McAdam: Second-day thoughts on the Alex Cora mess

A dull, uneventful Red Sox offseason just got a lot more interesting -- and only a month away from the start of spring training, too.

Some thoughts about what's taken place and what's ahead.

1. Finding a replacement manager will not be easy.

Tuesday evening's news that Alex Cora was out as manager of the Red Sox couldn't have totally been a surprise. A.J. Hinch was fired by Houston the day earlier, after first being suspended by MLB for the 2020 season, and surely, Cora was facing a longer, stiffer bit of discipline once MLB's investigation into the 2018 Red Sox is completed.

Yes, the Red Sox could have waited, but that seemed like a pointless exercise, with Cora dangling uncomfortably in the interim. So the Sox thought it best to rip the Band-Aid off completely.

Now what?

The Sox could turn to someone like Ron Roenicke as a truly interim choice, but I don't get the sense, capable as he may be, that he would be the club's idea of a long-term solution.

But depending on the timing, the Sox might have to stay with Roenicke for a while -- perhaps even all of 2020. Here's why: undertaking a managerial search in January and February is hardly typical. (Though, of course, the Astros are about to embark on the same). Most managerial hirings come in October or November, the start of the offseason. Teams don't typically stand in the way of coaches or others in their organization leaving, since they have the entire winter to replace the person leaving.

That won't be the case here. Just as spring training gets underway, here come the Red Sox seeking permission to upend your staff.

And there's this: we don't yet know the future of the current coaching staff. Will the Red Sox decide that a clean break is needed from anything and anyone associated with Cora? What if Roenicke is named as Cora's replacement and MLB's investigation later implicates him in the mess, too?

That leaves two other options: someone internal or a manager currently out of work. There are a number of high-profile candidates sitting home (Buck Showalter, Bruce Bochy to name two), but these are generally older options who might not fit with a team as committed to analytics.

2. Wonder if  Chaim Bloom is having second thoughts?

It was bad enough that Bloom got hired by the Red Sox just as the franchise began a bit of fiscal austerity, with a goal of bringing payroll down below the first CBT threshold of $208 million. For a while there, it seemed like Bloom's first big move was going to be trading off Mookie Betts, the best player the Red Sox have developed in decades.

Now that scare has apparently passed, Bloom now has to undertake an unplanned managerial search, and then watch as the Red Sox are stripped of draft picks and money from their signing bonus pool. If the Sox get hit like the Astros, they'll lose significant high-round picks and set the restocking of the farm system back by several years.

None of this mess is Bloom's fault. Any sign-stealing took place well before he was part of the organization, but as the new man in charge of Baseball Operations, he stands to bear the brunt of the penalties. Surely, this is not what he had in mind just a few short months ago when he left Tampa for Boston.

3. The next few days were going to get very awkward for the Red Sox.

The calendar could have factored into the timing of Cora's firing.

On Thursday, Cora was scheduled to meet the media in advance of that evening's annual Boston Baseball Writers Association dinner that night at the Seaport Hotel. Typically, those are rather ordinary sessions, with questions focused on spring training, lineups and the like.

Of course, the pending investigation would have been on everyone's mind. Naturally, Cora would have issued no comment on any of this -- the penalties assessed to the Astros, the firing of his close friend and mentor Hinch, or what may be coming his way when MLB finishes its investigation. But that wouldn't have stopped the questions from being asked.

Even with Cora out, there's still bound to be some awkwardness ahead.

Beginning Friday night, the Sox will start their annual Winter Weekend — a three-day get-together to connect with fans and help generate ticket sales for the upcoming season. Most of the major league roster — with a few notable exceptions, including Betts, Chris Sale and David Price -- will be on hand. And guess what everyone will be asked?

In short, get ready for three days of questions everyone would rather not address.

4. It will be interesting to watch how the rest of baseball reacts to the Red Sox' discipline.

When the Astros were whacked Monday, there undoubtedly was some celebrating being done throughout the game. The Astros have developed a well-earned reputation for arrogance, and though they've won only one World Series, are known to parade around as if they've built some dynasty.

Luhnow was one of the most disliked executives in the game and some, no doubt, enjoyed him getting his comeuppance.

That won't be the case with the Red Sox, who, though they are a big-market behemoth, generally have good relationships throughout the game. Certainly, there will be sympathy for Bloom, who's well-liked, for inheriting this dumpster fire. Cora, too, is well-liked in the game, dating back to his playing days.

Not that that will help lessen the sting of whatever penalty gets assessed. But there will be decidedly less schadenfreude in association with the Red Sox than with the Astros.

5. What was Rob Manfred's role -- if any -- in the firings carried out by the Astros and Red Sox?

This is a question that needs to be asked, even if it's highly unlikely they'll be answered honestly.

Manfred went out of his way to praise Houston owner Jim Crane for his cooperation in MLB's investigation of the Astros, noting that Crane was cooperative while also being uninvolved in the scandal. And within an hour of Manfred's punishments being made public, both Hinch and Luhnow were out.

In Boston, even before Manfred could dig into the Sox, Cora is gone, too.

No one will ever say so, but would it be hard to believe the commissioner could have "strongly advised'' both teams to move on from their implicated personnel? It's easy to believe a conversation beginning with, "I can't tell you what to do here, but it might be a good idea to have a clean slate so this thing doesn't linger over your franchise and the sport in general."