Alex Cora, the former Houston Astros bench coach who was found to be the mastermind behind the Astros’ sign-stealing efforts during their 2017 World Series run, has been rehired as the manager of the Boston Red Sox after serving a season-long suspension for his involvement in the scandal.
The news was first reported Friday morning by Jon Heyman of MLB Network, who added that even amid the pandemic, Red Sox executives including general manager Chaim Bloom flew to Puerto Rico to interview Cora.
Red Sox people flew down to Puerto Rico to interview Cora late last week. Apparently, he answered all their questions satisfactorily.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 6, 2020
While the news is a bit shocking considering Cora was originally fired by the team in January after an MLB investigation found him to have spearheaded the Astros’ sign-stealing back in 2017, the Red Sox pulled off an all-time news dump by dropping the news just moments after Joe Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania and took a major step towards becoming the next president of the United States.
Many Americans woke up to news of Biden inching closer to the presidency, followed shortly by the relatively insignificant news of who the next Red Sox manager would be. Later in the morning, Heyman added that the decision was met with support throughout the organization, including from “key players.”
Boston Nation is already cheering the decision to bring back Cora. Ownership and key players supported a return of Cora but it was GM Chaim Bloom’s call in the end.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 6, 2020
Back in January, the Red Sox parted ways with Cora when the initial details of his leadership in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal came to light. An investigation from MLB pinned similar efforts in Boston on an advance scout rather than Cora, though Cora still had to serve a suspension for his rule-breaking in Houston.
That meant that after playing out the 2020 season with manager Ron Roenicke leading the team to a 24-36 record, Boston was able to rehire Cora, who led the franchise to a World Series title in 2018 and had always tended to earn praise across baseball before the Astros scandal.
Even with Cora back in tow, the Red Sox are in a bit of a rebuild, but this whole situation seems to have wrapped itself into a bow now that Cora is back in Boston.