the biggest Cora fans out there. Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, third baseman Rafael Devers, slugger J.D. Martinez and catcher Christian Vázquez are among others who benefited from Cora’s ability to be a strong motivator.

In Cora’s first go-around with the Red Sox, he was respected for how closely he worked with every level of the organization. This included the analytics department, as Cora always appreciated the information he received from them and was strong at implementing it during games.

Predicting the Red Sox's Opening Day roster

Ian Browne

Though the offseason has just started, it is never too early to start projecting what the Red Sox's roster could look like in 2021.

After a highly disappointing 2020, looking ahead creates excitement for a better future. One thing you can be sure of when it comes to next season’s roster is that the pitching staff will be improved.

The Red Sox still have a talented core of position players, but chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is likely to add an impact piece to the outfield.

Here is MLB.com’s first projection of what the roster will look like come Opening Day 2021.

Catcher (2): Christian Vázquez, Kevin Plawecki The Red Sox have Vázquez back on the books for a $6.25 million salary in what is the final guaranteed season of the savvy three-year, $13.55 million extension the club signed him to in March 2018. The team also holds a $7 million option on Vázquez for '22. In what has been a transitional last year or so for Boston, Vázquez has provided stability to the pitching staff while being a threat at the plate. Plawecki proved to be just the kind of reliable backup the team needed last year, and it’s likely the Red Sox will guarantee his return by offering him arbitration.

First base (2): Bobby Dalbec, Michael Chavis Power-hitting prospect Dalbec got his chance over the final month of the 2020 season and sure looked like he belonged, smashing eight homers in 80 at-bats to go along with a .959 OPS. Dalbec held his own defensively at first base, but he will likely get better with more playing time. After a red-hot start to his rookie season in '19, Chavis has underperformed since. He will have to prove he belongs in '21. Chavis does offer additional versatility on defense with the ability to play second and third base and left field.

Second base (2): Trade/free-agent acquisition, Christian Arroyo Ever since Dustin Pedroia’s left knee went bad for good in 2017, this position has been one of musical chairs for the Red Sox. Might this be the offseason when Bloom finds a more consistent -play partner for Xander Bogaerts? Arroyo, a former first-round Draft selection of the Giants, showed some flashes on both sides of the ball when given the chance in '20, but it would be a leap of faith to hand him the position before Spring Training even starts.

Shortstop (1): Xander Bogaerts The Red Sox have no worries at this position, nor should they. Bogaerts is one of the best and most dependable players in the game. He puts up numbers every year and hardly ever misses time due to injuries. The 28-year-old is signed through 2025, but he does have an opt-out following the '22 season. Arroyo can back up at shortstop on the rare occasions Bogaerts takes a day off.

Third base (1): Rafael Devers Much like Bogaerts at shortstop, the heavy-hitting Devers should be part of the equation for years to come, now entering his first season of arbitration eligibility. While the Red Sox love what Devers brings with his bat, he needs to be more consistent on defense. Devers regressed in that area in 2020 after making improvements the previous year. Dalbec can move across the diamond to his natural position of third base when Devers is out of the lineup.

Outfield (3): Andrew Benintendi, Alex Verdugo, trade/free-agent acquisition The big question here is this: Who will replace Jackie Bradley Jr. in center field? There’s always a chance Bradley will be re-signed, but for now that seems unlikely. Could the Red Sox make a run at a run producer like George Springer or Marcell Ozuna? That will be interesting to watch. Benintendi should be fully healthy after playing just 14 games in 2020 due to a strained right ribcage.

Designated hitter (1): J.D. Martinez For the second consecutive offseason, Martinez decided not to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract. Assuming Martinez proves that his struggles in 2020 were an outlier and not a trend, this is good news for the Red Sox. When he is right, Martinez is an elite power hitter. While he will be the DH the majority of the time, Martinez will also get reps in the outfield.

Utility (1): Yairo Muñoz In a small sample size, the Sox were enthused by what they saw from Muñoz’s bat. The right-handed hitter had an .844 OPS in 45 at-bats. He can move all over the diamond with prior experience at all three outfield positions as well as second base, shortstop and third.

Starting pitchers (5): Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, trade/free agent acquisition The return of Rodriguez would be nothing short of huge, considering the lefty ace didn’t throw a single pitch in 2020 due to COVID-19 and myocarditis. While the Red Sox hope that Rodriguez can return to full health this offseason, there is no precedent for a pitcher coming back from myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart -- a condition doctors told Rodriguez he likely contracted from COVID-19.

Eovaldi’s right arm stayed fully healthy in the shortened 2020 season, but he did miss time due to a right calf injury. Eovaldi still has dominant stuff even though he has a history of inconsistency with both his pitch mix and durability. The Sox can’t wait to see if Pivetta will thrive in his new environment, and his two late-season starts were definitely encouraging. Houck looks poised to be the first starting pitching prospect Boston has drafted and developed in years and was lights out in his three starts at the end of the season. Chris Sale is still recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Expect Bloom to acquire one starting pitcher if not two. Some of the intriguing names on the market are , Corey Kluber, Rich Hill and Jon Lester. Trevor Bauer is the best pitcher in free agency, but his price tag is high, and the Red Sox might be leery of giving up a Draft pick at a time they are still trying to restock their farm system.

Relievers (8): Matt Barnes, Darwinzon Hernandez, Phillips Valdez, Josh Taylor, Ryan Brasier, Austin Brice, trades/free-agent acquisitions Though Barnes got a taste of the closer role for the final month of 2020, he has been a setup man for most of his career, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he goes back to his old job in his final year before free agency. Bloom will be on the prowl for some difference-makers in the bullpen. Liam Hendriks, who has dominated in Oakland the last two years, might be the most appealing free agent. Lefty Brad Hand, surprisingly set free by the Indians, might be a close second.

* ESPN.com

Alex Cora is back. Here's why the Boston Red Sox reunion will -- or won't – work

Joon Lee

Nine months after the Boston Red Sox and manager Alex Cora parted ways following revelations about his involvement in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, the two sides are back together.

A last-place finish in a season shortened by COVID-19 meant Ron Roenicke's run as skipper wouldn't continue into 2021. On Friday, Boston rehired Cora after his previous 27-month stint ended abruptly when he was implicated in Major League Baseball's investigation. Cora had served as Houston's bench coach in 2017.

The hire marks the end of a year of speculation about the team's manager position, mostly centered around whether or not Cora would make a return to the team following his season-long suspension. Cora won a World Series title with the Red Sox in 2018 and became one of the most popular figures in Boston.

Although his time away from the team was brief, some things have changed. Here's why the reunion will work, and why it might not.

Why it will work He is popular with the players

Upon Cora's dismissal in January, Red Sox players showed an outpouring of support. Among them, All- Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts -- a clubhouse leader and one of the longest-tenured members of the team -- made his feelings about Cora clear.

"I've talked to him a couple of times [since the news came out]. It's just sad. It's just sad that he won't be our manager," Bogaerts said two days after Cora was fired. "As I said, just the person that he was to us, there can't be anyone in that clubhouse that has an issue with him or something bad to say about him."

Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez was also effusive in his praise. "My brother, more than my manager, you were a friend, a pana and advisor during these two years, I learned a lot from you, thank you for everything, thanks for those ear pulls as we say in Venezuela that were part of everything I learned from you," Rodriguez posted on Instagram at the time. "I wish you the best in the world from now on for you and your family."

Said infielder/outfielder Michael Chavis: "Alex has been so genuine and kind to me. It was my first time in the big leagues, obviously, and I was trying to learn as much as I can. I was nervous. He did a very good job of making me comfortable."

He is popular among the fans in Boston

Fans have long clamored for the 45-year-old manager's return at the conclusion of his suspension. And after Roenicke was fired and the search intensified, they took to social media to let the team's chief baseball officer, Chaim Bloom, know it.

He knows how to handle the pressure of Boston

While he was creating a strong clubhouse culture and winning over fans, Cora also managed the voracious Boston media and the always pressure-packed expectations of Boston with aplomb.

"Boston, for a lot of people, is a challenge, but for me, it's not," Cora told reporters during his jam-packed introductory news conference in October 2017. "This is a city that -- I understand they live baseball 24/7. But you know what? I come from a country [Puerto Rico] that -- we live baseball 24/7. In my family, for breakfast we talk baseball. For lunch we talk baseball and for dinner, too."

While many players and managers (hello, Bobby Valentine) have struggled under both the local and national spotlight of Fenway Park, Cora kept his cool -- and it didn't hurt that he delivered a World Series title in his first season.

Why it might not work If there's any front-office friction

The main question that threw some doubt into Cora's return: Did Bloom want to hire Cora or his own guy? Boston's interview process saw Philadelphia Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld -- who has ties to Bloom via Tampa Bay and was perceived as Bloom's favorite -- Pittsburgh Pirates bench coach Don Kelly, bench coach Carlos Mendoza and Miami Marlins bench coach James Rowson all advancing to second-round interviews.

"It was shocking and really sad because I had so much respect for Alex and I still do, and I know how much people here love him and just highly and rightly that they think of him," Bloom told ESPN in August. "It was obviously a huge shock to know that we are in a different world and we are going to be moving forward with that one, and it does change a lot of things. At the same time, no one person is all of an organization."

Bloom has done nothing but praise Cora's managerial talent, but he will likely face questions about why the process of rehiring a popular skipper took as long as it did.

No Mookie Betts

If the ' World Series trophy in 2020 didn't serve as enough of a reminder, we'll say it again: Mookie Betts is still no longer on the roster. The main difference in the talent on the 2019 team Cora left behind and the 2021 team he will manage next season is the absence of the superstar right fielder roaming the spacious greens of Fenway Park.

The trade of Betts angered Red Sox fans unlike any other in recent memory, as Boston shipped one of the most talented and popular homegrown players in franchise history to Los Angeles, where he immediately contributed to a championship. Bloom and his front office hope that the pool of talent received in return, including outfielder Alex Verdugo, will contribute beyond their salaries, while the lack of major money tied up with a single player like Betts will create more flexibility to improve the team.

Still, Boston fans won't easily forget Mookie, and his absence still looms large.

No manager can single-handedly revamp a pitching staff

A manager can only do so much. As it stands, Boston faces a massive deficit in pitching talent. Ace Chris Sale is recovering from Tommy John surgery, while Rodriguez continues to recover from the effects of myocarditis, a heart condition he developed following his COVID-19 diagnosis.

In 2020, Boston finished with the third-worst team ERA in baseball -- 5.58 -- trailing just the Colorado Rockies (5.59) and Detroit Tigers (5.63). With his manager now in place, Bloom has a lot of work to do in bolstering the pitching staff for the team to again become a contender.

* WEEI.com

Why I thought of Francisco Lindor when Red Sox brought back Alex Cora

Rob Bradford

The Red Sox just acquired the face of their franchise. That’s a fact.

You can have an issue with Alex Cora’s past, suggest that ownership’s nudge-nudge, wink-wink was more like a push-push, or Chaim Bloom’s best path would have been starting completely fresh. That’s all your prerogative.

But understand that without the likes of Mookie Betts, Cora becomes the signature image and voice of the organization. So, what does it mean?

For starters, it’s at least a step forward for a franchise that has been moonwalking through 2020. How many steps forward? That’s the interesting part.

What has been lost in all the trash-can-banging debate is how Cora will shape this team now that he is that guy baseball players are identifying with this baseball team. Don’t think for a minute when Marcell Ozuna was working out with Eduardo Rodriguez Friday he wasn’t looking at living life as a Red Sox at least a little differently.

Yes, it allows us to comfortably utter names like Ozuna, or better yet Francisco Lindor. And isn’t that a nice change of pace?

Now, it’s a long shot that Lindor — the unbelievably talented Indians shortstop who is now reportedly on the market with his contract expires after the 2021 season — is a realistic possibility for these Red Sox. But at least we can have an intelligent conversation about such an acquisition. That’s in large part because of Cora.

The Red Sox have their Mookie Money, and now we wait to find out exactly where Bloom wants to spend it. It’s not a leap of faith to suggest that the Red Sox chief decision-maker isn’t the type who defaults to best free agent available. If he is going to allocate big-market money it’s going to be to a player who actually fits the foundation.

As Red Sox Stats pointed out Friday, Bloom is on record saying that spending big money on great players is a worthwhile exercise. Mookie Betts is a great player. (Lesson learned.) Lindor is also a great player.

Is it really worth allocating the highest-end prospects for Lindor in a contract year? Put it this way, without Cora you don’t even think about it. With the guy who served as the shortstop’s general manager for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, it’s a different story. (Sane if you want to replace Lindor’s name with Carlos Correa, who also played on that team and is headed for free agency after 2021.)

There is a reason when the experts project possible landing spots for Lindor Boston usually doesn't make the cut. For starters, it has a shortstop in Xander Bogaerts, and the Indians star hasn't played a single inning at another position other than short. In fact, it was Correa who moved to third base in the World Baseball Classic to accommodate Lindor.

But it's OK to enter into scenarios that might necessitate some position-juggling. Lindor at second? Or maybe you put Bogaerts at third with Rafael Devers at first base?

And let's not forget that Bogaerts can opt-out of his current contract after the 2022 season, so the Red Sox having some sort of superstar protection isn't the worst idea.

Maybe we're focusing on the wrong player. That's fine. The point is that while we don't know how many more wins Cora will immediately elicit from the Red Sox, we do know he will surface more interest from players looking for a place to play.

That was a dynamic that never changed. Ask around. Players wanted to play for Cora, with many of them spreading the good word.

Hiring a new manager isn't going to immediately fix what ails this franchise. But hiring this new manager at least gets them closer to the Cool Kids' table. That's something. And right now, the Red Sox need something.

Alex Cora 'grateful,' 'excited' to be Red Sox manager again

Scott McLaughlin

It's now official: Alex Cora is back as Red Sox manager. The team announced the hire that had first been reported earlier in the day on Friday afternoon.

Cora's new deal with the team is a two-year contract that will run through the 2022 season, with a two-year club option for 2023 and 2024.

Cora led the Red Sox to a franchise-record 108 wins and a World Series title in his first year as Red Sox manager in 2018 before the team took a step back and missed the playoffs in 2019.

Cora and the Red Sox mutually agreed to part ways back in January when his role in the 2017 Astros' sign- stealing scandal came to light, for which he was ultimately suspended for the 2020 season by Major League Baseball. The suspension ended with the conclusion of this year's World Series.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to manage once again and return to the game I have loved my entire life," Cora said in a statement. "This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again. Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult.

"I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud. I owe John Henry, Tom Werner, Mike Gordon, Sam Kennedy, Chaim Bloom and Brian O’Halloran my gratitude for giving me another chance. I am eager to get back to work with our front office, coaches, and especially our players. Boston is where I have always wanted to be and I could not be more excited to help the Red Sox achieve our ultimate goal of winning in October."

The Red Sox' decision reportedly came down to Cora or Phillies executive and New Hampshire native Sam Fuld. There had been some speculation that perhaps the delay in making a decision was a sign that Bloom, the Red Sox' chief baseball officer, wasn't completely sold on bringing Cora back. Bloom shed some light on the hiring process in a statement.

"Alex Cora is an outstanding manager, and the right person to lead our club into 2021 and beyond," Bloom said. "The way he leads, inspires, and connects with everyone around him is almost unmatched, and he has incredible baseball acumen and feel for the game.

"We considered a very impressive slate of candidates – the brightest managerial prospects in the game today. Because of all that had happened, I knew that I wanted to speak with Alex once his suspension ended, but I didn’t yet know if it made sense to consider him for the job as well. Our conversations were lengthy, intense, and emotional. Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it.

"My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full: strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures. That is what I did with Alex in making this choice. He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball, and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance. I join our whole organization in welcoming Alex back to Boston and Fenway Park."

* NBC Sports Boston

Report: Alex Cora returns as Red Sox' manager

Darren Hartwell

The Boston Red Sox are choosing familiarity.

The Red Sox have brought back Alex Cora to assume the manager post he vacated in January, MLB Network's Jon Heyman reported Friday.

Ron Roenicke managed Boston to a dismal 24-36 record this season as Cora served a year-long suspension for his role in the 2017 Houston Astros' sign-stealing operation.

While many assumed Cora would return after his hiatus, the Red Sox reportedly did their due diligence, interviewing multiple manager candidates and strongly considering four other options.

Among those options was Philadelphia Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld, a reported favorite of Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom dating to their tenure on the .

Bloom could have opted for a fresh start by hiring a new candidate like Fuld. But Cora, who is well-liked in Boston and guided the Red Sox to a World Series title two years ago, was the logical choice to help bring this team back into contention.

* BostonSportsJournal.com

Was the return of Alex Cora really Chaim Bloom’s decision?

Sean McAdam

The day after the nightmarish 2020 Red Sox season mercifully ended, three Red Sox executives — general manager Brian O’Halloran, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and team president/CEO Sam Kennedy — participated in a Zoom call with reporters.

The day before, the Red Sox had made official what had seemed obvious for some time: manager Ron Roenicke would not be returning in 2021, meaning the Red Sox offseason was beginning with the team in search of his replacement.

That, naturally, begged the question: who would make the decision on hiring the next Red Sox manager?

“I just want to be very clear that Chaim and his team will run the process and ultimately make the decision on who the next manager of the Boston Red Sox will be,” said Kennedy. “”Hopefully we do a good job of putting the right people in the right places to make those decisions and trust and empower them to make those decisions. When it comes to the managerial selection for the Boston Red Sox, that rests squarely with our baseball operation and ultimately with Chaim Bloom.”

Kennedy later added, as a caveat, that ownership would ultimately have to sign off on Bloom’s choice — a reasonable enough expectation and the case with nearly every other MLB franchise. After all, moves as consequential as hiring a manger to a multi-year deal are typically vetted by those signing the checks.

But tellingly, it became commonly known that Alex Cora was the clear choice of Kennedy, majority owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner. Even as they mutually agreed to part ways with him last January and determined he couldn’t remain on the job, the three gushed with praise toward Cora. They made it abundantly clear that while his departure was necessary, it was also regrettable.

Less clear was whom Bloom favored. At the time, he carefully avoided saying anything specific about Cora, in part because the former manager was still ineligible for any position in the game, and in part because Bloom had not talked to him.

The club then undertook a search that lasted almost six weeks, with nearly 10 candidates known to have been interviewed — some multiple times. The list of candidates was reduced to five (Cora, James Rowson, Don Kelly, Carlos Mendoza and Sam Fuld), and in the end, whittled to two — Cora and Fuld.

Fuld and Bloom have a history together that is more significant than the one Bloom shares with Cora. Fuld played for the Tampa Bay Rays for three seasons when Bloom was a key part of that front office and were said to have a good relationship. Fuld is also known to share Bloom’s general philosophy about the game.

What Fuld lacked, however, was any post-career dugout experience. While Cora was a bench coach with the Houston Astros before managing the Sox for two seasons — with the first year resulting in a World Series triumph — Fuld never coached or managed at any professional level.

His role with the Philadelphia Phillies the last few years — a post somewhat awkwardly titled “major league player information coordinator — was somewhat of a hybrid position, a liaison between the Phillies’ analytics department and the team’s coaching staff and players.

In the end, Bloom had a choice to make in his managerial selection between one candidate who was known to be the pick of his bosses, his players and the team’s fan base and another, who, impressive as his credentials and intellect might be, had none of those things.

It would have been a bold move indeed for Bloom to go to superiors and buck the obvious trend.

Imagine the fallout for Bloom had he, against the owners’ instincts, recommended Fuld, only to discover in a year or so that he had chosen incorrectly. Maybe Fuld would turn out to be ill-suited for the role, and the Red Sox, coming off a last-place finish, stumbled again under their rookie manager’s leadership.

One baseball source last week suggested Bloom was looking to see if he could find a candidate whom he liked better than Cora. Then, the source suggested, Bloom would have to assess the relative risks and rewards of choosing that candidate over the more battle-tested (and popular) Cora.

Perhaps, in the end, Bloom couldn’t bring himself to buck logic. Cora was known to one and all, had already demonstrated he could do the job — and do it well, for the most part — and, importantly, had the support of the players.

No one would second-guess Alex Cora 2. The same could not be said for the casting his lot with a largely untested alternative — however impressive he might be.

Bloom made the safe call in the end.

Whether that’s the same as making the correct call might take some time to determine.

Alex Cora returns as Red Sox manager

Sean McAdam

Ten months after he left in shame, tied to a scandal with another organization, Alex Cora is returning to manage the Red Sox — again.

On Friday morning, the team offered Cora his former job and were completing negotiations, a baseball source said. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman was first with the news.

It’s expected that the team will officially confirm his hiring at some point today, with a press conference likely at the beginning of next week.

The team had interviewed and considered a host of candidates for the position, but ultimately decided to return to Cora, who spent the 2020 season in exile after being suspended for the season for his involvement with a sign-stealing scandal with the Houston Astros in 2017. Cora had served as bench coach for the Astros and was found to be one of the architects of the scheme to relay signs to hitters by banging on dugout trash cans.

Cora’s suspension ended when the 2020 World Series concluded and the Red Sox soon re-engaged with him about returning.

Among the other candidates considered for the job: Pittsburgh Pirates bench coach Don Kelly; Miami Marlins bench coach James Rowson; New York Yankee coach Carlos Mendoza; and Philadelphia Phillies staffer Sam Fuld, who was the other finalist for the opening.

From the outset, Cora was the clear favorite of ownership (and senior management) and players. In the minutes after news of Cora’s return broke, pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez tweeted his approval. Cora was also backed by a number of players, including shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who voiced his support for Cora’s return on the final day of the 2020 season.

Cora led the Red Sox to a 2018 World Series championship in his first year on the job, directing the team to a franchise-record 108 regular-season wins. As a first-year manager, Cora was able to incorporate analytics with more traditional methods, gained over a playing career that spanned 14 years, including parts of four seasons with the Red Sox.

Despite his departure in January — which the team emphasized was a “mutual parting of the ways” — Cora remained the choice of principal owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner and team president/CEO Sam Kennedy. At a press conference in January to announce the move, all three expressed admiration and affection for him, even as they decried his misdeeds with the Astros.

(The Red Sox themselves were investigated later by Major League Baseball for sign-stealing allegations in the 2018 season under Cora, but he was mostly absolved. A staff assistant, J.T. Watkins was the only person disciplined by MLB).

Cora’s return comes at a time when the Red Sox have hit rock bottom — both in terms of on-field performance and in the court of public opinion.

Under Ron Roenicke, who served as Cora’s bench coach in 2018 and 2019, the Red Sox posted their worst winning percentage since 1965. The team was badly outclassed on the field, finishing in last place in the American League East and were effectively eliminated from contention by mid-August after a nine-game losing streak.

No fans were allowed in major league ballparks, so the team’s poor performance was not witnessed in person. But by any measure, interest in the team cratered, with TV ratings falling by half over the previous year.

Cora’s return is a boost to the team in the court of public opinion. Even after his departure, he remained a favorite of much of the fan base, and his re-hiring will no doubt mollify those whose engagement with the team almost ceased to exist in 2020.

Upon his return, Cora will inherit a flawed roster, especially when it comes to the starting rotation. The Red Sox had a ghastly 5.58 ERA, second-worst in the American League and will likely not get staff ace Chris Sale back until May or June as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

Still, Cora’s return will give the franchise the stability it has lacked at the position. Had the Sox chosen someone else, the new manager would have been the sixth Sox manager in the last 11 years.

* The Athletic

How Alex Cora and the Red Sox reunited: ‘It wasn’t a dog-and-pony show’

Chad Jennings

When the interview process started, Alex Cora was not considered internally to be the favorite to return as Red Sox manager. In fact, many in the organization fully expected someone else to get the job.

The Red Sox knew Cora, they liked Cora, and many of their top decision-makers wanted him back, but the final say-so was in the hands of chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, and there was little certainty he would ever come around to the same conclusion. When initial interviews revealed an impressive group of eight other candidates — a much stronger candidate pool than when Cora was initially hired in 2017 – a reunion seemed even less likely.

According to team sources, though, the hiring process began to shift in the past week as Bloom and Cora talked many times both on the phone and face-to-face. Bloom asked tough questions and openly discussed Cora’s strengths and weaknesses. Cora addressed his role in the Houston sign-stealing scandal and talked about the lessons he’d learned in the fallout. At one point, according to one source, Cora flatly asked Bloom, “Do you trust me?” If not, Cora told him, Bloom should hire someone else. Bloom said he did.

By Thursday morning, Bloom requested a final Zoom call with his top lieutenants: general manager Brian O’Halloran and assistant general managers Raquel Ferreira, Eddie Romero and Zack Scott. He wanted to talk through, once again, his thoughts on Cora and the possibility of bringing him back. By Thursday night, Bloom’s decision was made. News of Cora’s hiring broke on Friday morning and was announced officially on Friday night. It’s a two-year contract with a team option for two more.

“Our conversations were lengthy, intense, and emotional,” Bloom said in a released statement. “Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it. My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full: strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures. That is what I did with Alex in making this choice.”

The reunion came at the end of a lengthy process, one that introduced the Red Sox to promising young baseball minds but brought them eventually to a familiar candidate many observers believed to be an obvious choice. Although the final decision seemed inevitable, those inside the organization say it was never that simple.

“It wasn’t a dog-and-pony show,” one source insisted.

In the earliest stages of their search, the Red Sox vetted many names, some of them grizzled managers and others less experienced coaches. They settled on eight initial candidates: Phillies director of integrative baseball performance Sam Fuld, Marlins bench coach James Rowson, Pirates bench coach Don Kelly, Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza, Diamondbacks bench coach Luis Urueta, Twins bench coach Mike Bell, Padres associate manager Skip Schumaker, and Cubs third base coach Will Venable.

The Red Sox also decided they would reach out to Cora when his suspension was lifted at the end of the World Series, but Bloom “didn’t yet know if it made sense to consider him for the job.” If any candidate were getting a courtesy interview, some thought it might be Cora.

True to their word, the Red Sox ownership group basically stayed out of the process. It was no secret that owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner and president Sam Kennedy liked Cora — they’d said so publicly many times since he was let go in January — but sources said ownership did not pressure Bloom to bring Cora back. They were in the loop, of course, but it truly was Bloom’s decision. The feeling within the organization was, if Bloom wanted someone else, ownership would support that choice.

One thing ownership made clear was it had no objection to the optics of Cora returning after two sign- stealing scandals, including one the Red Sox were punished for, and a season-long suspension. The negative public relations side of Cora’s return was never a significant hurdle.

“He owns, and has learned from, his past mistakes,” Kennedy said in the team’s statement, “and with his incredible talent, he will build on the deep bonds he’s fostered over time to make us better in the years to come.”

That said, Cora’s ties to illegal sign-stealing were impossible to ignore. The issue had to be discussed and considered, especially since the Red Sox themselves had been found guilty of a lesser sign-stealing infraction when Cora was manager in 2018. To bring him back, Bloom and the Red Sox had to feel confident Cora would not leave them vulnerable to another scandal and further humiliation.

Ultimately, they came to believe that Cora understood the gravity of the situation and had come to terms with his own role in what happened in Houston. If something similar were to happen again on Cora’s watch, his career in baseball would be finished. Cora knew that. The Red Sox believed they could trust him not to let that happen.

“This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again,” Cora said in his own official statement. “Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud.”

Bloom and Cora had worked together for three months last winter, so their interview process was not an introduction, but it was an opportunity to address issues left lingering after Cora’s sudden departure. Bloom and O’Halloran flew to Puerto Rico to meet with Cora face-to-face last Friday, and Bloom and Cora kept talking after Bloom’s return to Boston.

In the final days of the search, the decision came down to three finalists: Cora, Fuld and Rowson. One of the Red Sox executives who pushed for Cora throughout the process told Bloom he ultimately would be happy with any of the options. All three had impressed the organization. All three seemed to be deserving managers. All three came with upside as leaders of the Red Sox clubhouse. But Cora was still that executive’s top choice when Bloom asked his inner circle to rank the final three candidates.

Of the nine candidates the Red Sox interviewed, Cora was the only one with major league managerial experience, and that experience — with all its ups and downs, its flaws and its championships — wound up being a factor in his favor.

“He’ll be a better manager than he was in 2018 (because of his experience),” one source said.

The Red Sox are about to find out just how much better. They’re planning to reintroduce Cora in a virtual news conference next week. He’s already the second manager Bloom has hired.

In his first year on the job, Bloom has proven to be deliberate and thorough in his decision making, and also collaborative in his process. His decision to bring back Cora, sources said, was not forced upon him, and it was never inevitable. Cora is back as manager only because Bloom was truly convinced Cora was the right person for the job.

“He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball,” Bloom said in the team’s statement, “and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance. I join our whole organization in welcoming Alex back to Boston and Fenway Park.”

Memo to Alex Cora: Here are the problems you face in return to Red Sox

Jen McCaffrey

Ten months after “mutually parting ways,” the Red Sox have re-hired Alex Cora as their next manager.

Now comes the hard part.

Cora’s first two years in Boston saw equal amounts of triumph and disappointment, but entering next season, this Red Sox team is very different from the one he last managed in 2019.

Cora has a good head start in knowing how the organization operates, what his responsibilities are and how to connect with several of the players on his roster. But this job doesn’t come without its challenges. Here is a look at what Cora is facing as he returns to Boston for his second stint.

Handling the criticism While many are happy to see Cora back in Boston, just as many are frustrated that he’s being given a second chance so soon after serving a season-long suspension for the sign-stealing scandal in Houston. Many across baseball, from players to executives, have voiced disapproval about the quick returns to the dugout for Cora and new Tigers manager AJ Hinch, his former boss with the Astros.

There’s bound to be a hefty amount of criticism throughout the season regarding Cora’s return; how he handles that publicly in the media, and privately within the organization and around baseball will be crucial to his success.

The rotation The Red Sox starters were in shambles last season after losing David Price in the trade to the Dodgers, Chris Sale to Tommy John surgery and Eduardo Rodriguez to myocarditis following his COVID-19 diagnosis.

Because of that, the Red Sox had 16 different pitchers make at least one start over the 60-game season, and only one starter — Martin Perez — made more than 10 starts.

Adding depth and quality arms to the rotation will largely be a problem chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom needs to solve first, but how Cora uses his starters will be part of the equation as well. Remember too how much heat Cora and his staff took for their management of the rotation in spring training 2019 following their World Series victory. The slow build-up was an attempt to preserve pitchers’ arms, but it backfired in a big way. This spring training will be similar to some extent as the Red Sox staff attempts to map out innings and workload for key pitchers coming off injuries.

There is ample data regarding recovery times and rehab for pitchers coming off of Tommy John surgery, but there’s zero precedent for the return of elite athletes who’ve been diagnosed with COVID-19-related myocarditis. Rodriguez is being monitored closely by the Red Sox medical staff, but there figures to be a delicate balance next season of how to ramp him up and how hard to push in games throughout the season. Cora will have a unique case on his hands managing a pitcher with this condition.

Meanwhile, three terrific starts from Tanner Houck at the end of last season were a promising sign for the future, but as with any rookie, he’s bound to hit a rough patch at some point. The Red Sox have long struggled to develop homegrown pitching and how Houck is managed over the season will be crucial.

The bullpen The Red Sox may very well end up signing or trading for a bonafide closer this winter, but if not, Cora will have to learn how to mix and match the relievers at his disposal.

In 2019, he largely managed a matchup-based bullpen and this year Ron Roenicke used Brandon Workman in situations before he was traded to the Phillies. Roenicke then turned to Matt Barnes as a closer. It’s possible the Red Sox try to mix Darwinzon Hernandez into the closing role as well.

Getting Rafael Devers and Andrew Benintendi back on track Devers had a brutal start to the season before picking it up over the final month. The 24-year-old finished the year hitting .263 with a .793 OPS while his defense suffered for much of the year. Keeping him focused and on track is a key to his success and Cora will need to help him return to the player he was in 2019 when he posted a .916 OPS and finished 12th in MVP voting. Cora has been credited with helping Devers see his full potential in 2019, so maybe he can help him again.

Benintendi had a forgettable season that ended with injury after just 14 games. Even his 2019 season left a lot to be desired, with a .266 average and .774 OPS. The Red Sox still think Benintendi can be the .290 hitter with an .830 OPS that he was in 2018, but getting him back to that spot will take work.

Alex Cora is back with Red Sox. Here’s why you shouldn’t be surprised

Chad Jennings

If you’re following from outside of New England, or watching from another side of the world, the news out of Boston must be surprising. At the very least, unusual. The Red Sox just re-hired a manager they let go 10 months ago, sources confirmed. He had been subsequently suspended by the league for one sign-stealing scandal, and the Red Sox had then been punished for a second sign-stealing scheme that happened on his watch. The potential for hurt feelings, bad optics, and general discontent came from every angle.

Why, then, is Alex Cora returning to baseball at Fenway Park of all places?

The answer, it seems, lies within the New England bubble, where the path to a reunion was always straightforward and never particularly tangled. Even as ownership ushered him out the door in January, its praise for Cora was absolute. Red Sox players openly pined for his return, the front office always worked well with him, and the fan base — with some notable, disappointed exceptions — still gave him credit for winning the 2018 World Series. Cora was, in some ways, the face of that championship, the last great moment in franchise history.

Forgiveness comes a little easier when there’s a ring involved.

In that sense, Cora was the Red Sox safest choice. Any other manager would have faced an inevitable comparison. Early losing streak? Cora could have stopped it. Underperforming player? Cora would have known what to say. Disappointing season? Not on Cora’s watch. He maintains some benefit of the doubt, even beneath the weight of his past transgressions.

Make no mistake, bringing Cora back is a public relations problem which he and the Red Sox will have to navigate together. Fair or not, Major League Baseball pinned Cora with much of the blame for the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal of 2017. He’d served as bench coach during that notorious season, and according to the commissioner, had largely orchestrated the video-watching, trash-can-banging scheme. It was Cora’s actions in Houston that led to his year-long suspension.

The league’s investigation into the Red Sox, though, found no such culpability. Believable or not, replay room operator J.T. Watkins was found to have acted alone when he deciphered signs and alerted Red Sox hitters in-game in 2018. Cora was found to have played no role, and the Red Sox punishment was relatively light. Many in the organization felt they were penalized for doing something relatively common in the game, not nearly as egregious as the Astros scandal, and not the kind of thing that suggested a pattern of deceit in Cora’s leadership style.

When the league announced the findings of its Astros investigation, though, Cora’s name was all over the report. And when Astros ownership subsequently fired manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow, it was only a matter of time before Cora met the same fate. Even Cora must have known it was unavoidable.

“Given the findings and the commissioner’s ruling, we collectively decided that it would not be possible for Alex to effectively lead the club going forward and we mutually agreed to part ways,” the team said in a statement attributed to owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner, president Sam Kennedy and Cora himself.

Decisions like that are never truly mutual — and if ownership wanted to pound the table and declare its steadfast devotion to Cora, it could have done so — but in this case, such a split did seem inevitable, and Cora’s no dummy. He knew he would be more distraction than leader under those circumstances, and so he left without ever publicly burning that bridge.

If anything, the bridge was constantly kept aloft and held together by others in the organization.

In the days after Cora was let go, Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts was asked what he wanted in the next Red Sox manager.

“Someone like (Cora),” he said.

Former World Series MVP Mike Lowell was asked if he would be interested in the job. He would, he said, “if I knew it was just for a year and Cora was guaranteed to come back.”

Hitting coach Tim Hyers called Cora’s departure “sad for the organization.” J.D. Martinez said “it sucks,” and third-base coach Carlos Febles said he had a hard time talking about it.

Four months later, when Cora officially was suspended by the league after its Red Sox sign-stealing investigation, the Red Sox took the opportunity to further distance Cora from any Red Sox misdeed.

“At the time that we parted ways with Alex,” chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said, “we were clear that that was a result of his role and what happened with the Astros and everything the investigation over there revealed. It had nothing to do with what may or may not have occurred in Boston.”

Kennedy, the team president, spoke for ownership when he added: “It was a difficult parting of the ways because everyone in the Red Sox — John Henry, Tom Werner, myself, Chaim, (general manager Brian O’Halloran) — we all have great admiration and respect for Alex.”

Of course, at that point, Cora’s bench coach Ron Roenicke was the Red Sox manager, a short-term solution that ended on the final day of the regular season. He had, in fact, been a stop-gap, a fill-in. Surely, he’d felt the specter of Cora hanging over his every move.

“No, never,” Roenicke insisted. “And the reason I can say that is because Alex should be managing … I’m hoping he does this again, whether it’s here or somewhere else, he should be managing.”

Catcher Christian Vazquez made his pitch for Cora’s return a few days later, and apparently Martinez did too, through a video game streaming service.

Time and time again, when the Red Sox had an opportunity to move farther away from Cora, they kept pulling him closer. And when Cora’s suspension ended with Game 6 of the World Series, it was a matter of hours before his name was added to the list of managerial candidates.

Hinch found a new job in Detroit, Tony La Russa was hired in Chicago, and the Red Sox became the only managerial opening in the sport. They interviewed young up-and-coming candidates, intriguing possibilities from all over Major League Baseball, and some of them were brought back for follow-up interviews, suggesting they’d impressed the organization with their ideas and their personalities. Ex-major leaguer Sam Fuld, in particular, stood out.

But Cora always loomed large. A known quantity. A proven manager. A popular choice even with all the baggage, and even within an organization that sent him away. There will be some damage control in the coming days, a lot of questions about what Cora did, how he reacted, and why he deserves another chance. Not everyone will be happy to see him back.

But from up close, it’s hard to be surprised. Even in separation, the Red Sox and Cora were never particularly far apart, and a reunion was always the easiest, shortest, most obvious path forward.

Alex Cora’s return makes being a Red Sox fan a bit more complicated

Steve Buckley

The arrival of a newly-named coach or manager is almost always a happy, celebratory occasion. The new guy says all the right things. He has a plan. He will “communicate” with his players. He is gracious and accommodating with the media as he huddles with the beat writers, does phoners with the talk shows and glides along a conga line of live TV hits. Sometimes they even make reference to this being their “dream job,” a go-to for former Boston College football coach Steve Addazio over the years.

This Alex Cora business is different from all that. Whatever your stand on the Red Sox decision to re-hire their former skipper following Cora’s one-year suspension by Major League Baseball, it’s important to understand how much the landscape has changed.

The Red Sox were widely applauded for hiring Cora in 2017, for reasons both symbolic and practical. Here were the Red Sox, the last team to promote a Black player to the big leagues — Pumpsie Green in 1959, which was 12 years after debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers — and now they were hiring a person of color to be their manager. On the practical side, Cora was viewed as a baseball lifer who, during his playing days with the Red Sox, was a clubhouse leader as well as a mentor for a rookie second baseman named Dustin Pedroia. Given the clubhouse acrimony that arose during the John Farrell administration, things could only get better under Cora.

Man, did they ever. The 2018 Red Sox won a franchise-record 108 games and then steamrolled their way through the postseason, taking down the Dodgers in the World Series. Along the way Cora emerged as that rare manager who not only owned his mistakes but sometimes addressed them before even being asked to do so.

Alex Cora: Manager for life!

But the cheating scandal changes things. And allow me to make this point again: It makes no difference whether you applaud the Sox decision to bring Cora back or whether you’re appalled by it. For while the Red Sox have been wrist-slapped a couple of times by MLB over various sign-stealing capers, it’s nothing compared with the way commissioner Rob Manfred brought down Thor’s hammer on the 2017 Houston Astros. And Cora, the team’s bench coach at the time, was right in the middle of all that.

Not only did the Astros cheat, but their preferred method of cheating was to bang on trash barrels as a means to communicate to their batters what the opposing pitcher was throwing. It sounds more like a gag from an old Marx Brothers movie than something you’d find in the sophisticated, high-tech world of 21st- century baseball, but, hey, it helped get the Astros a World Series championship in 2017.

And whom did the Astros beat en route to winning that championship? They beat the Red Sox in four games in the Division Series. Poor Chris Sale got lit up for seven runs over five innings in Game 1.

So can the Red Sox and Cora get past this?

The easy answer here is: Yes, of course. All they need to do is assemble a winning program for 2021 and beyond and then they can dismiss all the criticism as so much white noise.

Look at the Patriots. They’ve been criticized for years over various scandals, even if some of them, such as Deflategate, were wildly overblown. (Yes, I believe stuff was done to the footballs. No, no, no, no, no, Tom Brady should not have been suspended. He should have been fined, end of discussion.) But the Patriots kept winning, year after year after year, and after a while even the harshest critics had to concede that Brady and Bill Belichick are pretty good at what they do.

Cora, alas, has not managed the Red Sox to six championships. And while he has Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts, he doesn’t have Tom Brady. He did have a worthy successor to the Tom Brady legacy in Mookie Betts, except he now stars for the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers — another team that feels it was cheated by the Astros in 2017.

The Red Sox are not the first team to bring back a manager after he’d been suspended for a season. Commissioner Happy Chandler found all kinds of reasons to suspend Brooklyn Dodgers manager for the 1947 season, but that didn’t stop the Dodgers from bringing back their fiery and controversial manager in 1948. But the ’48 Dodgers struggled. Durocher was fired. He quickly resurfaced as manager of the New York Giants, and in 1951 he led his team to a miraculous second-half comeback against the Dodgers that culminated with Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” off Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca in the playoff game that decided the pennant. Guess what: All these years later we now know the ’51 Giants cheated, using a telescope and buzzer system to steal the opposing team’s signs.

It’s almost certain, given all the MLB watchdogs now in place, that teams will be disinclined to concoct new schemes to steal signs. And it’s absolutely certain that Cora won’t be inspired to get involved in any of that, given that the entirety of his remaining managerial tenure is now a redemption tour.

It won’t be easy for Alex Cora, who was part of the trash barrel-bangin’ that went on in Houston.

It won’t be easy for the Red Sox, because they made the decision to rehire the manager who brought them a championship in 2018 but who in 2017 worked for the cheating team that knocked them out of the playoffs.

And it certainly won’t be easy for Red Sox fans, even those who believe Cora is a great guy who paid his debt to baseball society and now deserves a second chance.

Hey, former Astros manager A.J. Hinch got a second chance with the Tigers, right? And not only did Leo Durocher get a second chance, he’s in the Hall of Fame!

All true, all true. But being a Red Sox fan just got a whole lot more complicated.

* The New York Times

After a Suspension, Alex Cora Returns as the Red Sox Manager

James Wagner

Even as the Boston Red Sox announced Alex Cora’s departure for his role in the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal that marred the 2017 season, the manager’s former bosses spoke glowingly about him. In 2018, after all, Cora had guided the Red Sox to a World Series title.

“He was a tremendous manager for us on all levels, so we’re going to miss him,” Red Sox owner John Henry said in January. Sam Kennedy, the team’s president, called Cora “an extreme talent,” and when asked about the possibility of a second chance, said: “He’s apologized to us for the embarrassment that this caused. He’ll go through a process of rehabilitation, so we’ll see what happens.”

Ten months after Cora was ousted, and with a Major League Baseball-imposed 2020 suspension now complete, the Red Sox announced on Friday evening that Cora, 45, was back in his old job.

“This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again,” Cora said in a statement issued by the team. “Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud.”

Cora, formerly Houston’s bench coach, is the latest principal figure from the Astros’ tainted championship season to return to baseball. Last week, the Detroit Tigers hired A.J. Hinch — Cora’s former boss and Houston’s manager during the 2017 and 2018 seasons in question — for their managerial vacancy.

Two other central characters who lost their jobs during the fallout of the scandal have yet to return to baseball: Jeff Luhnow — the former Astros general manager who, once again, proclaimed his innocence in a television interview last month — and Carlos Beltran, who stepped down as the Mets’ manager after he was the only Astros player named in M.L.B. Commissioner Rob Manfred’s report. Like Cora and Hinch, Luhnow was suspended by M.L.B. for the 2020 season; Beltran was not disciplined. Luhnow and Hinch were fired by the Astros after M.L.B. announced their penalties.

Because Cora and Hinch were previously well-liked figures, successful as managers and contrite about their roles in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, they were given another shot to lead teams.

Cora was heavily implicated in the report issued by Manfred in January, which came after the sign-stealing schemes were detailed by The Athletic in November 2019. An M.L.B. investigation granted players immunity in exchange for testimony.

According to Manfred’s report, Cora arranged for a monitor displaying the center-field camera footage to be installed next to the Astros’ dugout. At least one player would decode the opposing team’s signs, and when the catcher issued a sign, the upcoming pitch would be relayed to the batter with a sound — most often the slamming of a baseball bat on a nearby trash can.

“Cora was involved in developing both the banging scheme and utilizing the replay review room to decode and transmit signs,” Manfred wrote in January. “Cora participated in both schemes, and through his active participation, implicitly condoned the players’ conduct.”

Soon afterward, the Red Sox and Cora “mutually agreed to part ways.” While Red Sox officials then said that Cora had expressed remorse to them, Cora’s team-issued statement didn’t have an apology or admission of wrongdoing. Cora thanked the team’s executives and called his two seasons with the Red Sox “the best years of my life.”

It wasn’t until April, when M.L.B. announced its investigation into allegations of the Red Sox stealing signs during the 2018 season, that Cora first publicly apologized. He said then that he took “full responsibility” for his role in the Astros’ scandal and called the team’s collective conduct “unacceptable.”

Cora was not disciplined by M.L.B. relating to Boston’s sign-stealing scandal, which Manfred called “far more limited in scope and impact” than Houston’s. J.T. Watkins, the Red Sox video replay operator, was the only person formally disciplined as a result of that report. At the time, though, Manfred announced Cora’s suspension for the 2020 season for his role with the Astros’ sign stealing.

During the 2019 season, the Red Sox fired Dave Dombrowski, their president of baseball operations who had hired Cora and helped build the team that won the 2018 title. Chaim Bloom replaced Dombrowski and promoted Cora’s bench coach, Ron Roenicke, to manager for the 2020 season.

The Red Sox, who are rebuilding under Bloom, were one of the worst teams in the major leagues this year, going 24-36 during the truncated season. Before the final game of the season, the Red Sox told Roenicke he would not return as manager in 2021, once again fueling speculation that Cora would return.

“Cora is an outstanding manager, and the right person to lead our club into 2021 and beyond,” Bloom said in a statement on Friday.

The Red Sox had considered a stable of candidates, Bloom said, and when Cora’s suspension ended last week, the two spoke, even though Bloom was unsure if it made sense yet to consider Cora for the job.

“Our conversations were lengthy, intense, and emotional,” Bloom said. “Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it. My belief is that every candidate should be considered in full: strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments and failures. That is what I did with Alex in making this choice. He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball, and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance.”

* The New York Daily News

Alex Cora’s second chance with Red Sox is not surprising

Bradford William Davis

Whether spilling one too many coffees during that summer job at the cafe, or, simply, embroiling yourself in the most infamous on-field scandal your multibillion-dollar industry has ever experienced, twice, everybody that’s been fired knows it’s unlikely for your boss to shower you with praise on the way out.

But that’s exactly what happened in Boston when the Red Sox announced Alex Cora would be taking his sabbatical.

Owners John Henry and Tom Werner and longtime CEO Sam Kennedy said Cora was “a special person and a beloved member of the Red Sox,” and they were “grateful for his impact on our franchise.”

The Sox announced they rehired Cora back on Friday, less than 10 months after he was suspended by Major League Baseball for his role in the Astros’ cheating scheme during their championship season — a system he updated for Boston his first year on the job (though he was not found responsible for any wrongdoings with the Sox).

“I owe John Henry, Tom Werner, Mike Gordon, Sam Kennedy, Chaim Bloom and Brian O’Halloran my gratitude for giving me another chance," Cora said in a statement Friday. "Boston is where I have always wanted to be and I could not be more excited to to help the Red Sox achieve our ultimate goal of winning in October

There was no need to steal any signs this time because Cora’s eventual return to Fenway was impossible to miss.

Cora was always lauded as a tactician and communicator, and praised for his character. Players from his 2018 and 2019 Boston team, the first of which won a World Series, raved about Cora after his departure.

J.D. Martinez said he was “heartbroken” when Cora left the team, and vigorously defended him his character. “People make mistakes, it is what it is,” the star slugger said then. “But that doesn’t change the way he treated me as a human, as a person, as a coach and as a manager. And I still have great respect for him.”

Martinez echoed Xander Bogaerts, who said two days after Cora was booted that “there can’t be anyone in that clubhouse that has an issue with him or something bad to say about him.”

The entire organization broadcasted their respect for Cora’s character in that aforementioned break up letter by singling out his charitable work in New England and Cora’s homeland in Puerto Rico. When Cora negotiated his first contract with the Sox, he famously requested the team include a plane full of supplies for the island in his deal.

[More Sports] Dodgers’ apologizes for World Series COVID chaos, won’t be punished by MLB » Cora’s further shown his conviction on the matter by refusing to attend the White House the year after winning the World Series to signal his disapproval of President Trump’s belittlement of people angry with his neglect of the island. The act showed more courage and valor than most of his colleagues that chose to attend.

While Cora’s life and backers in the game show sign-stealing shouldn’t be the final verdict of his character, his rehiring, and former Astros manager AJ Hinch’s new managerial job with the Tigers, invites scrutiny of a league that has chosen to move past the scandal alongside its most responsible participants. There are other managerial candidates that may be as smart, kind, compassionate and skillful as Cora that don’t have entire sections of their Wikipedia page devoted to cataloging their controversy.

Any discussion about Cora’s merits ultimately pulls away from the larger issue of why we’re parsing out his strengths and scandals, instead of examining why those men haven’t received their first chance to lead a team before Cora got his second.

* The New York Post

Red Sox bring back Yankees nemesis Alex Cora as manager

Dan Martin

Another Yankees’ nemesis is going to be back in the dugout next season.

A week after former Houston manager A.J. Hinch came back from his scandal-related exile to manage the Tigers, the Red Sox on Friday rehired their former manager, Alex Cora.

Cora had been let go in January after receiving a one-year suspension for the 2020 season for his role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman first reported Cora’s hiring.

The move was not unexpected, as Cora met with the Red Sox front office and was considered a frontrunner for the job since his replacement, Ron Roenicke, was fired following a last-place finish in 2020.

Cora returns to the job where he led the Red Sox to the 2018 World Series title, a year after serving as Houston’s bench coach when the Astros won the 2017 championship.

An investigation by MLB that began last year found evidence of a sign-stealing scheme in Houston in 2017 and an ensuing MLB investigation into Boston’s actions in 2018 under Cora’s watch resulted in the suspension of the Red Sox’ video replay system operator, but absolved Cora of responsibility.

In April, Yankee manager Aaron Boone remained unsure of just what the Red Sox did during their World Series run, which included an ALDS victory over the Yankees.

“Who knows exactly what went down?” Boone said. “I do trust that Major League Baseball thoroughly investigated and got to the bottom of things as best they can. I feel like if that’s what they come up with, so be it. It’s time to move on.’’

There were signs throughout the year the Red Sox might go in this direction.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said of Cora in April: “My opinion of him is very high. I think people are complicated and people make mistakes. That doesn’t excuse his conduct in Houston. That’s something I’m sure he’ll have to own and I’m sure he will own.”

Bloom also said the decision to get rid of Cora was “a result of his role and what happened with the Astros and… had nothing to do with what may or may not have occurred in Boston, and that’s still the case.’’

Also in April, Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy may have begun to lay the groundwork for Cora’s eventual return.

“I’m a big believer in second chances and we all wish him well,” Kennedy said. “That’s my personal feeling. He does need to go through a rehab process. What he did was wrong. He acknowledged that to us and apologized to us. I’m a big believer in second chances, so we all wish him well.”

Cora, 45, didn’t miss much in his time away from Boston, since a month after his dismissal, the Red Sox traded Mookie Betts — along with David Price — to the Dodgers, all but sealing their fate in the AL East.

The Red Sox went on to suffer through a miserable year, finishing 24-36 in the abbreviated season and saw Betts lead Los Angeles to a World Series title.

Before hiring Cora, the Red Sox also interviewed Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza, Marlins bench coach James Rowson (who previously served as the Yankees minor league hitting coordinator), Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld and Pirates bench coach Don Kelly.

Fuld was considered the other top option for Boston, but of the candidates, only Cora had managerial experience. Cora also played for the Red Sox from 2005-08 and was part of the World Series-winning team in 2007.

Cora will now get a chance to be a part of another Red Sox rebuilding project which, considering the team’s resources, likely won’t take long.

* The USA Today

After season-long suspension, Alex Cora 'grateful' to return as Red Sox manager

Bob Nightengale

It was not a unanimous decision by any means.

It may not have even been the choice of the general manager.

No, we’re not talking about the Chicago White Sox and Tony La Russa.

This is about Alex Cora, who was rehired as manager of the Boston Red Sox, the club announced on Friday.

Yep, 10 months after he was let go by the Red Sox less than two weeks after being reinstated from his suspension by Major League Baseball, Cora is right back where he started.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to manage once again and return to the game I have loved my entire life,” Cora said in a statement. “This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again. Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud."

And you thought the George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin days with the Yankees were crazy times?

Remember when Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom announced the final day of the season that Ron Roenicke would be out the door, and when specifically asked about Cora, said that “he’s not on or radar"?

Here’s a refresher:

“I don’t want to get into any detail into my thoughts on Alex,’’ Bloom said on Sept. 27. “I don’t want to say anything about Alex that I haven’t said to Alex and obviously I have not spoken to Alex, so there will be a time when I can get into more detail on Alex and his situation, and my thoughts on it, but that time isn’t now.’’

That time is now.

Bloom will have to explain how he interviewed nine candidates, narrowed it down to three finalists, had his personal favorite in Sam Fuld, and still hired Cora.

Yep, the peoples’ choice.

And, of course, the choice by those who write Bloom’s paychecks.

“Alex Cora is an outstanding manager, and the right person to lead our club into 2021 and beyond,” said Bloom in a statement.

"We considered a very impressive slate of candidates – the brightest managerial prospects in the game today. Because of all that had happened, I knew that I wanted to speak with Alex once his suspension ended, but I didn’t yet know if it made sense to consider him for the job as well."

The Red Sox ownership acknowledged that Cora had to go when he was implicated in MLB’s investigation into the Houston Astros in 2017, costing A.J. Hinch his job, too. MLB investigated the Red Sox as well and while investigators found no wrongdoing by Cora in Boston, he was suspended for his actions in Houston, with the investigation determining that Cora was an “active participant in the scheme” and that he “implicitly condoned the players’ conduct.”

Astros GM Jeff Luhnow, who was fired in the scandal and still is unemployed, also blamed Cora in a January statement.

“The sign-stealing initiative was not planned or directed by baseball management,’’ Luhnow said. “The trash-can banging was driven and executed by players, and the video decoding of signs originated and was executed by lower-level employees working with the bench coach (Cora).

“I am deeply upset that I wasn’t informed of any misconduct because I would have stopped it.’’

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The Red Sox and MLB stopped Cora, but all he missed was 60 games in a dreadful Red Sox season. They finished with a 24-36 record. It was the worst winning percentage since their 62-100 season in 1965.

So, instead of being punished, Cora caught a break, and won’t have that 2020 season sullying his resume.

Remember Cora’s words in January when he left the Red Sox, saying, “I will forever be indebted to the organization and the fans who supported me ... This is a special place. There is nothing like it in all of baseball, and I will miss it dearly.”

Well, those words ring true today.

Cora is back.

And really, it’s as if he never left.

Returning to a Red Sox team he may not recognize, Alex Cora faces daunting task

Gabe Lacques

The last time Alex Cora wore the Red Sox uniform, he emerged from the home dugout at Fenway Park and wrapped the franchise’s greatest player in a hug. Mookie Betts had just raced from first base to home on a single, turning a moment’s hesitation by a Baltimore Orioles outfielder into an electrifying, walk-off moment only Betts can produce.

As the crowd cheered after the club’s 84th victory, and twilight edged toward darkness, Betts offered a vision of hope in a postgame interview: “We’ll go get ‘em in 2020.”

Yeah, about that.

Not six weeks after that feel-good finish, Cora’s involvement, as Houston Astros bench coach, in the worst sign-stealing scandal (that we know about) in the game’s history was detailed by The Athletic. Two months after that, Major League Baseball’s report on the matter resulted in yearlong bans of Astros manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow – with Cora’s back bearing the biggest tire tracks.

Hours later, Cora was an ex-Red Sox manager. Weeks later, Mookie Betts was a Dodger.

Nine months and one last-place finish later, Cora, once again, is Red Sox manager.

If that weirds you out a bit, well, little wonder that the Red Sox chose the moment leadership of the free world likely flipped for good to toss that little nugget out Friday morning.

With Cora’s rehiring, moral high horses will be mounted, and justifiably so. It can be credibly argued that the protagonists in the sign-stealing scandal should never hold positions of power and influence again. Lest we forget, the Red Sox had their own little video room scheme during Cora’s reign as manager, though MLB’s report seemed intent on absolving Cora as much as it pinned blame on him in Houston.

Right or wrong, once Hinch served his time and was deemed fit to manage the Detroit Tigers, there was no way Cora could be kept from a dugout.

And for those wondering if his time away was punitive enough, well, consider the situation he’s inheriting.

Other than losing a paycheck, Cora was fortunate to avoid the horror that was the 2020 Red Sox season, a year that saw them finish with the fourth-worst record in baseball, with a pitching staff last in the majors in Fielding Independent Pitching and 28th in earned-run average, and a lineup with 100% less Mookie Betts.

Not a bad year to take off – even if Cora will nonetheless inherit a fixer-upper in a market that demands more.

Let’s start with Betts.

This wound will not go away soon. For all the talk of fans stung by the Astros’ cheating missing their chance to make their feelings known, so, too, were Red Sox fans disenfranchised by COVID-19 and the restrictions it wrought.

Perhaps there was an inevitability to Betts’ departure, though that a club with bottomless resources would electively ship off the most dynamic player in its history never sells well.

Imagine if they held onto Betts, and 2020 unfolded the way it did. Would pandemic conditions mean the Red Sox could have retained his services for the relative bargain price of $365 million, like the Dodgers did?

We’ll probably never know, but many Red Sox fans may never be convinced, otherwise. And the Dodgers' run to a Betts-motored World Series title only twisted the knife.

Meanwhile, the roster and organization at large are in a grim nowhereland that will be challenging to navigate. True, former GM Dave Dombrowski sold out hard, both to construct the unbeatable 118-win title club Cora presided over, and to try and keep that gang together. The $213 million committed to pitchers Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi are essentially sunken costs until proven otherwise, particularly with a new GM and ownership both throwing the word “sustainability” around as if they’re touting the Green New Deal rather than a ballclub.

Ah, yes, that new GM. Chaim Bloom did not hire Cora in the first place, and strongly considered Sam Fuld, well-known to Bloom from their time in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, this time around. There’s no reason Bloom and Cora can’t enjoy a strong working relationship, but any employee knows the dynamic is a little different when your current boss isn’t Your Guy, per se.

Meanwhile, Bloom will cast an eye toward rebuilding a farm system that ranks in the bottom half-dozen, buttressed only so much by the Betts deal. Fixing the farm while fielding a competitive roster burdened by huge contracts may prove impossible.

Their best player, third baseman Rafael Devers, is suddenly halfway to free agency. Given the time it will take to build back better, and Bloom’s DNA from his time with the Rays – where dumping players two years early rather than one year late is always preferable – you wonder if Devers will facilitate the future rather than be part of the present.

Either way, the pressure to win will not dissipate, not in Boston, certainly.

The first time around, Cora was handed a championship-ready roster and ran it beautifully. This time, it will be as much about teaching and prodding and believing in a longer-term vision, and there’s no reason Cora can’t rise to this occasion, as well.

At the least, Cora has his livelihood back. But the task ahead may at times serve up its own form of punishment.

* Associated Press

Red Sox bring back Cora, rehiring manager from 2018 title

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox are bringing back Alex Cora, rehiring the manager that led them to the 2018 World Series title less than a year after the team let him go because of his role in the Houston Astros' cheating scandal.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to manage once again and return to the game I have loved my entire life,” Cora said in a statement Friday. "Boston is where I have always wanted to be and I could not be more excited to help the Red Sox achieve our ultimate goal of winning in October.”

Boston announced the decision 10 days after Cora finished a one-season suspension for his role in the Astros sign-stealing scheme during their 2017 championship run. Cora was Houston's bench coach when he joined the Red Sox in November 2017, and he led Boston to the 2018 title after a franchise-record 108 regular-season wins.

The Red Sox, who finished third in 2019, let Cora go in January after Commissioner Rob Manfred identified him as as the ringleader in the Astros’ scheme.

“This past year, I have had time to reflect and evaluate many things, and I recognize how fortunate I am to lead this team once again," Cora said. “Not being a part of the game of baseball, and the pain of bringing negative attention to my family and this organization was extremely difficult. I am sorry for the harm my past actions have caused and will work hard to make this organization and its fans proud.”

An infielder on Boston’s 2007 champions, Cora was mentioned 11 times in Manfred’s decision on the Astros. The fallout from the Astros investigation also cost Houston manager AJ Hinch and newly hired New York Mets manager Carlos Beltrán their jobs; Hinch was hired as Detroit Tigers manager last week after completing his one-season suspension.

“Alex knows that what he did was wrong, and he regrets it," Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom said. “He loves the Red Sox and the game of baseball, and because of that we believe he will make good on this second chance.”

Bloom, who joined the Red Sox last offseason, did not hire Cora the first time but was in charge when the team let Cora go last winter. Ron Roenicke was promoted from bench coach to be Cora's replacement, then was let go after the salary-shedding Red Sox stumbled to a last-place finish in the AL East.

“Alex should be managing. He did a really good job here,” Roenicke, who was a bench coach on Cora’s staff, told reporters after he was fired. “I’m hoping he does this again. Whether it’s here or its somewhere else, he should be managing.”

The Red Sox were was not allowed to speak to Cora until after the World Series, which ended. The lack of activity was a sign they focused on Cora.

“During his Red Sox career as a player and manager, Alex continually made us better," team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said. "He owns, and has learned from, his past mistakes, and with his incredible talent, he will build on the deep bonds he’s fostered over time to make us better in the years to come.”

The team Cora returns to bears little resemblance to the one he last managed.

Bloom is running the baseball side now. His other big move last offseason was to trade 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with David Price as part of an effort to get the Red Sox under the threshold for baseball’s luxury tax on high payrolls.

With Betts and Price gone, Chris Sale recovering from Tommy John surgery and Eduardo Rodriguez recovering from a COVID-19-related heart problem, the Red Sox went 24-36.

But Cora also has hope for improvement in the 2021 season -- if there is one.

Sale is expected to return in the first half. J.D. Martinez, an All-Star his first two years in Boston before struggling in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, is also under contract for at least one more year.

And the Red Sox have plenty of salary flexibility gained in the deal that jettioned Betts and Price.