Red Sox maintain that ownership didn't dictate Cora's rehiring

It may have been obvious to most that Red Sox ownership and upper management were rooting for the return of Alex Cora. But that doesn't mean that they called the shot on his rehiring.

"As we said back at the end of the season, we brought in Chaim (Bloom for a reason), '' said team president Sam Kennedy as the Red Sox re-introduced Cora as their manager again following his departure in January and his subsequent season-long suspension by Major League Baseball.

"He and (GM Brian O'Halloran and assistant general managers Eddie Romero, Raquel Ferreira and Zack Scott) ran this process and did a great job running the process and keeping me and (ownership) informed throughout. We were very pleased, obviously, with the outcome, given how excited we are to have Alex back.''

Cora was ineligible to even speak with the Red Sox -- or any other franchise -- about working again in MLB until after the World Series was completed, signifying the official end of the 2020 season, and with it, his suspension for his involvement with the 2017 Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.

Before the Series ended, the Sox had already discussed their managerial opening with a host of candidates, some multiple times. The Sox considered Pittsburgh Pirates bench coach Don Kelly, Miami Marlins bench coach James Rowson, Chicago Cubs coach Will Venable, Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach Luis Urueta, New York Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza, San Diego Padres associate manager Skip Schumaker, Minnesota Twins bench coach Mike Bell and Philadelphia Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld.



As the field winnowed down and some candidates were eliminated, Bloom reached out to Cora.

At the very least, he wanted to speak to the former manager himself. A talk turned into a phone call, and that, in turn, turned into a visit (with O'Halloran) to Cora's home in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

First, Bloom wanted some answers on what happened with the Astros. He went into the interview without any pre-conceived notions. He knew of Cora's reputation and understood his skill set. But he needed to have the banks filled in for himself.

Cora and Bloom had only worked together for a brief period over last winter, but the more the two talked, the more Bloom began to see what had made Cora so successful in 2018 and why others in the organization held him in such high esteem.

The call came down to Cora or Fuld, who Bloom had known from their time together with the Tampa Bay Rays. Fuld is widely seen as an intelligent and innovative baseball mind and will probably manage in the big leagues.

But the more Bloom thought it over, the harder it became to pass up a chance to bring Cora back. On his own.

"I've seen some of the stuff out there and I'm not sure anybody's going to believe me, but I'll tell you the truth anyway,'' Bloom said, tackling the perception that Cora was forced upon him head-on. "It was obviously important, since (owners John Henry, Tom Werner and Mike Gordon, along with Kennedy) are responsible for the organization, for me to know how they felt. And to understand that if it was something Baseball Operations saw fit to do, that it was something they would support. Obviously, if that weren't the case, it would have been a very different process.

"Not only did I think it was appropriate, but I actually think it was necessary to know how they felt. They also made sure that I knew that if I or Baseball Ops felt differently, that that was OK, too. But I think that's important, given how big a decision this is for the organization, to know how the people who are responsible for the organization would feel. From that point on, we kept them looped in on where we stood, who we were interviewing, what stage of the process we were at. But they were emphatic that this was a Baseball Ops decision and that they would fully back whatever decision we came to.''

Coincidence or not, Bloom eventually landed on the same spot where ownership already stood.