It’s been well-reported that Red Sox manager Alex Cora is in the midst of a lame duck season, set to become a free agent at the end of the 2024 season.
And according to WEEI’s Will Flemming, the national media already has Cora in sharpie as the “number one free agent on the managerial market.”
Flemming gleaned this sentiment from his weekend in Cooperstown, NY, where he was in attendance for the induction of his Red Sox broadcast partner Joe Castiglione into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the 2024 Ford C. Frick Award winner.
“It’s not just Dave Winfield and Johnny Bench that are at the Hall of Fame, it’s every major national baseball writer,” said Flemming on Gresh & Fauria on Monday. “Whether it’s Bob Nightengale, Tim Kurkjian, on and on. And absolutely none of them think Alex Cora is coming back to Boston.
“The national expectation is that Alex is the number one free agent on the managerial market, and that things need to change for him to come back. We’ve talked at length about how there’s definitely time and willingness and opportunity to get him back, but the national feeling is that that is not going to happen.”
Flemming believes that if there is any chance of Cora re-signing in Boston after this season, he will have to see a willingness by Red Sox ownership to invest in this year’s team at the MLB trade deadline. The team is firmly in playoff contention at 53-45.
“If he’s going to stay, they have to [invest] now,” said Flemming. “I mean, that’s a big part of the equation, because it’s not money for Alex. He’s going to make money. It is action. And it’s a willingness to add to this group that he likes so much.”
The Red Sox are currently in third place in the American League East, 6.5 games behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles (60-39) and two games behind the second-place New York Yankees (59-42). They also only sit one game behind the Kansas City Royals (55-45) for the final American League Wild Card spot.
On Monday night, they begin a three-game series with the worst team in the National League, the Colorado Rockies (36-64). Then on Friday, they host the Yankees for a three-game series at Fenway Park, with all three games being played in primetime. The stars are aligning for this Red Sox team to be in a very good spot by this time next week, a little more than 24 hours before this year’s trade deadline (July 30 at 6 p.m. ET).
Let’s see if Fenway Sports Group decides to take notice.
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