On Thursday, Red Sox manager Alex Cora made his weekly visit with WEEI Afternoons, facing a ton of questions surrounding the state of his baseball team as they sit at 27-31 heading into the final weekend in May.
In the midst of a five-game losing streak, something has to change for Boston.
And for a segment of both the fanbase and local media, they feel that change needs to be at the managerial position.
“We're not going to come out of the gates with a softball,” said WEEI’s Andy Hart. “But the reality of the season is the reality of the season. We've all been around sports a long time, and when underachievement occurs or expectations aren't met, there's usually a fall guy, a shake up.
“We've seen it in baseball already, with managers hitting coaches getting fired. So I just want to be respectful in asking this, but with the underachievement, are you and/or your staff sort of feeling the pressure in terms of job security?”
“No, not really,” said Cora. “You know, from my end, you know? I actually don't ask coaches about that, you know? I just ask them to do their best on a daily basis. But I can answer that question personally - no.
“You know, I feel like every day we go out there, we're doing our best, you know? It hasn't happened for us. You know, you look at the season and having conversations with some people this morning, it’s like, ‘Man, it's a weird one, right?’ Because it feels like you are in every game, but it's not going your way. So, you know, this is a tough stretch for us, for me as a manager, and we just got to be ready for tomorrow. We got a big series coming up here in Atlanta, and hopefully we can win two out of three, or sweep it, and get this bad taste out of our mouth.”
Respect to Cora for taking the question head on. And despite how uncomfortable it might be, it’s a fair one to be asking at the moment.
With so many of these losses of late coming in one-score games or in walk-off fashion, there are a handful of in-game decisions that can be pointed directly back at Cora that give you pause as to whether or not he should be the man in charge of this ballclub moving forward.
Add in the off-the-filed mishandling of the situation around Rafael Devers refusing to play the field after whining about moving to DH during Spring Training, a seemingly laissez-faire attitude towards the potential call-up of Roman Anthony, and the musical chairs he has continued to play with Kristian Campbell while he works through the worst hitting slump of his life, and there’s enough meat on the bone to at least have the conversation before things really spiral out of control for the 2025 Red Sox.
On a micro level, Cora needs to figure out a way to stem the tide for a team that’s already 9 ½ games out of first place in the AL East.
On a macro level, Cora’s record since losing in the 2021 ALCS is 264-280, with 0 playoff appearances and fewer Red Sox fans in the stands by the year.
Things need to change for the 2018 World Series winning manager, and they need to change sooner rather than later.
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