Due to his wife and other terrible marital problems, Alex Cora sorrowfully announced his retirement unexpectedly, and all his team players broke down in tears, but…
Although Cora and former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom managed some well-known conflicts during the previous season, Cora’s retention was decided weeks before Craig Breslow was even appointed as the team’s new manager. In actuality, Cora was consulted on a few occasions during the hiring procedure.
Considering all of that, it should come as no surprise that viewers will be closely watching Cora and Breslow’s relationship as their first season together develops.
During Breslow’s press conference on Thursday, all the thoughtful words were spoken, and there were hints of future developments.
Over the weekend, Breslow took his initial steps, turning down the club options of pitchers Joely Rodriguez and Corey Kluber. Meanwhile, Justin Turner turned down his player option.
Breslow made a point of reiterating Cora’s managerial stability on Thursday, ahead of the sport’s general managers’ meetings in Arizona this coming week.
Breslow declared, “He will unquestionably be the manager of the 2024 season. I have a longstanding relationship with him, and I have great admiration and appreciation for him.” “We were teammates for a longer period of time than I would like to recall, but I’m eager to continue our relationship.”
However, in that same response, which purported to be about setting up advantageous player matchups in-game, Breslow made a suggestion that a more significant role played in some of those choices.
“To make sure that we’re doing that and making sure that we’re not leaving wins on the table, it involves synthesizing the real-time feedback that we would be getting from our coaches and players who are interacting with each other every single day,” he stated. Does this imply that we will have a say in how decisions are made? Indeed. They ought to as well. We ought to be working together as a team and sort of influencing one another.
Cora, who has a one-year contract extension with Boston, believes that having a say in hiring has benefited him as a manager and in making a range of decisions. In terms of how other baseball operations heads go about their work, it was a learning experience for him.
Whatever happens, Alex Cora will be Craig Breslow’s first manager with the Red Sox. (USA Today/Charles LeClaire)
“It helped me throughout the process to talk to other executives and see how they see the game and how they envision a winning ballclub,” Cora remarked. “I really think it improved me. Bres has impressed me with his approach to things. He has a soothing influence on you. Evidently articulate. He’s stated certain things that I don’t know what he means, but I’ll simply go along with it.
“But aside from that, he’s passionate,” Cora went on. “He is concerned. We don’t worry about the Red Sox, is one of the things I’ve learned during the past few weeks of this process. He contributes to the Red Sox every day, which is something we care about.
Breslow made 13 big league appearances in 2006 and did not play in a big league game in 2007, so Cora observed that their playing time together was so little that he can’t recall much. But they’ve begun to focus on developing their relationship after meeting with Breslow throughout the interview process and in a more official setting during the last ten days or so after the appointment was revealed.
According to Cora, “it was more about the vision of a winning team.” “The organization’s goal, the pitching structure’s goal, the manager’s collaboration, and the head of baseball operations.”
Breslow will lead the charge there given his experience in the field, Cora noted as the Red Sox assembled their coaching staff, with a special need for a pitching coach. However, he also made sure to mention that the current coaching staff has been working hard since the season’s conclusion to enhance their ability to communicate when interacting with players.
It’s the coaching staff as well as the players and front office. These individuals need to be pushed to improve, Cora stated. “We’ve been working really hard over the past few weeks to get them into a position where they will challenge themselves to get better in specific areas during the summer. Occasionally, you can obtain (better) through trades, occasionally through free agency, but most of the time, you can improve them with the players you already have on staff. Over the course of the past month, we have realized that. Bres will undoubtedly add a few things in the next few days or weeks to help our players get better, but we still need to carry out the strategy.
