With the regular season upon us, Red Sox manager Alex Cora must finally be ready to reveal his closer for 2019. And the winner is . . .
No one.
"I'm not going to name a closer," Cora told reporters in Seattle, including WEEI.com's Rob Bradford. "I've been saying all along, tomorrow we'll see what we're going to do and I feel fine. I'm OK with it."
A year ago, Cora was blessed with All-Star Craig Kimbrel, who provided ninth inning certainty all season, at least until he turned the playoffs into an adventure. With Kimbrel still unsigned, however, the Red Sox have decided to go in a different direction, and it looks like multiple pitchers will share the role, depending on matchups, with right-handers Matt Barnes and Ryan Brasier the most likely choices.
"I didn't feel that way last year," Cora said. "It's just where we're at and who we have and how we're going to do it. It's obviously different than last year, as far as the personnel. I really do pay attention to other teams and all that, you guys know that, but as far as usage, the only thing I know is how Seattle uses their bullpen. I'm not in-tuned with what other teams are doing in that regard. We'll do it the way we feel we're going to be successful doing it and we'll stick to the plan."
Cora has known this would be his approach since November, and it's fair to say there were times last year when he would've preferred to use Kimbrel earlier in games, except the lifelong closer made it clear he felt more comfortable in the ninth.
"We tried, but it was different, man," Cora said. "(Kimbrel) only pitched one game in spring training and we did it in New York in May, I think it was, and then we did it a few times in the regular season. When it really mattered, when I needed him to pitch the eighth, we used him, it was against Houston, he pitched two innings. I do feel that people get caught up in the whole usage and high leverage and not getting locked in with a closer. Every game is different and every out is different. A high leverage situation for me might be different for you. That's the beauty of the game. There's no black or white."
As an example, Cora cited Game 4 of the World Series, when critics including president Trump criticized Dodgers manager Dave Roberts for lifting Rich Hill too quickly, but Cora escaped after leaving Eduardo Rodriguez in the game just long enough to allow would could've been the game-clinching three-run homer before the Red Sox rallied.
"For everything they talk about DR and he made a mistake taking Hill out of the game, well, I trusted my starter one more pitch and it almost cost us Game 4," Cora said. "That's why I love this game, man. I really enjoy it because all of the situations that came up and we prepare for those situations and last year most of them worked. Some of them didn't work. I think that's the challenge of the manager. I really enjoy that."
So when the ninth inning rolls around on Thursday, if the Red Sox have a lead, Cora will signal his bullpen with confidence. We'll have to wait and see whom he's summoning.
"The bullpen, as last year, and going into the playoffs and going into the offseason and going into tomorrow, it's always been a question mark," he said. "You saw what we did last year. I think stuff-wise, I've been saying all along, in spring training and obviously I think I'm going to be saying it throughout the season, we've got stuff, so it's up to us to find matchups we can exploit and they can maximize their talents. That's how we're going to do it."
