Red Sox Manager Alex Cora joins! Does Cora feel like the 'buzz' is back? Who's playing 3B for the '25 Boston Red Sox? Cora addresses the position! What does Bregman bring to the Red Sox? What did Cora think of Triston Casas' comments? What is the current culture like in the clubhouse?
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00:00The manager of the Boston Red Sox, Alex Cora joins us.
00:03Hey, Alex, how are you?
00:04I'm doing good, doing good.
00:05Interesting spring so far.
00:08It feels like the buzz is back.
00:10Would you echo that?
00:11100%, 100%.
00:13We played the race two days ago, I want to say,
00:17and it felt like when I play here in 08, 07, spring train,
00:22I mean, not as much, but a lot different
00:25than the last three years.
00:26And the reason, we have a good baseball team.
00:29The front office and ownership, we
00:33talk a little bit right before the end of the season.
00:36We needed to execute.
00:37We needed to be better.
00:39We bring Chapman, Wilson, then Garrett, and Walker.
00:45And then at the end, we got Alex.
00:46And I think the addition of Alex at the end
00:51kind of like gave us that, huh, you know,
00:53like I was talking to Aaron Boone yesterday,
00:56and he wasn't too happy that Alex ended up signing with us.
01:04Honestly, I thought Alex was going to end up somewhere else,
01:07and I got the big news late that night on Wednesday,
01:10and here we are.
01:11We got a good baseball team.
01:12How many conversations did you have during the offseason
01:18prior to Bregman's arrival with Devers about the potential,
01:21and how long between the news of Bregman being signed
01:26and you talking to Rafi?
01:27Was that something that was ongoing,
01:29or was it something you sort of started to talk about
01:31when you guys arrived at camp?
01:32More realistic, when it became more realistic.
01:35And at the time, when I talked to him, I got here early.
01:37He was here.
01:38And when we talked, I felt like we were far off, you know?
01:43Like there were two big rumors out there, Nolan and Alex.
01:48And the Nolan was more of a rumor than reality.
01:54The Alex thing was real, but at that time, you know,
01:58knowing Alex and listening to Scott and Bress and all that,
02:02I was like, this is not going to happen, you know?
02:05The way they were talking the whole offseason,
02:07it was about years, you know?
02:09And that's what we need.
02:11And I have a good relationship with him.
02:13At one point, I was like, hey, man,
02:15you got to do what you got to do for the Bregmans.
02:17That's the most important thing.
02:18You know, this is a business.
02:19I get it, but you pull the players.
02:22I was a player once, you know?
02:23And it's a player-driven business.
02:26And honestly, you know, I was like, hey, this is real,
02:29but I don't think it's going to happen.
02:31And then a week later, everything changed.
02:33So, you know, we've been talking about it the last 10
02:36or 12 days, obviously.
02:39You know, he had the press conference, and he said
02:41that he's not going to play another position other
02:43than third base.
02:44I respect that, you know, but I think at the end,
02:46what we're going to do is take the best 26 guys,
02:50align the best players in their positions,
02:53and try to win a championship.
02:54And that's what we're trying to accomplish.
02:56Well, Alex, that's the good thing
02:58about having good positive buzz.
03:01You run into a situation like this
03:03where it's not like other sports.
03:05Having depth is great.
03:07I love the way you said it.
03:08Situation is not a problem, you know?
03:10Some people are saying it's a problem.
03:12No, it's a situation.
03:13Right, and so, but you as the manager still
03:17have to make the right decision on what's best for the team.
03:20You have two guys that want to play one position.
03:25One guy, you know, is arguably a better fielder in Bregman,
03:28and the other guy's still working.
03:30And it seems like he does not want to move off that position.
03:33How are you going to kind of rectify that situation?
03:38And do you feel like you're leaning more towards Bregman
03:41there to start the season, or more towards Devers
03:44and putting Bregman somewhere else?
03:46No, I think, well, with Alex, he'll play anywhere.
03:48Right.
03:49He's been very honest.
03:50He hasn't played second in a while,
03:52but I truly believe that he's a good second baseman.
03:54I don't know if you saw some videos the other day,
03:56him turning on the play.
03:58It's simple with him, you know?
03:59He's a good defender, good footwork, good hands,
04:02good baseball IQ.
04:03So he can play short, he can play second.
04:05Last year, he offered to play first base with Houston.
04:09The thing here is like, there's other stuff going on here.
04:11You know, it's not third base, it's not DH,
04:13it's second base too, right?
04:15And there's some guys in that clubhouse
04:17that they're fighting for a spot.
04:18You know, you got Hamilton, you got Grissom,
04:21you got Campbell, you know, you got guys that have a shot
04:24to make this team.
04:25And from there, we will make decisions.
04:27You know, right now we got Willie that is not ready
04:30to join us yet because he's been ill.
04:33So is he going to be part of the starting roster,
04:36you know, opening day roster?
04:37So there's a lot of decisions that comes with it.
04:40You've seen the big boy taking ground balls at third.
04:42He's going to actually join the group on Friday.
04:45We're shooting for him to play next week.
04:47So I think it's early to decide, you know,
04:50who's going to be where because of the other part of it.
04:53And whenever we have to make decisions, we will.
04:56But one thing for sure, it's going to be an exciting team.
04:59It's going to be a good one.
05:00We have to be better defensively.
05:02Offensively, I think we are on point right now.
05:04I mean, those three guys on top of the lineup,
05:07bringing Alex is different at bat.
05:09You know, he's going to work the count.
05:10He's going to swing, he's going to pull the ball.
05:12We know that, but he's not going to chase pitches.
05:15And you're going to let Jaron and Rafi do their thing, right?
05:17Be as aggressive as possible.
05:19So going back to the question,
05:21decisions will be made in a few weeks.
05:23And, you know, there's going to be people upset.
05:26There's going to be people that are going to be sent down
05:28and they're going to be upset at the manager and Craig.
05:32But that's the good thing about having good players.
05:34You know, three years ago, we didn't have this conversation.
05:37It was like, OK, cool, let's try to win 84 games.
05:41Now we're talking about the division.
05:43You know, you see the projections and all that.
05:45And it's exciting.
05:46You know, it feels kind of like 18 as far as like the roster.
05:50Right. We're not 18.
05:52You know, don't get me wrong.
05:53We're not.
05:53You know, that was probably one of the best teams
05:55in the history of the Red Sox.
05:57But we have a good baseball team.
05:58Alex, we've obviously talked about this quite a bit
06:00when it comes to Bregman endeavors.
06:02And is there going to be a rift in the clubhouse?
06:05And will guys split on to who they feel like should take that
06:08that that third base position?
06:10But as the as the manager, do you have to consider
06:14what will be less rocky for the boat?
06:17Do you have to take into consideration that,
06:18you know, back in November, Bregman was saying,
06:20I'm fine playing second.
06:22I'd be happy to like.
06:23And then last week saying whatever he wants me to do, I'm going to do.
06:27Do you take that into consideration?
06:28Are you really just going to go with your gut on who's going to be best there?
06:32No, I mean, as far as the clubhouse, I'm not worried.
06:35They're grown men and we have adults in the room now.
06:38We do. And you see the way they talk.
06:41Actually, Alex is working with Rafi at third base.
06:44You know, the first thing he did was telling him about one pointer,
06:47about glove presentation, all that.
06:49And Rafi, he got it right away. So
06:54you guys, I mean, I don't know if he's going to talk to you guys, whatever.
06:56But you have to be around him to understand what he brings to the equation.
07:01A lot of people talk about Pedroia.
07:04Very similar, but not as loud, you know.
07:06But this guy, he's he's a baseball rat.
07:09You know, his baseball IQ is up there.
07:11He's going to challenge everybody in this in this in this room,
07:14you know, from the front office to the analyst, to Alex, to the coaches.
07:19Everybody's been challenged.
07:20And he's such a great teammate.
07:22Say playoffs in a row, right?
07:24That doesn't happen because you're just good.
07:27You know, there's more into the equation.
07:29And he's taking care of the clubhouse that same day that Rafi
07:33had his press conference.
07:34I had 20 players in my house for a barbecue.
07:36Rafi was part of it and he was hanging out with everybody.
07:39So we should be OK. We should be OK.
07:41Just on the the clubhouse and adults,
07:45I heard I hear Tristan Costas' remarks and they just struck me as so off.
07:49Like, here's a guy who like built a house in Worcester
07:52when you guys were fighting for a playoff spot.
07:54And now he's saying that players he's dictating who's on the roster.
07:58And I think correct me if I'm wrong.
08:00I feel like part of the reason you were so
08:04interested in the acquisition of Alex Bregman
08:07is because of what he means in terms of a winning culture
08:11to a locker room that's still growing.
08:13And is that part of the reason that, you know, you bring this guy to me?
08:16I said it was like Rodney Harrison.
08:18When Rodney Harrison joined the Patriots, they were a good team,
08:21but he had this way of getting under people's skin and forcing players
08:24to do things they weren't doing before.
08:27Um, so.
08:29Throughout the years here, right, since I got here in 18,
08:32we have brought some great guys, right, guys
08:35that had changed the culture of the clubhouse, JD Martinez,
08:40Justin Turner, right?
08:41Yeah. DH players.
08:42There were DHs, right?
08:43So there's not much that they can contribute.
08:47Yeah, they're good baseball guys.
08:49They understand defense and base running, but they don't do it every day.
08:53Right. Like they were great at talking about hitting,
08:56helping the guys out.
08:57But when you have a guy like this, that.
09:01First of all, two World Series ring, of course, you know,
09:04being in the playoffs for eight years in a row, this started in LSU, too.
09:09Like this kid has been a winner all his career,
09:11but understanding what it takes defensively, base running wise, offensively.
09:16He knows analytics.
09:17He knows old school baseball.
09:20I, you know, I truly believe we needed somebody like that, you know,
09:24and you see the perfect guy.
09:28Probably, to be honest with you,
09:30just being around 17 and talking to him
09:34and understanding, you know, what kind of like gets him going.
09:39It caught my attention.
09:41Obviously, everything came out right.
09:43And the one thing that I'm proud of him and we're not proud
09:46of what happened in 17, but him specifically.
09:51He turned the page and he made sure that the Astros were still going to be good.
09:56Right, because at that time it was loud, it was hard going on the road.
10:01You know, Dusty got there to help out.
10:04But this kid, he made sure, you know what?
10:06We're going to prove the world that.
10:07Yeah, we messed up in 17, but we are a good baseball team.
10:11And he did it.
10:12You know, Altuve is great.
10:14Alvarez is amazing.
10:15But that guy in that clubhouse, I know what he meant to them.
10:19And I'm happy that he's here.
10:20Mentally probably made him stronger, too.
10:22100 percent. 100 percent.
10:23Like, he's ready for this.
10:26And I tell him, be careful to fall into the trap that you have to do everything.
10:33At the end of the day, we're paying you all that money to do your thing,
10:38play good defense, be a good offensive player, be a good baserunner.
10:42But the other thing, you know, is great.
10:44But I lived through it with Jason Worth in 2011.
10:49Kind of like he went to Washington and Mike Rizzo, the GM, kind of like told him,
10:54hey, you have to lead these guys.
10:56You got to help them out.
10:57And Jason took it by heart.
10:59He he changed the nutrition.
11:01You know, he brought his cook, all that stuff.
11:04And then he forgot that he needed to play right field for the Western Nationals.
11:07He struggled for a while.
11:09This kid, he understand that I got a job to do.
11:12And he's he he uses whatever to get him going.
11:16Right. The number two, we all know he was the second pick of the draft.
11:19He wanted to be number one.
11:20So that's why he was number two.
11:22Everybody thought that this kid was going to get 10 years in the market.
11:26Right. And two hundred million dollars.
11:27He did not.
11:28I think that's going to help him to keep going.
11:31And it's going to be fun.
11:32Well, one of the things, Alex, as I listen, I hear you talking.
11:36It's always great to have great players that take the message
11:39and then incorporate it into the locker room, the clubhouse.
11:43I know for me as a former player,
11:46but the also the biggest message comes from the head coach, the manager.
11:51And you have to be able to manage different egos, different personalities,
11:57different ways guys react to maybe getting sent down
12:00and not playing or or feeling like, wait a second,
12:03I did better than that guy in spring training. Why am I not?
12:06How how are you taking the approach this year,
12:10knowing that these are some of the questions that you're going to have to answer
12:14where you have a lot more talent, but also getting the guys to buy in
12:19to your message that's being resonated through the clubhouse, through players.
12:23So most of those guys and most of the guys in that clubhouse
12:26only know the last three years.
12:28Right. Two last place finishes and a good season.
12:32Right. Eighty one and eighty one.
12:36There's a few guys that were part of twenty one.
12:38There's only one guy that was part of a team,
12:40and he's still an alpha dog in that in that clubhouse.
12:44He understands what it takes to win.
12:46And that's something I talk to Rafi.
12:47You know, like we have conversations like yesterday.
12:50We talk about his schedule, when you're going to join the team,
12:53you know, outside for ground balls and all that stuff when you're going to play.
12:57We didn't talk about positions.
12:59I needed to make sure this guy is ready to play for Texas. Right.
13:03Because that's my job.
13:04You know, we're going to have other conversations in the upcoming weeks,
13:06you know, but right now my main goal is for Rafi to be ready to play right
13:11with Alex is kind of like, OK, make sure this kid understands
13:16what it means to prepare for one sixty two plus
13:20and, you know, help however you want.
13:22The first day we were in the clubhouse in the calf, you know, we're having lunch.
13:27You see Marcelo, Roman, Chris Campbell and Alex.
13:31They were there for an hour.
13:32And that's when you go home.
13:33You're like, OK, cool, we're good.
13:35But from my end, they know there's competition.
13:38You got to be very honest.
13:39You know, we have the one on one meetings every morning now
13:42with the position players go over their plans and just let them know,
13:46hey, man, there's a shot to be the second baseman of the Boston Red Sox.
13:49There's competition. It's real competition.
13:51Be ready for that. Enjoy it.
13:53So so far, so good.
13:55It's not going to be easy.
13:57We know that, you know, over the course of spring training,
14:00over the course of the season and hopefully in the playoffs,
14:02something is going to come up.
14:04But I made a decision halfway through the season to stay here for three more years.
14:09That's the reason I wanted to be be here because we got a chance to win.
14:13And you can see it now is a different vibe is a different type of preparation.
14:17Now it's about precision.
14:19Be exact. Be correct.
14:20You know, it's not about the rah rah.
14:22Hey, we're going to the World Series, you know, to.
14:24I don't want to say full.
14:25Sorry, I did say full.
14:27But to kind of like get everybody buy into it now is like, OK, we have a good team.
14:31This is what we have to do.
14:32Alex, so you and I and Ken spoke at the winter weekend at Fenway
14:37a couple of months ago, and you told this awesome story
14:40about how before the season in 07, you sat down with Terry Francona
14:44and Theo Epstein, and they said, you know, you're going to play in April.
14:47He hit 400 in April.
14:48So I said, I'm contractually obligated to bring that up. Thank you.
14:52And then Theo said that Pedroia is not going to be ready in April,
14:57but as of May, he's going to be the best hitting second baseman in baseball.
15:00And everything that Theo told you came to fruition.
15:04Yeah. Do you have those conversations now with Brez and the players?
15:08And is that the kind of conversation that you would have with Devers
15:12and Bregman, obviously, separately, where you sit down and you just explain
15:16why you're doing what you're doing?
15:17They don't have to agree with it,
15:18but you present to them the evidence behind the decision.
15:21Yeah, I think at the end of the day, we we we will talk about it.
15:25You know, what makes sense for our team to win 92 plus games over 162.
15:31The other ones, as far as like competition, all that,
15:33like in my situation, when I came in, I was like, OK,
15:37how many games I'm going to play?
15:38And they told me, are you going to play a lot early on?
15:40I was like, yes.
15:42And then you're not going to play.
15:43I'm like, oh, that sucks.
15:44But we'll talk to some of the veterans as far as their roles.
15:48You know, like right now we got Tristan at first, right?
15:52Who's going to be the back of first baseman?
15:53You know, and we were pushing certain guys to learn the position
15:56and they're going to play a lot in spring training and probably a utility
16:02position is going to be based on who can actually play first base.
16:05You know, there's a lot of guys with options.
16:07And as you guys know, we can talk about, yeah, he's the best player.
16:11You know, he should be that guy.
16:12But at the same time, you have to play with the roster, you know,
16:15and make adjustments early on, especially with the schedule that we have.
16:20But you know what?
16:22It's been fun. It's been good.
16:23The conversations are a lot different, like I said, than the last few years.
16:27Now it's about, hey, man, you do this, you're going to be fine.
16:31Just go out there and play.
16:32And the main thing, stay healthy, right?
16:35Right now, Bayo, obviously he's throwing a bullpen on Friday.
16:38Cutter is behind.
16:40We have a deeper pitching staff, but now it's not as deep as a month ago.
16:46Right. And those are the things that come up in spring training.
16:48But we'll deal with it and we're going to be OK.
16:50The injuries were a big issue last year.
16:52How are you guys making sure that during spring training,
16:55maybe you guys are better equipped to handle injuries as they, of course,
16:58will come up throughout the season?
17:00Yeah, I mean, the most important thing about spring training is what you did,
17:04what you did in in the offseason.
17:06And the vast majority of the players did an amazing job,
17:10not only executing the plan, but communicating with the pitching staff,
17:14with pitching coach, with the hitting coaches, with the trainers.
17:17I think that's the most important thing.
17:19It's hard because, you know, like me as a Latino, you know,
17:23we will love our Latino players to be here for Myers, you know, early in January.
17:29It's hard, you know, like I mean, this is my my my culture.
17:33This is my country.
17:34You know, I love to be around my people. Right.
17:37Like Baylor, with time, probably he will be here earlier.
17:42But we got the academy in the Dominican.
17:44We can actually help them out.
17:46It's not easy. It's not easy.
17:47It's easier for the guys that live up north.
17:49You know, OK, I'll go to Fort Myers.
17:50You know, it's easier for the guys in Arizona
17:53because most of the players kind of like live there. Right.
17:55And they have the facilities.
17:57But I think we did a good job.
18:00We changed a few things in camp as far as like the innings they play.
18:04It used to be one at bat, two at bats, three at bats.
18:08Now they're playing five sports science.
18:11They they they look at it.
18:13They went to my office.
18:14Hey, Alex, they're playing five.
18:16I'm like, OK, cool.
18:16You know, I'm not going to get into it.
18:18You know, like Tito used to say, like, I know baseball.
18:21I don't know that part.
18:22You know, so just hopefully we can keep him healthy.
18:26Trevor, for example, he didn't play much last year.
18:29Volume is important, but at the same time, the most important
18:33thing for us is for Trevor to be opening at shortstop for us in Texas.
18:37So it's a balance, but a good one to have.
18:39And we have a lot of good players.
18:41There's a lot of competition right now at second base.
18:44It's hard for me to like, OK, how are we going to do this?
18:46You know, we got Hammy Grissom.
18:48We got Sogar. We got Campbell.
18:49How are we going to be able to get enough innings
18:53to have a really good idea who should be our second baseman?
18:56You know, so Alex, too, you know, it's kind of like, OK, we have 27 games,
19:0120 spring training shorter to this year.
19:03We're going to Mexico.
19:04So it's hard, but we'll deal with it.
19:07We'll wrap on this.
19:08It felt to me like the signing of Bregman removing your personal relationship
19:14was John Henry keeping his word
19:17that you signed a three year extension that it felt like to people
19:21that either cover the team or follow the team that you signed
19:24because it was a leap of faith that you felt the young guys were coming close enough
19:28and that the organization was prepared to invest in the actual big league club.
19:33Would that be fair to say to you?
19:34Yeah, those those five days in the around the All-Star break,
19:38they were very honest.
19:40It happened fast, but they kind of like
19:43present me with everything that, you know, is going to happen the way they see it.
19:47And they felt like I was the right leader for it.
19:49You know, the commitment.
19:52Yeah, it's three years, you know, and that's the personal side of it.
19:55Right. The boys are growing, you know, and this is a tough job.
20:00You know, if you look around leagues, you know, and when you spend a lot of time
20:04in one year and in one place, it takes a toll on you.
20:08Right. Like we don't want to get old too soon. Right.
20:11I'm forty nine. I'm still enjoying life.
20:15Still love my kids.
20:16You know, the way playing playing games, all that stuff.
20:19There's other ways now to see them.
20:21Right. FaceTime and Facebook Live, all that stuff.
20:24So I can see them, but it's different. Right.
20:26So I think three years is good.
20:28We'll see what happens in the future.
20:29But right now, man, I'm having a blast.
20:31I'm excited about the direction we have in.
20:34You know, it's not more about talking about the future.
20:36All that is talking about the now, which is very important.
20:39And, you know, we're ready to go.
20:41Thank you for your time, Alex. Good luck.