The Boston Red Sox have endured plenty of whiplash, mostly self-induced.
The euphoria of the 2018 World Series to the doldrums of 2019 to the utter disaster of 2020. The surprise success of the 2021 postseason run followed by the last-place finishes the next two years and now an upstart 2024 club.
The lone player left from that championship club, Rafael Devers, signed a $300 million-plus deal last year, but only after the team opted to trade a generational talent in Mookie Betts. In the midst of it all, there have been three changes in front office leadership over the last seven seasons, and “full throttle” declarations to spend only to reverse course.
The one constant has been manager Alex Cora.
Even when Cora was suspended in 2020 by Major League Baseball for his part in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, the Red Sox wasted little time in rehiring him for the 2021 season.
That’s why — despite the odd timing a week before the trade deadline and despite a refusal all season to discuss contract talks — the news of Cora’s new deal with the Red Sox isn’t all that surprising. The Red Sox on Wednesday officially announced a three-year extension with Cora that runs through 2027. Sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations told The Athletic that the deal is worth roughly $23 million.
“We’re very happy, what this organization means to us is the world,” Cora told reporters after Wednesday’s season-worst 20-7 loss to the Rockies, which was another bit of odd timing. “They trusted me from day one.”
“I love wearing this uniform. I love the passion that this city brings on a daily basis.”
Alex Cora on his belief in the team and his relationship with the organization | #RedSox pic.twitter.com/hWF6Gv6M4h
— NESN (@NESN) July 24, 2024
The $7.65 million average annual value of the deal comes in just shy of Craig Counsell’s five-year, $40 million contract signed last winter with the Cubs, a record deal for a manager.
“We put everything on a scale and decided this is a great opportunity for us as a family and obviously to keep growing as a manager,” Cora said on NESN. “From the baseball part of it, I feel comfortable where we are at right now, and where we are going is what I want. I’ve been talking to (chief baseball officer) Craig (Breslow) a little bit here, and there were two things I wanted: I wanted to win and I wanted security for my family, and we’ve accomplished both.”
In recent years, following the direction of the Red Sox has often been like being stuck in a corn maze, the kind that stops being entertaining and the exit seems impossible to find. Ownership has said one thing and done another more times than can be counted. And yet through it all, their loyalty to Cora has been their clearest creed.
Cora’s rehiring after the 2020 suspension is the most obvious example of that relationship. But the fact he’s working for his third head of baseball operations says just as much about how he’s viewed by ownership. New general managers typically have the luxury of hiring their own manager, but both Chaim Bloom and Breslow inherited Cora, with ownership seemingly saying, “The job is yours, but Cora is staying.”
Now they’ve extended Cora three more years.
That extension would give him nine seasons in Boston, making him the second-longest-tenured manager in Red Sox history behind only Joe Cronin’s 13 years. In six years at the helm in Boston, Cora has already amassed 494 wins, fourth most in franchise history.
“I had a tremendous amount of respect for Alex long before I took this job; that respect has only grown these last several months,” Breslow said in a statement. “He is an incredible people connector, something I have enjoyed watching firsthand. He has embraced Boston’s passionate fans and we share a desire to win as much as they do, both in 2024 and in the future. I’m happy to be able to extend our commitment to Alex, and I look forward to our partnership continuing to grow.”
Cora managed the club to last-place finishes in 2022 and 2023. What he’s done in 2024 with an injury-riddled roster that lost starters Lucas Giolito and Garrett Whitlock, as well as shortstop Trevor Story early in the year, has put him in contention for the American League manager of the year award.
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All season, Cora has been asked about returning to Boston, but he’s demurred. As recently as three weeks ago, he said he would not engage in contract talks mid-year.
“We decided before the season that we’re not going to talk about my contract,” Cora said July 9. “My contract situation will be talked (about) after the last out, hopefully, of the World Series.”
But over the last few weeks, the conversations picked up and an offer was made that Cora couldn’t refuse.
“Sometimes I can put on an act for you guys and sometimes I was actually telling the truth,” Cora said of the contract talks. “We’ve been talking for a few weeks here, the relationship between me and Craig has grown the last six, seven months, obviously the relationship I have with ownership and (Red Sox CEO) Sam (Kennedy) is very important. And at the end of the day, like I said, there are probably a lot of (managerial jobs) that are going to open up at the end of the season, and some of them may be very inconvenient for the family. I promise you this decision was more based on the comfort of my family than actually my professional career.”
The timing of the deal may have seemed odd. The extension news came in the midst of one of the worst road trips of the season (1-5) on the day of a 13-run defeat, the worst loss of the season, to one of the league’s worst teams in the Rockies. But the timing is key in another sense, too. It stands to reason that Cora would not have agreed to a long-term deal if he wasn’t convinced the organization was willing to improve the club. With the deadline looming, it seems like a good indicator Cora’s contract is the first major move of Boston’s trade season.
This has long been Cora’s team, and now it figures to be for at least three more years. It’s been hard to know where ownership stands on anything the last several years, except for the manager.
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Alex Cora clears the air after Sam Kennedy’s comments: ‘We’re an under .500 team’
(Photo: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)
