The decision to fire Alex Cora as manager of the Boston Red Sox was recommended by chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, team president Sam Kennedy said Sunday.
"Craig leads our baseball operations, and he's made several bold decisions and recommendations. This was one of them, and we fully support it. That's why we took the action we took yesterday," Kennedy said.
— Foul Territory (@bsbls885) April 26, 2026
Following Saturday's 17-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles, the team dismissed Cora and five members of his coaching staff and reassigned former player and game-planning coach Jason Varitek to a new role within the organization.
The coaching shuffle comes amid a tough start to the 2026 campaign for the Red Sox, who are last in the AL East with a 10-17 record despite being projected as a playoff team during the preseason. They promoted Chad Tracy, who was managing Boston's Triple-A affiliate, to fill Cora's spot in an interim role.
"By acting today, it gives us 135 games ahead of us, so we've got almost a full season's worth of run to take advantage of this fresh start and ultimately to compete for a division and deep postseason run in the way that we talked about it and envisioned and believed heading into spring training," Breslow said, according to ESPN.
He added, "We believe in the group of players that we have in the clubhouse, down the hallway, and we believe that a new direction is warranted - new voices and something that enables us to take a fresh start."
Boston's front office held a short meeting with the team Sunday morning, but players weren't invited to ask questions about the personnel moves.
"They made it very clear that we get paid to play baseball and we need to just focus on playing baseball," reliever Garrett Whitlock said, according to The Boston Globe's Tim Healey.
Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story, who's in his fifth season with the franchise after signing a six-year, $140-million contract in 2022, didn't seem happy with the coaching changes.
"It's up in the air what the true direction of the franchise is," Story said, according to ESPN. "Some of the best coaches in the world didn't get a fair shot."
