Alex Cora and five coaches were fired Saturday, hours after a 17-1 victory against Baltimore. The other coaches fired were: hitting coach Peter Fatse, third base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin.
Game planning and run prevention coach Jason Varitek was reassigned to a new role within the organization that was not announced with the press release.
Red Sox Owner John Henry released a statement about Cora:
“Alex Cora led this organization to one of the greatest seasons in Red Sox history in 2018, and for that, and the many years that followed, he will always have our deepest gratitude,” said Red Sox principal owner John Henry. “He has had a lasting impact on this team and on this city. He has led on and off the field in so many important ways. These decisions are never easy, but this one is especially difficult given what Alex has meant to the Red Sox since the day he arrived.
“I want to thank Alex, our coaches, and their families for everything they have given to this organization. They have been part of this club in a way that goes beyond the field, and they will always have our respect and gratitude.”
The Red Sox are 10-17 to start the season, and just got swept in a three-game series against the Yankees at Fenway. The series was marked by offensive ineptitude by the Red Sox with the team managing only 3 runs in the 3 games. Audible chants around Fenway of ‘Sell the team’ were heard on the various broadcasts of the games.
Henry has been receiving increasing criticism for his ownership of the team, marked by his various investments around the world in soccer, auto sports and hockey Henry’s company, Fenway Sports Group, recently sold the Pittsburgh Penguins for a close to $800 million dollar profit after only four years of ownership.
The problem with this move is not that Cora is perfect. Cora’s major league teams have been marked by poor defense for 4 years running now, and some of his in-game moves have looked curious. That said, he managed the ’21 Red Sox and ’25 Red Sox to the playoffs with rosters that most people thought were destined for last place.
Billy Beane, beloved general manager of the Oakland A’s during the Moneyball era, famously said, “My sh*t doesn’t work in the playoffs. My job is to get us to the playoffs. What happens after that is f***ing luck”
Using that standard, Cora was a wildly successful manager for the Red Sox, going 620 – 541 and 18 -10 in the playoffs with the dominant 2018 World Series victory. He also oversaw the team as it had bitter contract negotiations with three consecutive homegrown players in Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, and Rafael Devers. Fans around the region have been vocal about the loss of all three, with Devers being the one that people seemed the least attached to.
Henry has presided over the most successful era of the Red Sox, with 4 World Series titles. The Red Sox have finished in the top 5 of attendance every year he has been the owner, with never less than 2.7 million before the Covid-era. In the last 4 years (2022-2025), post restrictions, they have bounced back to at least 2.6 million each year.
About 65 million tickets sold since 2003 (the first year of Henry’s primary ownership) at an average of $54.02 a ticket. In tickets sales alone, the team has generated $3.5 billion in revenue. That does not include concessions, advertising, or television rights. The total in player salaries in that time is $3,869,280,121. Which means tickets have almost equaled salaries.
NESN, which the Red Sox own 80% of, has generated at least $100 million a year since 2003. This does not include national agreements, which have risen in the time Henry has been the owner. Current estimates put that number at $90 million per year per team.
In 23 seasons, NESN netted them about $2.3 billion. Revenue sharing puts them at about $1 billion. If we add tickets back in, we have an estimated $6.8 billion in revenue during Henry’s ownership. That doesn’t include we licensing (merchandise), concerts at Fenway, the money generated by the real estate in and around Fenway Park, nor the advertising agreements within the stadium.
Estimating their real revenue is difficult because baseball hides its numbers, but Forbes recently estimated that the Red Sox profit $120 million plus per year. They also estimate that the Red Sox are worth $4.8 Billion which is probably nonsense considering the Padres just sold for a record $3.9 billion, and most sources put the Padres as operating at a loss. Henry bought the Red Sox in 2022 for $660 million. If the $120 million estimate is right (and I think it is absurdly low), then Henry got his money back in 2009, and everything since has been pure profit.
Sports teams’ revenues differ vastly from stock market riches. Henry is bringing in over $100 million per year. That is a lot of cash. Which is exactly what all the accumulated evidence says he values. He still owes Cora about $13.5 million, and they named Chad Tracy (current WooSox manager) to the interim role. I promise you Tracy is not making even remotely the same as Cora. Henry wants you to think this is a reaction to the current situation, but it is totally about the chatter.
In any normal situation, 27 games is too small a sample in baseball. Further, these problems did not suddenly arise overnight. The team is the worst offensive team in baseball across multiple categories. Cora can’t make hitters hit magically. They are consistently poor defensively, and with 5 outfielders being forced into various positions they are not used to, that makes sense.
Being from Worcester, we have watched the Polar Park debacle. One of the big failures has been a poor design that doesn’t allow for large touring concerts to come to the stadium. If an organization was running well, this is a detail that would not have been missed. Although technically the Worcester Red Sox are only an affiliate of the major league team and not ‘owned’ by the big club, there is no way big decisions are not run by the higher-ups. If there is a failure, it is an organizational failure that stems from the priorities of the owner.
John Henry thinks you are stupid, and wants you to think this is a baseball move. Do not fall for it, Red Sox fans.
This is a purely cash driven decision all about the bottom line. He thinks he can maneuver this team into relevancy enough that you will get back on the t-shirt and hat train, and click on the NESN app (one of the worst media apps in existence, just HORRIBLE).
So far, with the team leaking negative things about nearly every player who leaves (see the cases of Schilling, Price, Beckett, Papelbon, Lester, Ramirez, Betts, Bogaerts, Devers and more for examples), and with the team winning enough that you think only of the glory (Remember when we were down 3-0 and came back? There are 17 million documentaries about it if you don’t), he has been proven right.
In the end, sports don’t really mean anything except to the individual. I love baseball and always have. The world has a lot going on that is more important. That said, this team is in this state because John Henry’s wallet wants it this way.
Foreground Image Credit:Webjedi, John W Henry-Fenway (cropped), CC BY-SA 4.0
