BALTIMORE – Hours after their most convincing win of the season, the Red Sox announced a dramatic shakeup that included parting ways with manager Alex Cora and five members of the coaching staff.
The decision comes with the Red Sox off to a disappointing 10-17 start in which most areas of the club have underperformed.
Chad Tracy, the manager for Triple-A Worcester, will be the team’s interim manager, starting with Sunday’s game against the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Hitting coach Pete Fatse, third-base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson and Major League Hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin were also let go.
Game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek has been reassigned to a new role within the organization, details of which will be announced at a later date.
The timing of the news was surprising, if only because the Red Sox had just pulled off an impressive 17-1 win behind ace Garrett Crochet and a finally-revived offense earlier in the day. Saturday's 16-run victory stands as the largest winning margin in any Major League manager’s final game with a team in the Modern Era (since 1900), per the Elias Sports Bureau.
This marks the first time the Red Sox have let go of a manager in-season since they did so to Jimy Williams in August 2001.
Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow will discuss the decision to move on from Cora and several staff members on Sunday morning, in advance of the club’s 1:35 p.m. ET series finale.
Cora, who played for Boston from 2005-08, was hired to manage the club in October 2017.
The Sox won it all in his first season at the helm in ‘18, winning a franchise record of 108 games while rolling through the postseason at an 11-3 clip.
“Alex Cora led this organization to one of the greatest seasons in Red Sox history in 2018, and for that, and the many years that followed, he will always have our deepest gratitude,” Red Sox principal owner John Henry said in a statement. “He has had a lasting impact on this team and on this city. He has led on and off the field in so many important ways. These decisions are never easy, but this one is especially difficult given what Alex has meant to the Red Sox since the day he arrived.
“I want to thank Alex, our coaches, and their families for everything they have given to this organization. They have been part of this club in a way that goes beyond the field, and they will always have our respect and gratitude.”
This was Cora’s eighth season managing the Red Sox, and the club went 620-541 in his tenure.
Cora was suspended by MLB in April 2020 for his role in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal (he was Houston’s bench coach in ‘17), and he and the Red Sox made a mutual decision to part ways before the MLB suspension was officially handed down.
After interviewing several candidates, the Sox, under then-Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, opted to hire Cora back to manage the club in 2021. That was a memorable season in which Boston advanced to the American League Championship Series and lost to the Astros in six games.
In the last four-plus years under Cora, the Red Sox have been inconsistent. Defense and fundamentals have often been an issue, which was a surprise considering those were the two areas Cora excelled at as a player.
Shortly following the All-Star break in ‘24, the Red Sox and Cora agreed to a three-year extension.
Boston made it back to the postseason last season, winning 89 games before being eliminated by the Yankees in an American League Wild Card Series that went the full three games.
Backed by a solid core of young players, the Red Sox felt they were entering a window of contention, as Kennedy and Breslow said at a season-ending press conference last season.
In a somewhat surprising offseason, the Sox doubled down on pitching, adding veteran starters Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez, but didn’t get a big bat even after Alex Bregman went to the Cubs via free agency.
Though they beat the Reds on Opening Day behind Crochet, the Sox got off to a 2-8 start.
They’ve been unable to get on any kind of extended stretch since that initial 10-game pothole, with Cora repeatedly saying the team needed to get back to .500 first, and then aim for bigger goals.
Chad Epperson, the manager at Double-A Portland since 2022, will serve as interim third-base coach. Colin Hetzler, Worcester’s hitting coach, will join the Major League hitting staff, effective immediately.