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January 15, 2020

Cora Admitted To Red Sox Brass That He Played A Central Role In Astros' Cheating Operation

In a press conference held on Wednesday afternoon, Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said former manager Alex Cora admitted he "played a central role in what happened in Houston".

I assume Cora's possible involvement in illegal hijinks regarding the 2018 Red Sox was also a topic of conversation at that meeting, but nothing was said about that.

Kennedy did tell everyone that the jettisoning of Cora was "exclusively" related to the results of the Astros investigation and unrelated to the ongoing investigation of the Red Sox. (Which is probably not true, but MLB is still investigating the Red Sox, so that's what he has to say.)

Werner:
We all agreed that it was wrong, and we had a responsibility ... to have a standard here where that sort of behavior is not acceptable. ... [E]veryone went into that meeting trying to answer the question, "What was in the best interest of the Boston Red Sox?" Alex was professional, understanding that he had made a mistake ... He admitted that what he did was wrong ... [I]t's disappointing, but ... we've turned the page, and after this press conference, we're gonna address the 2020 season.
Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom:
It's really disappointing. ... I had really high regard for his talents as a manager and I still do. Unfortunately because of what came out in that report, it just wasn't possible ... [T]here's nothing but sadness that this is where we are.
Bloom stated that he'd like to hire a manager (possibly an interim manager for 2020) "as soon as possible". He added that this is a "unique situation" and he did not rule out the possibility that the Red Sox could enter spring training without a manager.
There's no question it's an unusual time to be doing a managerial search ... being this close to spring training. ... We would want to make sure that whoever is in that chair next has the ability to handle it.


On June 30, 2019, at London Stadium, Ken Davidoff of the Post asked Red Sox manager Alex Cora to talk about how "your pitchers took a beating these last couple of days".

Cora trotted out the usual cliches — the Yankees can score runs, the Red Sox have to play better, etc. — and then he mentioned Carlos Beltran, at that time an adviser for the Yankees. Cora winked when he said Beltran's name and he talked about Beltran's ability to steal signs and how much respect he had for Beltran's skills. (In 2017, Beltran was with the Astros playing the final season of his career and Cora was the bench coach.)

None of this really had anything to do with Boston's pitchers taking a pounding that weekend. Cora said he wasn't accusing Beltran of doing anything illegal — "I'm not saying devices, all that stuff". Afterwards, Cora found Davidoff and repeated that he wasn't implying Beltran was doing anything wrong.

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