Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
BOSTON — Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who rode a roster with Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers and Chris Sale to the most successful season in franchise history and then struggled to win with the discount lineups that replaced them, was fired on Saturday with Boston again mired in last place in the AL East.
Cora, who was an infielder on the Red Sox 2007 World Series championship team and managed them to a franchise-record 108 wins and another title in '18, will be replaced on an interim basis by Chad Tracy. A career minor leaguer whose father, Jim Tracy, served as a big league manager for 11 seasons with the Dodgers, Pirates and Rockies, Chad Tracy had been managing Boston's Triple-A Worcester affiliate in the International League.
"Alex Cora led this organization to one of the greatest seasons in Red Sox history in 2018, and for that, and the many years that followed, he will always have our deepest gratitude," owner John Henry said in a statement. "He has had a lasting impact on this team and on this city. He has led on and off the field in so many important ways."
The Red Sox (10-17) made the announcement Saturday after a 17-1 victory in Baltimore over the Orioles that snapped a four-game losing streak — including a three-game sweep at Fenway Park by the archrival New York Yankees.
The team said it is also parting ways with five members of the coaching staff: hitting coach Peter Fatse, third base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin.
Game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek, the widely respected former Red Sox captain who was the catcher for three of the franchise's four World Series titles this century, has been reassigned to an unspecified role within the organization.
A light-hitting infielder who spent three-plus seasons in Boston as a player, Cora was an Astros bench coach when Houston won it all in 2017. The Red Sox hired him to replace John Farrell, giving Cora his first major league managing job.
In his first season, the Red Sox set a franchise record for wins and beat the hated Yankees and then the Astros in the American League playoffs. Boston then defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games to claim a fourth World Series title in 15 years.
The Red Sox finished third in the AL East the next season, missing the playoffs for the first time in five years. Then, during the offseason, The Athletic reported Cora had been a ringleader of an illegal sign-stealing scheme with the Astros during their championship season.
Major League Baseball investigated and suspended Cora for one season, and the Red Sox and Cora agreed he should step down. Ron Roenicke replaced him — an arrangement that from the beginning, despite all parties' protestations, seemed to smooth the way for Cora's eventual return.
Roenicke never had a chance, taking over a team that would soon go on a salary dump that purged Betts, the 2018 AL MVP, along with 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner David Price. After a last-place finish in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Roenicke was let go and Cora returned.
The Red Sox reached the playoffs again in his first season back, beating the Yankees in the AL wild-card game and Tampa Bay in a Division Series to reach the ALCS, where they lost to the Astros. Boston has not won a playoff series since, finishing last in back-to-back years before returning to the postseason last season and losing to the Yankees in the wild-card round.
Bogaerts, a four-time All-Star in Boston, was not re-signed after the 2022 season. Sale, who battled injuries throughout his final seasons in Boston, was traded to Atlanta and rejuvenated his career with the Braves in 2024, winning the NL Cy Young Award. The Red Sox did give Devers a 10-year, $313.5 million contract, but traded him away when he balked at changing positions to make room for free agent third baseman Alex Bregman.
Bregman left after one season, leaving Boston with neither. This season Caleb Durbin has started 24 games at third base; he is batting .165 after hitting his first home run of the year Saturday off outfielder Weston Wilson.
In all, Cora was 620-541 as Red Sox manager. He was the first big league manager let go this season.
According to Sportradar, Cora is the first manager to get fired after winning a game by 16 or more runs since the New York Metropolitans fired Bob Ferguson following an 18-2 win over the Cleveland Spiders in the second game of a doubleheader on May 30, 1887.
The Metropolitans folded after that season.
"These decisions are never easy, but this one is especially difficult given what Alex has meant to the Red Sox since the day he arrived," Henry's statement said. "I want to thank Alex, our coaches, and their families for everything they have given to this organization. They have been part of this club in a way that goes beyond the field, and they will always have our respect and gratitude."
Tracy, 40, had a 323-295 record at Worcester while managing the club to winning seasons in each of his first four years — the first Red Sox Triple-A manager to accomplish that feat since at least the 1930s. The WooSox are tied for first place in the International League East with a 14-11 record.
A catcher at Pepperdine, Tracy led the West Coast Conference with a .367 batting average in 2005 and was the league's player of the year. He was a third-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 2006 but never made it out of the minors, batting .267 with 159 home runs and 706 RBIs in nine seasons.
Chad Epperson, who had been managing the club's Double-A Portland affiliate in the Eastern League, will serve as the interim third base coach. Collin Hetzler, who had been Worcester's hitting coach, will join the major league hitting staff in Boston.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
