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Alex Cora might not be unemployed long, with Phillies looming as possibility

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There’s no time for Alex Cora to file for unemployment.

He might not even have time to get back to Fenway Park to clean out his office.

Cora, who was fired Saturday by the Boston Red Sox, is going to be managing again, and quickly.

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Who knows, he could be managing the Philadelphia Phillies by the time they return home Tuesday to face the San Francisco Giants, and yes, former Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers.

The Phillies, of course, already have a manager in Rob Thomson.

They also have a team that’s grossly underachieving, with the worst record in the National League, and on a 10-game losing streak entering play Saturday night against Atlanta.

It was a bit of a surprise that the Phillies kept Thomson after last season when they were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs again, signing him to an extension through 2027.

The Phillies didn’t think it would be fair to dump him. He led the Phillies to the postseason four consecutive years. He is well-liked. He is respected by the players and front office.

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And Cora was still employed by the Red Sox.

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The worst-kept secret in baseball is that Dombrowski loves Cora from their days together in Boston, hiring him in 2017 and winning the World Series a year later.

While Dombrowski expressed his public support of Thomson three days ago, and insisted that his job is safe, Dombrowski didn’t realize that Cora was about to be fired.

If Cora had not signed his three-year, $21.75 million contract extension last summer, Cora likely would have managing the Phillies at the start of this season.

Now that Cora, 50, is available, the Phillies must quickly decide whether they want to remain patient with Thomson, wait until the end of the season to determine whether they want to pivot to Cora, or do they make a move now.

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And if they do wait, what’s the chances Cora will still be unemployed?

You don’t think the New York Mets are asking themselves whether they should hire Cora now, and part with Carlos Mendoza?

You believe the Houston Astros will simply still stick with Joe Espada without making a call to Cora, their bench coach when they won the 2017 World Series championship, to at least gauge his interest?

Really, Cora, with a 620-541 career record, is the one with all of the power.

He still is being handsomely paid through 2027, and can just hang out in Boston with his family.

He can wait until the season is over, sit back, with a larger assortment of job opportunities to choose.

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Or he can jump right back in the saddle, take a job now, and show the Red Sox just how foolish they are to dump him, along with five members of his coaching staff: hitting coach Peter Fatse, third-base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson and major-league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin.

And, oh, wouldn’t Dombrowski, fired himself by the Red Sox in 2019 — just 10 months after winning the World Series — love to stick it to the Red Sox.

Surely, Cora’s firing wasn’t solely about the win-loss record. The Red Sox were 11-16 the following year after winning the World Series and weren’t contemplating firing Cora. They were 10-17 in 2022 and Cora was still safe. They hovered around .500 each of the last three seasons after 27 games and no worries.

Never since John Henry and Tom Werner bought the team in 2002 have they fired a manager during the season.

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Only now was there an issue, likely philosophical differences that couldn’t be overcome between Cora and Craig Breslow, president of baseball operations, who heavily integrated Driveline philosophies into the organization.

“We got a bunch of kids that are learning the game,’’ Cora said Friday. “It’s my job to keep teaching them the game.’’

Yep, not quite a ringing endorsement for the Red Sox’s player development folks, with a major-league team that ranked last in homers (15) and slugging percentage (.335), and a pitching staff that was 27th in ERA (5.31).

If this was simply a matter of wins and losses, there’s no chance Cora would have been fired after their biggest victory of the season, 17-1 over the Baltimore Orioles.

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The Red Sox actually had decided to fire Cora on Friday, and if their game Saturday wasn’t moved up four hours because of the threat of rain, Cora would have been fired Friday night or even Saturday morning. They simply couldn’t get Chad Tracy, the interim manager from Triple-A Wooster, Massachusetts, and his coaches into Baltimore quickly enough for the early start.

So, Cora stayed one final game.

And makes history, becoming the first manager to be fired after winning a game by at least 16 runs since the New York Metropolitans fired Bob Ferguson after and 18-2 victory over the Cleveland Spiders on May 30, 1887, according to Sportradar.

He leaves a winner, and becomes the latest champion to depart a dysfunctional organization, joining the likes of executive Theo Epstein, manager Terry Francona, and yes, Dombrowski.

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Cora will be back.

He’ll be winning again.

And, yes, will get that last laugh.

Follow Bob Nightengale on X and Bluesky.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alex Cora might have options after Red Sox firing

Read the full article here

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