42-year-old and current Houston Astros bench coach Alex Cora accepted a three year contract to become the new manger of the Boston Red Sox. Pegged one of the hardest places to manage in professional baseball Cora is not new to Boston. Playing for the Red Sox from the trade deadline at the end of July in 2005, through the 2008 season. Cora was apart of the 2006 Red Sox who failed to make the playoffs following three consecutive 90+ win seasons. He then was apart of the 2007 World Series team which brought Boston their second world series in four seasons starting in 2004(breaking an 86 year drought or better known as “The Curse of the Bambino.”)
Now back to the current day Alex Cora like I mentioned earlier he is the bench coach for the Houston Astros who clinched a spot in the World Series last night. Cora has had a great deal to do with the success of the Astros being one of the youngest coaches in baseball currently he can connect with young players better then older mangers. In game four of the ALDS against the Red Sox Alex Bregman was leading off the 8th inning against Chris Sale, Bregman was 0 for his last 10 had a talk with Cora before heading to the plate. “He came up to me and said, ‘Hey, one at-bat, that’s all that matters,'” Bregman told a reporter. Bregman went on to mention about Cora saying, “One at-bat, that’s it. Have some fun, play the game how you did the beginning of the series.”
Dave Dombrowski who is President of Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox is hoping Cora can give them an injection of youth not only to his coaching staff but the rest of the team. Cora was the Red Sox primary option for the managerial vacancy coming into the off-season. Current Astros manager A.J. Hinch had this too say about Cora when talking to Dombrowski, “one of the brightest baseball intellects that I’ve ever been around.”
This is Cora’s ship now, he will start his new job when the Astros conclude the World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cora will be starting behind the eight ball when it comes to filling out his coaching staff. It should be interesting how Cora approaches this and also how he handles stepping in the shoes of John Farrell the most winningest manger over the last five seasons, and the only manager ever in Red Sox history to win back to back AL East Titles.