Red Sox rookie manager Alex Cora off to historic start
Alex Cora’s 15-2 start at the helm of the Boston Red Sox is the best record by a rookie manager at this point of the season in the modern era.
The announcement that Alex Cora had been hired as the next manager of the Boston Red Sox initially came with mixed reviews.
Cora came with the reputation of a being a great communicator, someone who could relate to the young core of this team to bring out the best in them. His personality was the polar opposite of former manager John Farrell, which was reason enough for many fans to sign off on the decision. However, Cora had never managed before at any level outside of Winter Ball. Would his youth and inexperience become a liability to a team with championship aspirations?
The early returns have emphatically shown that Cora is up for the challenge. Not only is he thriving at the helm of the Red Sox, he’s entering uncharted levels of success for a rookie manager.
Boston owns the best record in baseball at 15-2. No other major league team has more than 13 wins or fewer than four losses. Their +60 run differential nearly doubles anyone else and they hold a three-game lead over the surprising Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East.
The Red Sox are only the seventh team to start a season 15-2 or better in the live ball era, which dates back to 1920. The last team to start out this well was the 2003 San Francisco Giants. That team was led by Felipe Alou during his first year in San Francisco. Alou and Cora are the only managers to lead their team to victory in 15 of their first 17 games in their first season with the franchise since at least 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN). Alou had previous experience managing the Montreal Expos, making Cora the only rookie manager to do so.
Critics harped on Boston’s early success by claiming they’ve benefited from an easy schedule that included seven games against the Tampa Bay Rays and two against the Miami Marlins. The Red Sox recovered from a gutwrenching bullpen meltdown on Opening Day to win the rest of their games against those rebuilding teams. Great, so they can beat up on the bottom feeders. How will they fare against a contender?
The answer came in a statement win over the New York Yankees to open their three-game series at Fenway. The Red Sox clobbered Yankees ace Luis Severino en route to a convincing 14-1 victory. Boston took two out of three from their rivals with the only loss occurring in a game when starter David Price left after one inning when he temporarily lost feeling in his pitching hand.
After sweeping the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway, it was off to Los Angles for the first west coast trip of the season. The Angels had won seven straight entering the season and were neck-and-neck with Boston for the American League’s best record. The Red Sox won the first two games of the series by a combined score of 19-1. They’ve already won the series and can feel confident about how this road trip has started regardless of how Thursday night’s game pans out.
Boston is getting it done on both sides of the game. They lead the league in runs scored, batting average and OPS. Home runs were their Achilles heel last year yet they currently rank fourth in the league with 22. That includes four grand slams after they failed to tally any in 2017.
The pitching has been equally as dominant. The Red Sox staff ranks second in the league with a collective 2.66 ERA and third with a 1.11 WHIP. The starting rotation has been even better, producing a major-league best 1.91 ERA and 14 quality starts.
The bullpen gets a bad rap for blowing a win for Chris Sale in the first game of the season. However, their core of relievers hasn’t really been bad. Boston’s bullpen ranks seventh in the AL with a 3.74 ERA. Their third-ranked 3.00 FIP suggests they have been better than their ERA. Boston relievers have combined for 1.0 fWAR, second best in the league.
The lineup has survived a slow start from Andrew Benintendi and a disabled list stint from Xander Bogaerts. The starting rotation was missing Drew Pomeranz and Eduardo Rodriguez to begin the season. The bullpen will get strong with the return of Tyler Thornburg, while Carson Smith will eventually get back on track after missing most of 2017.
It’s impossible for any team to keep up this current pace but there are reasons to believe the Red Sox will improve enough if some areas to offset at least some regression from those off to blistering starts.
How much credit does the manager get for this success? The Red Sox have a loaded roster and the MLB’s highest payroll. Cora inherited a team that has won consecutive division titles. We won’t be able to judge Cora’s managerial debut season until we see how the team performs on the postseason stage.
Yet it’s hard to find fault in anything Cora has done so far. He’s made as great of a first impression as anyone could have hoped for. His philosophy of staying aggressive on pitches in the strike zone has helped fuel the lineup to a torrid start. Cora is pushing all the right buttons managing the pitching staff and they are thriving under his watch.
Most importantly, the players are having fun again. The turmoil that disrupted the clubhouse last year has evaporated into a much more pleasant environment. Cora’s influence has been a significant factor in changing the culture of this team.
Cora won’t enter the conversation of the best managers in franchise history until he wins a World Series title or two. This is a city that counts championships, not wins in April. That takes nothing away from the fact that this is the best start a Red Sox manager has ever had. He still has a ways to go but so far Cora has pushed aside the skeptics and exceeded expectations.
This Red Sox team could be on the path to a special season and if it ends in postseason glory then Cora will have earned his fair share of the credit.