What was true on Oct. 28, 2018 is still true nearly two years after the Red Sox’ last world championship: Alex Cora is the perfect person on planet Earth to manage the Boston Red Sox.
And with no offense intended to new skipper Ron Roenicke, who seems like the nicest of fellows, Cora looks more like the second coming of Casey Stengel with every new Sox loss in 2020.
Come to think of it, Bobby Valentine is starting to look like a savant.
Sure, Roenicke is low on the 2020 Sox list of issues. Yes, with this starting rotation they’re underdogs at least three nights out of five.
But let’s not forget what the right Boston manager looked like. He looked like Cora. An A-plus communicator who related to players, was in harmony with analytics, pushed the right buttons and simply got results.
Yes, Cora helped cheat in Houston in 2017 and he probably wasn’t as innocent in 2018 as Rob Manfred’s report made him seem. But the personality, leadership, and intelligence of Cora on display over his two years at the helm were real, and they were impactful.
Roenicke, when he’s not sounding downright depressed with each passing Zoom call, looks like a guy who’s lost. Lost in forcing analytics to try to make new boss Chaim Bloom happy, and lost in finding ways to inspire his players.
Hey, I’m sure pre- and post-game communication with the starting-9 using masks in clubhouses ain’t what it used to be, but Roenicke basically admits that he barely interacts with the guys.
Glenn Ordway of WEEI’s OMF asked him Wednesday if he feared that his players might start throwing in the towel with the record plummeting, and Roenicke replied: “Well, I feel really good about our players that they’re going to grind out no matter what the situation is.”
Forgive me if I don’t share the same faith.
The year 2020 has seen Roenicke use 12 different lineups for 12 different games, with players platooning and rotating so much getting hot isn’t possible. Isn’t this supposed to be a sprint not a marathon? Where’s the sense of urgency? One night Kevin Pillar was mashing, the next he was sitting.
Star hitter J.D. Martinez has leaked some frustration at hitting second in the lineup. Rafael Devers, whose defense was always an important issue to Cora, seems to be regressing in the field. Andrew Benintendi is a hot mess at the plate. Ryan Weber is remaining the team’s third starter despite results screaming that anything else is better; and at the very least Weber should never have been allowed to pitch to Aaron Judge in the third inning Friday night at Yankee Stadium.
Numbers seem to be ruling moves without the in-game feel that made Roenicke a success as bench-boss in Milwaukee. On Tuesday Mitch Moreland was pinch-hit for in the sixth inning after launching a home-run earlier in the game, only to see the then-.143 hitting Michael Chavis meekly ground out to strand a runner. Was Roenicke trying to impress Bloom?
But the more important question actually is, does Bloom like Cora?
I asked our in-house baseball guru Lou Merloni that very query on The Greg Hill Show this week. Merloni said, “That is pretty much what it comes down to. I would say the players want him back. I know the media really liked him, the way he communicated. And I think Alex Cora wants to come back, wants to be part of that interview process.”
Merloni continued: “Does Chaim Bloom want a fresh start? Let’s face it, this year is not really his first year; it doesn’t feel like anything. The man walked into an absolute mess. So, does he want to start new? Does he have his eye on a guy in a system that fits what he’s looking for? The only reason why Alex Cora won’t be back here is that Bloom wants something different, and doesn’t want to go backwards.”
That’s mostly encouraging to hear, but a few previous Bloom answers scare me that he does indeed want to avoid the Cora reunion in 2021.
In May, Bloom told OMF: “The reason we parted ways with Alex was not because we were presuming any involvement or any guilt into the investigation into the Red Sox; we were reserving judgment on that just like we were asking our fans to. It was because of what went on in Houston, his role in that and how we felt that impacted his ability to lead our club. All of that is obviously still true. [Cora] is not a part of the thought process at all. It’s not on our radar. We have a manager, we have a really good manager who we like.”
This week Bloom told ESPN’s Joon Lee that “no one person is all of an organization” when discussing Cora’s “mutual parting of ways” in January of 2020.
When pressed recently what he likes about Roenicke, Bloom has twice answered that he appreciated how he handled pre-Covid Spring Training. Great. Is that the list?
Here’s hoping that list is bare because Cora is already manager-in-waiting as soon as his one-year suspension ends. Sox ownership explained in January that Cora would have been a distraction if they’d kept him with the organization, and that’s true. At this point not bringing him back is the bigger distraction. We know what the perfect fit looks like, and every manager that isn’t Cora will be judged against that 108-54 utopia of 2018.
In that sense, Bloom really has no choice when this bizarre season whimpers to a conclusion: #FreeCora.