FORT MYERS, Fla. - Alex Cora isn't oblivious to what is going on.
The Red Sox manager sees the moving and shaking of teams throughout the American League when it comes to player acquisition, while his club remains relatively quiet on the free agent front.
"One hundred percent," said Cora when asked Friday morning about his awareness of the activity throughout baseball front offices.
"G-Rich (Garrett Richards) signed with Texas. I saw that. Martín’s (Martin Perez) in Texas. Brad Miller’s in Texas. I know everything that's going on. Like I said before, in this division, with all due respect to the other ones, you got four good teams. And the cool thing about this, right, is a different set of rules now in the tournament, right? It's not that you just, whatever, a little more strategy or whatever it is, or that now we can just sit back and just play decent baseball and make it. No, you still have to probably win 92-plus most likely to make it to October. But, understanding the division, understanding that you're going to be banging heads the whole season with this team like this division, I feel like it's the same way as last year – nobody's gonna run away with it. Although the Rays did, right? I was surprised about that. But then the other three teams are right there. So I expect the same thing. Here, we don't talk about the Orioles, but you saw them towards the end of the season last year with the pitching, they have a pretty good idea what they’re doing over there. They did a good job against us. So gotta keep improving. If you ask Cashy (Kevin Cash) today, he'll say the same thing. If you ask (Aaron Boone) Boonie, he’ll say the same thing, and Charlie (Montoyo) will say the same thing. It’s just the best division in baseball and you better keep getting better."
So, where does it all leave the Red Sox?
In the words of Michael Myers' Saturday Night Live character, "Middle-Aged Man" ... They are working on it.
"Still working," Cora said. "We’re still talking to people. We’re still recruiting. We'll see, which is important. We'll see. We’ll see. I do believe we're going to add, but we’ve just got to be patient, like I said before."
It challenge of chasing players has added a whole new level to Cora's mid-March existence, with his responsibilities stretching beyond just the usual spring training work day.
"I mean, it’s been different," he said. "Since they gave us the green light, it’s a lot of phone calls, not only with other free agents, but with our players and seeing where they’re at and everything. It's been a lot different. Yesterday I got home, what? 6, 6:30? Usually the game is over, you do the media, come here, talk to you guys, and then you go home. But now there's more going on. I’ll take it."
For Cora's entire morning press conference listen here ...