Red Sox

What Alex Cora said about Chaim Bloom’s firing, his future with the Red Sox

“My goal here is to keep playing good baseball and help these guys to get better."

By Conor Ryan

September 14, 2023

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Email
• ...

Red Sox team president Sam Kennedy acknowledged on Thursday afternoon that the organization could be gearing up for a “broader search” as it tries to find a replacement for the recently fired Chaim Bloom. 

But could Boston opt for an in-house replacement in Alex Cora?

Kennedy noted in his press conference Thursday that both he and the organization expect Cora to return as manager for the 2024 season.

But Cora, whose current contract runs through 2024, didn’t reveal much information when asked if he was informed already that he’ll manage the ballclub next season.

“After the season, I’ll be here for a little bit, do the press conference and get ready for next season,” Cora said, as reported by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. 

When pressed if Cora himself wanted to return to the Red Sox next season, he didn’t budge. 

“I’ll finish the season and spend some time here,” Cora said. “I’ll go home and get ready for next year.”

ESPN insider Buster Olney tweeted shortly after Bloom’s firing that Cora could be a potential candidate to run Boston’s baseball operations — following a similar script as Brad Stevens’ move from Celtics head coach to top executive.

“Kennedy wouldn’t outright rule it out,” Cotillo added in response to Olney’s tweet. “It’s a career path Cora wouldn’t mind pursuing. But it feels like they need an experienced leader who has done it before.”

Cora has plenty of experience with the Red Sox and this market already, and has a good rapport with the team’s top brass.

“That’s something that’s for the future,” Cora said of a career beyond managing, per Cotillo. “My goal here is to keep playing good baseball and help these guys to get better. Everybody knows how I feel about this game and whatever decision we make in the future is based on my family and all that stuff. I think, right now, this is something that we have to talk about as a group, what we want to do.”

Despite Cora’s potential in a new role, Kennedy and the Red Sox might opt for more in the next the head of baseball ops.

“At the end of the day, we need leadership,” Kennedy said. “These are big operations. So we need leadership that can help continue to build the organization from the bottom up, continue to promote and expand processes and procedures, medical, analytics, keeping up with this ever-changing game.

“And leadership that is focused on winning at the big league level. So it’s something we’ve all been trying to do the last several years. And that will be a mandate going forward.”

Cora is no stranger to turnover in the baseball ops department, having gone through it with Boston in 2019 when Dave Dombrowski was fired over the final weeks of the season. Still, that familiarity doesn’t soften a day when a baseball organization opts to wave the white flag on an essential cog in its leadership group.

“Obviously it’s a decision that ownership made. They decided to go this route,” Cora said, per Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe. “We worked together all these years and it’s never easy to hear that. It’s never easy.”

The Red Sox went 267-262 during Bloom’s tenure in Boston, with three last-place finishes standing as a tangible possibility, based on how Cora’s team closes out these last few weeks.

Still, given the tough hand that Bloom was dealt out of the gate in 2020 with both Cora’s season-long suspension and the Mookie Betts trade, Cora empathized with the difficult job that landed on Bloom’s shoulders.

“It was a good relationship. I think we grew up,” Cora said of Bloom. “Obviously, it wasn’t easy for him early on. I made my mistake and we paid the price. I still remember that day. He was the first one there for me.

“We actually had a great conversation Wednesday about the future of the organization and what he envisioned. We grew up a lot the last few years. But it’s like in business, right. You don’t agree with everything that your partners do, right? Or what they think. But at the end of the day, you work together for the benefit of your business. It’s the same thing here.”