Aaron Boone ‘happy’ Alex Cora received extension from Red Sox

BOSTON — Alex Cora will no longer have to answer questions about whether he can envision managing the Yankees — or any other team — next season.

If there were clubs that were eyeing the Red Sox skipper, who was set to hit free agency after this season, those discussions are over.

Cora, newly awarded a three-year extension reportedly worth $21.75 million this week, can sidestep queries about his future.

“I think in the end, people forgot about how much [my family and I] love this and how great this place is, regardless of the last two years,” Cora said Friday before his Red Sox beat the Yankees, 9-7 . “This is a dream job, to be honest with you. I’ve fallen in love with the city.”

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Craig Counsell allowing his Brewers contract to expire last year and hitting the open market, where he wound up signing with the Cubs for five years and $40 million, reshaped the managerial market.

Cora, seen as one of the best in the game, could have used his leverage similarly to Counsell and seen whether the Yankees might have been willing to replace Aaron Boone at season’s end — and of course seen what contracts any other team might offer.

Instead, he ended up using his leverage to earn what a smiling Boone called “a pretty good deal.”

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“Happy for him,” Boone said. “Obviously he’s a big part of that organization and what they do. One of the game’s really great managers. I’m happy for him, much deserved.

“He’s paying next time I see him.”

The money certainly mattered to Cora, but he said the two biggest factors were winning and where his family would be comfortable.

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His family is happy in Boston, and he hopes the winning — he cited players he likes both in the big leagues and in the minors with the Red Sox — will follow.

Cora and his family are happy with the Red Sox in large part because the Red Sox welcomed them back.

He was fired in January 2020 and suspended for the ensuing season following the league’s investigation of the Astros’ cheating scheme in 2017, when Cora was bench coach and found to be one of the masterminds of the sign-stealing system.

He was back leading the Boston clubhouse in 2021.

“These people, they gave me a chance in 2017,” said Cora, who was originally hired in October 2017. “After the scandal and the suspension, they gave me a chance to come to the team. And that’s something that was very important in our decision.”

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