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Alex Cora Hire Seen As Popular Move Within Red Sox Organization

Alex Cora joins Red Sox as manager after a season-long suspension for 2020GETTY IMAGES

The Red Sox reportedly are bringing Alex Cora back as manager just over nine months and one season after agreeing to "part ways amidst a mushrooming scandal," and the decision is "certain to be popular throughout the organization," according to Alex Speier of the BOSTON GLOBE. MLB in April determined that Cora "hadn’t had a role in 2018 rules violations with the Red Sox and thus hit him with a season-long suspension for 2020." In the wake of that decision, Red Sox President & CEO Sam Kennedy suggested that he "believed Cora should get another chance in the game" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/6).

BLOOM DOES A 180: USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale writes bringing Cora back was "not a unanimous decision by any means," and it "may not have even been the choice" of Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom, who just finished his first season on the job. Bloom, asked about Cora on the final day of the season, said, "He’s not on our radar." Nightengale writes Bloom will "now have to explain how he interviewed nine candidates, narrowed it down to three finalists, had his personal favorite in Sam Fuld, and still hired Cora." Cora was the "choice by those who write Bloom’s paychecks" (USA TODAY, 11/6). 

PLAYING THE GAME: Prior to the news of Cora's hiring, the BOSTON HERALD's Jason Mastrodonato argued Cora is "almost certainly the best move" for Bloom’s job security. In the land of baseball execs, "protecting yourself from scrutiny can be not only the path of least resistance, but the path to the longest tenure." If Bloom went "off-book to pass over a World Series-winning manager who is well-liked by the players, owners and fans to hire somebody without a lick of coaching experience who is just three years out of retirement," he would have been "risking too much of his reputation." Any hire that is not Cora would have been a "bold bet that’d risk Bloom’s reputation and potentially speed up the process of his own dismissal" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/6). 

HAD TO BE THIS WAY: MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal said “it would have been extremely difficult” for Bloom “to make any other decision when you had knowledge that ownership supported Cora, fans supported Cora, many members of the media in Boston supported Cora and … players wanted him back.” Rosenthal: “To go in another direction for a head of baseball operations who essentially is still new as Bloom is, that would have been really difficult.” MLB Network’s Peter Gammons: “I give Chaim Bloom a lot of credit. He really understands in a short time how difficult it is to be in Boston. There have been a couple columns written about how all Chaim Bloom wants is to have a manager he can tell what to do during the games the way (it was with) Kevin Cash. Of course, it didn’t have to happen that way, but it sounds good" (“Hot Stove,” MLB Network, 11/6). 

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