The Boston Red Sox have officially been eliminated from playoff contention, and they will miss the postseason for the fifth time in the last six years. There's plenty of blame to go around, and at least some of it belongs to manager Alex Cora.
To Cora's credit, however, he didn't pull any punches or try to sugarcoat the Red Sox's latest choke job when speaking to the media following his team's 6-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays Wednesday.
“Our goal was to make it to the playoffs," Cora said (via Ian Browne of MLB.com). "It didn’t happen ... At one point it felt like we were a playoff-caliber team, and then we missed the opportunity. Let’s put it that way. You look around, you look at the teams that are fighting, we had it right there and we blew it."
Yes, the 2024 Red Sox overcame plenty of adversity – namely, a banged up pitching rotation and lengthy injuries to Triston Casas and Trevor Story – to exceed expectations by playing meaningful baseball into the final week of September and capture an 80-win season. But there's no room for moral victories here. Cora's right; his club had a legitimate shot at reaching the postseason, and they didn't deliver.
"At one point, we felt like we were a playoff caliber team, and then we missed the opportunity."
— NESN (@NESN) September 26, 2024
Alex Cora reflects on the season following elimination pic.twitter.com/9VKnnz64Xh
Alex Cora's comments on Red Sox missing playoffs should set the standard for 2025 and beyond
Cora's right about another thing, too; the Red Sox did look like a playoff-caliber team early in the season. But they played their worst baseball at the worst time, posting a 27-36 record after the All-Star Break. Their bullpen imploded, their starting rotation hit a wall, and their offense disappeared.
It could have been different. It should have been different.
The failed 2024 season marks a huge missed opportunity for the Red Sox, and it surely won't sit well with Cora or the rest of the clubhouse. The Red Sox have a plethora of talented prospects coming up through the system and the pieces to be a legitimate contender in 2025, and the expectation moving forward is that they should be just that; nothing less.
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