The Boston Red Sox fired Alex Cora from his long held position as manager just over six months ago. Cora has in that time declined two offers to return to MLB as the Philadelphia Phillies manager, preferring to stick around his family while he's still being paid by the Red Sox.
Since his firing and some dramatic tweets in the immediate aftermath, Cora has remained quite offline. But he emerged in October to speak with Rob Bradford on the "Baseball Isn't Boring" podcast to give his side of the story of his dismissal. At times, he was blunt about what he felt caused the separation.
"I honestly feel like we got fired, or I got fired because we didn't pitch in the month of April. Simple as that," Cora said. "...We didn't pitch. We were in that situation in April because we didn't pitch, and that was something that I told the coaches before, 'We have to make sure we get it right.'"
The 2026 Sox were a team built on improved pitching and defense because their two biggest impact hitters from the prior season, Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman, were gone. Some brutal starts from Garrett Crochet, who was later revealed to be injured, Brayan Bello, and even a rough outing from Sonny Gray probably contributed to Cora's dismissal, as he said.
Alex Cora credits bad early pitching, vibes at Fenway, lack of belief from Craig Breslow as reasons for his firing from Red Sox
Still, it's shocking to hear Cora speak so plainly about the pitchers' struggles, especially since the offense also looked awful in the early going. The ugly pitching highlighted the limited offense, for which Cora and the coaches fired alongside him were responsible.
Cora mentioned a few other factors that likely also played a part in the Red Sox's decision to let him go. Cora was hired by Dave Dombrowski nearly a decade prior to the start of the 2026 season — Boston was two chief baseball officers removed from Cora's original connection in the front office.
The Red Sox front office also needed a scapegoat after a disappointing offseason and fan upset early in the year. Cora mentioned bad vibes at Fenway Park in April, when players were being booed and "sell the team" chants rang through the stands. The Red Sox didn't make the offseason moves fans hoped for (reuniting with Bregman, signing Pete Alonso or Kyle Schwarber, etc.) and it was reflected in the offense. Given that the product on the field was so horrible, it was easy to blame Cora.
In reality, Cora probably wasn't long for the managing job in Boston anyway. The former Sox skipper noted that he never felt like Breslow or Chaim Bloom's "guy," yet the Red Sox extended him. He said Breslow's belief in Cora and the program had faltered. Cora might not have made it through the final two years of his extension.
Boston's pitchers underperforming only highlighted the issues with the rest of the roster, as well as Breslow's lack of belief that Cora could right the ship. The early struggles with pitching are only part of the story.
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