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"When a team isn't where it should be, do you put that mostly on the players, on the manager and the coaches, or on the roster"? Manager of the Red Sox, Alex Cora joins!
"If the struggles continue, do you feel any concern that you could potentially be on the hot seat?"
"If the struggles continue, do you feel any concern that you could potentially be on the hot seat?"
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00:00And joining us for the front office report is Alex Cora, the manager of the Boston Red Sox.
00:06Good morning, AC.
00:08Good morning, Greg. How are you?
00:09Doing great. On a high note, is it accurate that you completed the Boston Marathon 5K on Saturday?
00:18Yeah, yeah, we did the 5K. It was me, Peter Fatsy, the hitting coach, and Joe Cronin, his assistant,
00:26and I think it was like 26-something, 26 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're getting slower. We're getting slower.
00:33Was that a PB, a PR for you?
00:36No, no, that was three years ago. Three years ago, it was like 20, 24-something, and now, you know,
00:45well, I'm in a different age group now, the 50 to 54, so I think I was like top 50,
00:52so that was good.
00:52That was really good. I thought you were coming to my marathon party. I mean, tech showed up.
00:58I was in the finish line waiting for Angelica, my fiancé. She ran it, so I was waiting over there.
01:05She did an amazing job, by the way. 4.22. Two years ago, she ran at 4.56, so I
01:12don't know how she completed that.
01:14I mean, she did – I mean, it's a half hour, you know, and amazing. It was amazing. She did
01:21an amazing job, yeah.
01:22Amazing. Well, it's certainly been a frustrating start to the season for fans, and I'm guessing for you too.
01:31How far – we were talking about this yesterday. How far off record-wise is this team right now from
01:37what you expected it to be?
01:41I hate to put numbers, but one thing that coming into the season that I thought we were going to
01:50do better
01:50was pitch, especially the first six minutes of the game, right?
01:56You know, with the rotation that we have, very similar to what New York is doing,
02:02kind of like the team driven by the pitching, and it hasn't been that way.
02:07Garrett has had a tough start to the season. Sonny, who got hurt, you know, a few days ago,
02:14has been inconsistent. Suarez, too. Bayou, the same way.
02:17And, you know, going into the season, we thought we were going to pitch better, and we will.
02:22We know that, but so far in the first three weeks of the season, that hasn't been the case.
02:29Offensively, we need to get on base. We have to put pressure on the opposition.
02:33And the one thing – and if you look at this week, and I said it yesterday,
02:38we have faced elite pitching, right? School Bowl, Framber, Freed.
02:44But at the same time, when you get opportunities to score runs, like we did against School Bowl,
02:51bases loaded, no outs in the middle of the game, and we only score one.
02:55And first and third, no outs, and we don't score.
02:59I think against Framber, we had a few opportunities, not as many.
03:03But then yesterday, in the second inning, we had second and third on a 3-0 game,
03:08and we didn't score. So, with who we are offensively, where we at, right?
03:14We're not hitting the ball out of the ballpark. We're not slugging.
03:17When you have those chances, you have to do it.
03:20And even two days ago, it was 3-0, first and second, no outs in the seventh,
03:29and we were putting pressure on Gil. It was back-to-back walks, right?
03:33And then after that, we don't cash in, and we haven't put pressure on the opposition.
03:39We haven't.
03:40You know, and we have to be better in those opportunities.
03:46You've been doing this for a long time.
03:48When a team isn't where it should be, do you put that mostly on the players,
03:54on the manager and the coaches, or on the roster?
03:59No, we have to do a better job.
04:00From my end, my job is to slow it down, right?
04:04Try to put them in situations that they're successful.
04:09You know, that's my job.
04:11Look for certain match-ups and maximize those opportunities.
04:14And at the same time, like yesterday, talk to Caleb about that at bat
04:19with men at second and third and no outs.
04:23Right now, you can see it. We can feel it.
04:25You know, they're trying to do too much.
04:29If you look at Jaron's at bat yesterday, it was the total opposite, right?
04:33He's been trying to pull the ball throughout the week, chasing pitches,
04:37and yesterday was the opposite.
04:39He did the simple thing of just trying to stay on pitches
04:42and hit it the other way, and good things happened.
04:44So that's on me.
04:46For the players, just keep going through the process,
04:50understanding that at the end, you're going to be who you're supposed to be.
04:54If you're a .260 hitter, you will be a .260 hitter.
04:58If you get on base on a .350 rate, you will get there.
05:01But you cannot force yourself to do that just trying to get results.
05:07Can it be hard?
05:08One of the things I've been saying all along, you know,
05:13like to get out of slumps, swinging is not the right way of doing it.
05:17You know, that's not the case.
05:18You have to be patient.
05:20You have to take your walks,
05:22understanding that your swing is not where it's supposed to be.
05:25That's why you're in a slump, right?
05:27And there's some metrics that we know, like Will Gerberro right now.
05:32Everybody's like, oh, he's in a slump.
05:33Actually, he's hitting the ball hard, very hard, especially in the last three days.
05:36So he's going to come out of it.
05:38But other guys that are not swinging the bat the way they're able of,
05:42just make sure you swing at the right ones, you know.
05:45And that should be when you're going hot too, but especially when you're struggling, man.
05:50You have to take your pitches, take your walks, be patient, and good things are going to happen.
05:55You've gone through every mathematically possible lineup combination-wise.
06:00Is that?
06:01There's more today.
06:02There's more today, by the way.
06:05But is that not tough on guys when they don't have the opportunity to be in there day after day?
06:12I mean, to find rhythm and all that, yes.
06:14But at the same time, you know, there's a lot of stuff now that, you know, helps them to stay
06:20in rhythm.
06:21And, you know, they work hard on their craft.
06:24We got, you know, all the tools down there.
06:26Now with this project, you know, if you won, you face Max Freeb a hundred times before you face him
06:36during the battle, right?
06:37And, you know, one thing that we're trying to do is find that consistency, you know, as far as, like,
06:44we have, well, we struggle against lefties and righties.
06:47But against lefties, you know, how are we going to, you know, be able to deploy the best lineup against
06:53those guys?
06:54You know, we saw it this week against Scoble, against Valdez, against Freed.
06:57And we got the line moving, don't get me wrong, but we have to score runs, you know.
07:02I think not scoring and scoring one run is a hard way to win games.
07:05Alex, one of the things that we always talk about is the roster and how the roster was built.
07:10How much input do you have in roster construction coming into the offseason and spring training?
07:19Do you have a big voice in that room?
07:22Yeah, we talk about it in the offseason as far as deals and all that stuff and potential deals and
07:29trades and all that.
07:30And then, you know, when it comes down to spring training, obviously you have all the pieces and we sit
07:38down and we go over what's the best roster for us to deploy, right?
07:44You know, we got certain pieces, new players, you know, that right now they're not performing the way we thought
07:51they were going to perform and they will.
07:53But going back to the question, you know, me and Bress, you know, we're in touch.
07:57We always talk about it, especially, you know, in the offseason with every possible trade, every possible free agent acquisition,
08:05you know, talking to players, you know, Zoom, all that.
08:07So, yeah, I'm very involved.
08:08But no surprise or no secret, you wanted Alex Pregman here this season.
08:14Does this team miss that veteran leadership, that guy that is in that role?
08:22One of the things that I've been telling the guys, and Alex was a big part of what we did
08:27last year, same way as Justin Turner a few years ago, J.D. Martinez a few years ago, right?
08:33And those guys, they're not here anymore.
08:35And one of the things I've been telling the guys is, like, whatever you learn from Alex Pregman and others
08:40from Justin Turner, like Jaron Duran, he's kind of like his mentor, you have to apply it, right?
08:46Like, not because Alex is not here or J.T. or J.D. Martinez, all of a sudden, you don't
08:53know how to act or you don't know how to prepare.
08:55And they've been preparing, you know?
08:57We have to help some of these guys, too.
08:59You know, there's a lot of guys that come from other organizations that, you know, their preparation is a lot
09:04different than the way we do things.
09:06I'm not saying that where they come from, they're doing it right or wrong, right?
09:10But we do believe that we prepare players the right way to go to, you know, to go into the
09:16game.
09:16So we have to help them.
09:18And every season is different.
09:20That's something I learned going into 19.
09:22You know, after we won, I say, ah, we're going to roll it back and do it the same way.
09:26Ah, that's not the case, you know?
09:28It's just different situations, different players, and different circumstances.
09:32So this year, a little bit more of me, to be honest with you, in the video room, in the
09:37cage, in the meetings, trying to help them, you know, walk them through certain situations, man.
09:42We got Caleb, who has a one-year service.
09:46Marcelo, less than one-year service.
09:48So, you know, you have to help them.
09:49They're very talented, and when they go, it's going to be fun to watch.
09:53But right now, you know, we're struggling as a group, and we have to make sure we help them.
09:57Alex, you just mentioned you hinted at another lineup change.
10:01Is there anything that you can share right now about what that might look like?
10:06Yeah, we're going to stay away from Roman today again.
10:08You know, last night he had treatment.
10:11He's feeling better, but not great.
10:13So we're going to go with Jaron leading off today.
10:16I thought he had a great game yesterday.
10:18So just go ahead and use him.
10:21He's going to play left field.
10:22Yoshida is going to DH.
10:24And then the rest are the same.
10:26You know, we're going to actually hit Rafaela second, with Wilson hitting fourth.
10:31Abreu hitting fifth.
10:33Story hitting sixth.
10:35Marcelo seventh.
10:38And who am I missing after that?
10:40I know Narvaez will be playing.
10:43Oh, yeah.
10:43Caleb playing third, hitting eighth.
10:45And Narvaez is going to catch.
10:48Alex.
10:49Go ahead.
10:49Go ahead, Chris.
10:50Alex, just interested in the, we talk about analytics.
10:54And for many of us, it's a frustrating component that we acknowledge is a big part of the game.
10:59Does the analytics department understand the value of Alex Bregman in terms of on the field and off?
11:08I think the front office understand the value of, you know, what is needed in the clubhouse to have a
11:15functional team.
11:16And, you know, they know about leadership.
11:19You know, correct play.
11:20You know, and I mean, he's the perfect guy to talk about it because he was part of that 13
11:25team.
11:25Right.
11:26And we talk about how good they were and the pitch and all that.
11:28But they, for some reason, they found it right away.
11:32And they willed themselves to win that World Series.
11:36Right.
11:36So Craig understands that, you know, the situation with Alex didn't work out.
11:41And we pivot right away.
11:42And we got a great pitcher.
11:44And now it's on us, you know, trying to help them in the clubhouse to be better and to prepare
11:50better.
11:50And, you know, there are certain leaders over there.
11:53The first baseman, although he's not as vocal with the media and all that, he's becoming a guy in that
11:58clubhouse.
11:58I'll tell you that.
11:59Wilson, you know, he's been great for the young kids.
12:02He's pushing them in a different way.
12:04Right.
12:05He's not Alex, but he's Wilson.
12:07And he's won a World Series, too.
12:08And he's been a leader of teams in different ways.
12:11So I feel comfortable with the group that we have.
12:13But like I said, man, like, you know, as a coaching staff, we understand how young we are.
12:19And we have to do a better job trying to help them to go through this part of the season.
12:24And Alex, John Henry has been front-facing in ways that he hasn't been in years past.
12:29People around the team have said he has been around, but not publicly.
12:33What has his presence meant in sort of how you guys are trying to battle out of this 9-15
12:40start?
12:41I think it's good.
12:42It's good that John is around, Mr. Henry.
12:45He's a baseball fan.
12:47He loves baseball.
12:48I know he's suffering just like everybody else.
12:50And to see him around, it helps.
12:52It helps the group.
12:53It helps everybody.
12:54Our conversation sometimes is less about baseball.
12:57It's more about other sports.
12:59And, you know, I'm happy that he's been able to be around.
13:04Linda's always around.
13:05I see Tom and Mike at the stadium.
13:08Although they're always around, but seeing John is always good.
13:13This came up earlier.
13:15Why would you guess guys were able to hit so well in WBC and then not able to do the
13:24same now?
13:25And please don't say the cold weather.
13:28No, it's not the cold weather.
13:29I mean, I think, you know, like scouting reports come into play.
13:36Big leaguers come into play too, right?
13:40For, I mean, this week, to be honest with you, you face three guys that are top ten lefties in
13:49the big leagues, right?
13:50Freed Valdez and Scooble.
13:51You know, and you're going to run into weeks like that, probably we're going to face Rodgers in Baltimore.
13:56So, right now we're going through a stretch that we have faced, number one, number two, of other teams.
14:03And like I said, against those guys, the simple things matter.
14:06And we haven't done that so far.
14:08Alex, I remember when I played, it was about production.
14:11And if I wasn't productive, I would always feel like I could potentially lose my job.
14:16I know you said John Henry's around and you communicate with him.
14:19If the struggles continue, do you feel any concern that you could potentially be on the hot seat?
14:27No, man.
14:28The only concern I have right now is to help my family pack right now.
14:32They're going to Puerto Rico at noon.
14:34I'm very, very black and white in this.
14:37You know, when you sign that line and the contract, you never know what can happen.
14:42So, I don't take this for granted.
14:44I don't panic either, you know, whatever happens with me, happens with me.
14:49But I'm very confident in the job that I'm doing and what I can do.
14:52So, that thought never comes to my mind.
14:55It's quite a question for me to follow up.
14:57I'm just going to ask.
14:58Wilson Contreras, as you mentioned, it seems like he's emerging as a leader behind the scenes in the clubhouse.
15:03Wilson, he's talked about trying to generate energy.
15:07And you talked about, on the record to some reporters, that energy doesn't always come organically when you're not getting
15:14hits.
15:15So, how do you create that in the clubhouse when the offense is the way it's been?
15:21Yeah, I mean, we had a conversation yesterday about this.
15:26Yesterday, when Jaron hit that double, right?
15:31Fenway's been blah for 10 days, right?
15:35Because we haven't played well, right?
15:37We haven't, only the walk-off the other day, and it was a 1-0 game.
15:41When Jaron hit that ball off the wall, it was second and third.
15:44That place was rocking.
15:45That's energy.
15:46You know what I'm saying?
15:47Like, don't get me wrong, they come here every single day with the willingness to win, and they understand it's
15:561-62, and they're ready to go.
15:58But the buzz, the energy that helps them to keep going, it comes from offense.
16:06You know, as baseball fans, you guys are baseball fans, right?
16:09We love the 1-0 game, 2-1, well-pitched, good defense, fundamentals, get the guy over, whatever.
16:16But at Fenway, there's nothing better than a 10-9 game, you know, and the fans are going nuts, and
16:23they're playing their music and all that, you know?
16:25So, this is something I learned in 18 from Ron Reneke, who was my bench coach.
16:30Sometimes I felt like, man, Ron, we're flat, we're flat.
16:33And that's hard to say about that team, right?
16:35Like, we're flat.
16:36We don't have any, like, Alex, we're not scoring runs, you know?
16:39And that's how it works, you know?
16:40Like, everybody in the dugout is high-fiving, is excited because we're hitting the ball out of the ballpark and
16:45running the bases well.
16:46Right now, it's not happening.
16:48I'm not saying that they don't have energy and they're not creating energy, but to keep it going, the offense
16:55has to go.
16:56At what point in the season do you realize that we need to make a change to the roster?
17:02That whatever you thought of in the offseason, building it hasn't come to fruition and you have to start making
17:08changes because of the performance?
17:10Honestly, right now, it's too early.
17:13Usually, you really know who you are or where the guy is at around 45, 50 games.
17:20Obviously, you're in the business winning games, right?
17:24And we haven't done a good job so far.
17:26We have to start winning series.
17:28That's the most important thing.
17:29But around that time, you know that, okay, we might need this to make it better, to have better matchups
17:38or have, you know, better flexibility or versatility, you know, to win games.
17:44So, I think around that time.
17:46Does losing to the Yankees hurt worse?
17:51No, actually, to Detroit.
17:53To Detroit, you know, like losing to the Tigers is never good, you know, because...
17:57Your brother.
17:58Man, bro, like you have the whole family and right now, he doesn't host, you know,
18:05and when we go out to dinner, he doesn't pay.
18:09Go ahead, Curtis.
18:10Say that's like Greg.
18:11Go ahead.
18:13Like, they win.
18:15They beat it Saturday and Sunday, and, you know, it's half and half.
18:20They have to kind of, like, fake it because they know they're staying at my house.
18:23I'm picking up everything, but it's never good to lose to the Tigers.
18:27Let's put it that way.
18:28All right.
18:29This is the last one for me because, I mean, I've been trying to get answers.
18:32Is this from ChatGPT or your own question?
18:34And I've been trying to get answers to this one, Alex.
18:38I come from the world of football, so everything I try to correlate in that sense.
18:43Well, you also were all-city catcher.
18:44Yeah.
18:45So when...
18:46Correlate.
18:47That's what we should call this segment.
18:48When you look at pitchers and hitters, is there ever any added pressure for maybe a pitcher
18:55going into the game knowing that, let's say, the bats are not, they're not as hot, that
19:01they're putting more pressure on themselves?
19:02I remember as a player, an offense, we would say, man, we got to score a lot because our
19:07defense isn't doing a good job.
19:09Is there any of that, I don't want to say friction, but just added pressure for one group
19:14to hold it down more because the other one is struggling?
19:19I agree with you.
19:20It's not friction, but it's pressure.
19:22And sometimes you got that here we go again feeling, right?
19:26We were in Minnesota, and Crochet has the bad one, Sony 2, Sony Gray 2, and then right
19:35away, Martin hits a homer against early, and you can feel it, you know, like, you know,
19:41I bet on the field, you're like, shoot, here we go again, right?
19:45And then after that, we score runs.
19:46And so I think right now where we're at as a team, we're putting too much pressure on
19:54ourselves, you know, the pitching staff, instead of, okay, let me get the quality start, right?
19:59Six innings, three runs, and let the offense work.
20:01It's kind of like I have to be perfect.
20:03I have to throw six scoreless innings, right?
20:07Like yesterday, Suarez, he gives out three.
20:10I kept telling him that's all they get.
20:12That's all they get.
20:12You know, if he goes six and they score three, that's the quality start, you know?
20:16Is it good enough?
20:17Probably not, right?
20:18They want to be better.
20:19But, you know, you get my point, right?
20:21Like, don't try to be too perfect because the offense is not rolling.
20:24And offensively, in this case, like yesterday was a perfect example, second and third, no
20:29outs, don't try to hit the three-run homer because our pitching staff has given out three.
20:36Well, you know what?
20:36We can hit a ground ball a second.
20:38We get him over, we get him in.
20:39It's a 3-1 game.
20:40The next guy hits a ground ball.
20:42It's a 3-2 game.
20:42We're back in the game.
20:44All right, Alex Cora.
20:45Thanks for taking the time.
20:46We'll talk to you again soon on the show.
20:48And as you said, it's early.
20:50But you got to start turning it around here sooner than later.
20:53Good luck.
20:54Yeah, yeah.
20:55We got to get going.
20:56Thank you, guys.
20:57All right.
20:57That is Alex Cora.
20:58All right.
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