Don’t look now but the Boston Red Sox are becoming a legitimate contender to make a run at the postseason in the American League. Beyond sweeping a three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, the Sox have won eight of their last 10 and currently stand one game out of the final wild card spot.
Still, Boston fans have to wonder whether the team’s performance in June will translate to a different strategy at the trade deadline or a more aggressive approach in re-signing manager Alex Cora, whose contract is set to expire after the season.
Amid all those narratives surrounding the team, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy joined The Greg Hill Show for “The Front Office Report” Thursday morning on WEEI. Listen to the full interview above.
“We’ve been playing really good baseball in June,” Kennedy said, “It's been really fun to see and rewarding and just a credit to everybody down there. [It’s] been really great. We're still a long way to go, but we're feeling good about the last couple of weeks, that's for sure.”
Courtney Cox asked Kennedy for a response to comments made by former Red Sox turned Toronto Blue Jay Justin Turner, who said on the Fenway Rundown podcast that Cora told him not to drag his feet waiting for a Red Sox offer, which could be interpreted as Boston being unwilling to spend money to keep a good player.
“Well, look, there's no more supportive manager of his players than Alex,” Kennedy said, “and I think everybody recognizes the contributions that Justin Turner made while he was here…but look, Alex Cora, from the first team meeting that we had down at spring training to the first all-player Zoom meeting, he's been talking about a World Series mindset.”
Moving to the status of Cora’s contract, Greg Hill told Kennedy that fans want to know what Cora’s future is and whether team intends to sign him to an extension.
“When you make a change at the general manager level and you bring in a new leader, the decision around the manager rests with the general manager,” Kennedy said. “We've been clear about that.
“I just cannot say enough about how Alex has handled that, the staff has handled that and how [Craig Breslow] has handled it. They're building that relationship and conversations about Alex’s future will be held at the appropriate time between those two guys, and we'll leave it at that.”
The Sox have been weighed down by accusations that they aren’t committed to winning anymore. Kennedy said that those narratives are “nothing that we can control.”
“That’s something that you put out there or others put out there,” Kennedy said. “The simple truth is that we have an incredibly exciting baseball team right now and an exciting baseball project that is being built.
“There’s a narrative out there when you’re not getting it done and you’re not playing in the postseason that it’s either attributable to a lack of focus when you’re involved, as you just said or someone said, in soccer or golf or whatever. We understand that, we accept that. It’s fair criticism because we’re not in the postseason.”
On Friday, the Red Sox kick off a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds, who are currently four games under .500 and 4-6 in their last 10 games.
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