A day after a three-game sweep by New England’s dreaded Yankees, the Red Sox fired manager and ex-infielder Alex Cora over the weekend, promoting Maine’s minor-league manager to MLB coach
ESPN reported that Cora and five coaches were canned Saturday night amid Boston’s dismal standings.
WEEI’s Christian Arcand was calling it the “Saturday Night Massacre,” a Watergate-era phrase.
The Saturday night sweep results in a temporary promotion to The Bigs for Chad Epperson, the manager at the Double-A Portland, Portland Sea Dogs who will serve as interim third-base coach.
Boston is in the basement with a 10-17 record, having lost three games Friday to the Yankees and the last four of five.
It didn’t matter that the Sox routed Baltimore 17-1 on Saturday, the team’s largest margin of victory this season.
Boston’s slow start comes in a year with heightened expectations, after the Red Sox reached the postseason last season, Fox News said.
Cora was in the middle of a three-year $21.7 million contract that made him the second-highest-paid manager in Major League Baseball.
Triple-A Worcester manager Chad Tracy will take over as interim manager pending a permanent appointment.
Cora, 50, was previously fired by the Sox in 2020 over his involvement in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.
He was the mastermind behind Houston’s method of illegally stealing signs electronically.
At that point, Cora was less than two years removed from leading the Red Sox to the 2018 World Series title.
After retiring as a 14-year MLB infielder, Cora served as the bench coach for Houston when they won their first World Series title in 2017.
Cora was named Boston’s manager the following season, winning a franchise-best 108 games and leading the team to victory in the 2018 World Series.
He is the fifth MLB manager to win the World Series in his first season and the first Puerto Rican manager of a World Series-winning team.
Following the 2019 season, Cora was implicated in a sign-stealing scandal during his time with Houston.
Amid an investigation to determine if he took part in another sign-stealing scandal with Boston, Cora and the Sox mutually agreed to part ways before the 2020 season.
Cora was subsequently suspended through the 2020 playoffs for his role in the Astros’ scandal.
After his suspension ended, he returned to the Red Sox as their manager.
Cora was drafted in 1993 by Minnesota but opted to play college ball.
He was grabbed by the Dodgers in 1996, making his major league debut in 1998 against Seattle where his brother Joey was the Mariner’s second baseman.
He played for Boston for three of his 14 years as a glove man, 2005 to 2008.
