When the Red Sox announced on Friday that Alex Cora was going to once again be the team’s manager, I was having mixed feelings about it.
Obviously as a fan I was happy that the Sox got back the manager who helped lead them to the 2018 World Series title and who by all accounts was a major hit in the locker room with players young and old. I was excited that a guy who has already been here and knows what it means to win was back in the driver’s seat. I was happy that a baseball tactician who is adept in the new ways that the game is being played was back on our side.
But I was also confused, and frankly a little disgruntled about it.
If the Red Sox were going to go through all the trouble of firing an incredibly popular manager for something he did when he was not a part of their organization — remember, Cora’s alleged misdeeds happened when he was the Houston Astros’ bench coach in 2017 — then why bring him back? The reason for letting him go — again, allegedly — was basically just a PR move by the Red Sox to limit the damage to the team’s reputation.
So what does re-hiring him 10 days after his suspension ended doing to their reputation?
Look, I get it. Cora is the right guy for the job and I’m genuinely happy that he is back on the bench in Boston. My issue is with the higher-ups in the organization. If you asked any Red Sox fan back in January — would you rather fire Cora for a year only to re-hire him again or just stick it out and deal with the PR blowback — I’m willing to bet that almost every fan would say let’s keep him and save ourselves the trouble.
After all, what was the point of firing him in the first place?