Alex Cora is back. Here’s why the Boston Red Sox reunion will — or won’t

Nine months after the Boston Red Sox and their manager Alex Cora split following revelations about his involvement in the Houston Astros scandal, the two parties reconciled.

The last place of the season shortened by KOVID-19 meant that Ron Roynke’s skipper’s match could not be continued until 2021. Boston abruptly terminated Cora Friday after his previous 27-month term when he was involved in a major league baseball investigation. Cora was trainer at a bank in Houston in 2017.

The lease marks the end of a year of speculation about the position of the team captain, who focused on whether Cora would return to the team after a seasonal suspension. Cora won the World Series title in 2018 at the Red Sox and became one of the most popular characters in Boston.

Although his absence from the team was only brief, something has changed. That’s why reunification will work, and why not.

Why it will work

He’s popular with the players.

After Cora’s resignation in January, the Red Sox players showed a supportive spirit. Xander Bogarts, winner of the All-Star Short Stop, club leader and one of the longest-sitting members of the team, clearly expressed his feelings about Korea.

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I’ve talked to him a couple of times [since the news]. It’s just sad. It’s just sad that he’s not our manager, Bogarts said two days after Cora’s version. As I said before, only the person he was before us cannot have anyone in this club who has problems with him or anything bad to say about him.

Red Sox left behind Eduardo Rodriguez also gave exuberant praise. My brother, more than my manager, you have been a friend, a pan and a counselor during these two years, I learned a lot from you, thank you for everything, thank you for those ears, as they say in Venezuela, that are part of everything I learned from you, that Rodriguez put on Instagram at the time. From now on, I wish you and your family the best in the world.

This is the unbeliever / outsider Michael Chavis: Alex was so sincere and kind to me. It was clearly my first time in the Major League and I tried to learn as much as I could. I was nervous. It made me feel good about myself.

He’s very popular with Boston fans.

Fans have long complained about the return of the 45-year-old director after his suspension. And after Renike was fired and the search intensified, they went on social media to inform the team’s main baseball player, Chaim Bloom.

if the Red Sox hire anyone other than Alex Cora, I’m gonna be so insufferable, I promise…

– Sarah Griffin (@skg_18) 5. November 2020.

If Chaim Bloom doesn’t hire Alex Cora, it will be the second worst decision the Red Sox will make in 2020.

– Jessica (@Guertin11) 5. November 2020.

He knows how to deal with Boston pressure.

While creating a strong club culture and winning fans, Cora also managed Boston’s voracious media and always met Boston’s expectations with aplomb.

Boston is a challenge for many people, but not for me, Cora told reporters at its opening press conference in October 2017. This is a city that… I think they play baseball 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But you know what? I come from a country that… we live in baseball 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In my family, we talk about baseball for breakfast. For lunch we also talk about baseball and dinner.

While many players and managers (hello, Bobby Valentine) struggled with Fenway Park’s local and national perspective, Cora remained calm – and it didn’t hurt her to win the world championship in her first season.

Why it doesn’t work

If there is frontal friction…

The most important question that raised some doubts about Cora’s return: Want to hire Bloom Cora or his own girlfriend? In the Boston interview, Philadelphia coordinator Phyllis Sam Fuld, who is connected to Bloom through Tampa Bay and is considered Bloom’s favorite, Pittsburgh Pirates coach Don Kelly, New York Yankees coach Carlos Mendoza and Miami Marlin’s bank coach James Rawson, advanced to the second round.

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Throughout the 2020 season Bloom danced on the theme of Cora’s return.

It was shocking and very sad because I had and still have a lot of respect for Alex and I know how much people here love him and they just think about him, Bloom told ESPN in August. It was of course a great shock to know that we are in a different world and that we are moving forward with this world, and that really changes a lot. At the same time, no one is an organization.

Mr. Bloom only praised Cora’s management talent, but he will probably wonder why the process of reintegrating the popular skipper took so long.

No Mookie bed.

If the trophy of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ World Series in 2020 wasn’t enough of a reminder, we’ll do it again: Mookie Betts is still not on the list. The main difference between the talent of the 2019 team, which Cora left behind, and the 2021 team that he will lead next season, is the absence of a superstar in the right field, wandering through the vast green spaces of Fenway Park.

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The Betts deal has caused an unprecedented anger among Red Sox fans lately, as Boston has sent one of the most talented and popular national players in the history of the franchise to Los Angeles, where he immediately contributed to the championship. Bloom and his front office hope that the talent pool received in return, including outfielder Alex Verdugo, will contribute in addition to their salary, while the lack of big money associated with a player like Betts will provide more flexibility to improve the team.

Still, fans of Boston Mookie will not soon forget, and his absence is still at stake.

No manager can change the launch personnel on his own initiative.

A manager can’t just do what he wants. Boston is currently facing a significant shortage of pitching talent. Ace Chris Sale is currently recovering from Tommy John’s surgery, while Rodriguez is still recovering from myocarditis, a heart condition he developed after being diagnosed with Covid-19.

In 2020, Boston became the third largest baseball team in the ERA with a score of 5.58, only behind the Colorado Rocks (5.59) and the Detroit Tigers (5.63). Now that his manager is in place, Bloom has a lot of work to do to strengthen the line-up on the field to make the team a contender again.