On April 25, the Boston Red Sox made a wildly unexpected decision when they decided to completely overhaul the coaching staff. The shakeup was primarily driven by the team’s Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow, which saw five specialist coaches and manager Alex Cora being relieved of their duties. Filling the hole left by firing Cora has fallen into the hands of interim manager Chad Tracy, who was the manager for the Triple A Woo Sox.
The total shift in the coaching staff came due to the lackluster 10-17 start to the season of the Red Sox which has placed them at the bottom of the AL East. The move comes at a very strange time as the Sox are coming off of a 17-1 win against the Baltimore Orioles. This game marks Alex Cora’s final appearance as manager of the team.
The news hasn’t been received kindly by the Red Sox fans here at OA. Junior Alex Liapopoulos, a huge fan of the team, had very strong feelings about the changes.
“I feel like it was an awful decision. I feel like the coaches were all amazing and Cora was one of the best in the entire league. I believe that management was just looking to find a scapegoat to blame all their struggles on, even though it wasn’t their fault.” Liapopoulos said. “I was especially surprised since it’s so early in the year. There’s still a solid three, four months of baseball to play. And, getting rid of the guy that you won a World Series with was just really shocking.”
The surprise and unsettled uproar isn’t just contained within the Red Sox fan base. Mr. Goldberg, a lifelong New York Mets fan, agrees that the decision to fire Cora was irrational and shouldn’t have been made.
“No. He’s not the problem. He was working with what he was given. Henry does not want victory, he doesn’t care about winning, he cares about money. Which he’s gonna do anyway with the Red Sox, who sell out every game whether they’re good or bad. And Breslow, the GM or whatever, he makes these like, brash decisions, and clearly is not communicating with anybody or he has such a small circle. Think about Devers last year, that came outta nowhere. Same with the Cora thing.” Goldberg said. “He must have a tight circle. But Cora was not the problem because if anything, he made the dysfunction that is the Red Sox better. I mean, they made the playoffs last year. I could say the same about the dumpster fire that is the Mets. Mendoza should be next to get fired.”
Since the total overhaul of the coaching staff, the Sox have played eight games, with four wins and four losses. This is a slight improvement for the team, but they still remain under .500.
