The Boston Red Sox have fired manager Alex Cora, the club announced on Saturday. Also out are five members of Cora’s coaching staff — bench coach Rámon Vazquez, hitting coach Peter Fatse, third base coach Kyle Hudson, assistant hitting coach Dylan Lawson, and hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. As well, game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek has been reassigned within the organization.
Chad Tracy, 40, will serve as interim manager. Tracy had been manager of the Red Sox’s top affiliate in Worcester since 2022.
The move comes after Boston’s 17-1 blowout win over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday. However, the win pushed the Red Sox to just 10-17 on the season. They remain in last place in the American League East and are 7½ games behind the first-place New York Yankees. The Yankees swept the Red Sox at Fenway Park earlier this week.
Cora, 50, had been roughly in the middle of a three-year, $21.75 million contract extension that he signed in the summer of 2024. He was in his second stint as Red Sox manager. In his debut season as a big-league manager, Cora guided the Red Sox to a World Series title in 2018 and then another winning campaign in 2019.
In January of 2020, however, the club fired Cora for his role in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal during his tenure on the coaching staff. Cora returned to manage the team again prior to the 2021 season. In his first season back in the Boston dugout, the Sox won 92 games and advanced to the ALCS. After that, a rebuild followed, and the Sox under Cora endured back-to-back losing seasons before reaching .500 in 2024. Last season, Boston claimed a wild card berth before falling to the rival Yankees in the first round.
Alex Cora managerial record
|
2018 |
108-54 |
Won World Series |
|
2019 |
84-78 |
|
|
2021 |
92-70 |
Lost ALCS |
|
2022 |
78-84 |
|
|
2023 |
78-84 |
|
| 2024 | 81-81 | |
| 2025 | 89-73 | Lost Wild Card Series |
| 2026 | 10-17 | N/A |
Big expectations surrounded the Red Sox this season, as they combined an impressive young core with targeted winter additions like Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Caleb Durbin, and multiple relievers. The results, though, haven’t met those expectations, and that’s what cost Cora his job after parts of eight seasons as Boston manager. Over that span, Cora’s teams went a combined 620-541 (.534) with one division title and three playoff berths. In the playoffs, Cora went 18-10.
