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Red Sox praise Alex Cora
After a discouraging 10-17 start to the 2026 season for the Boston Red Sox, manager Alex Cora was let go on Saturday.
When the front office and Red Sox ownership fired Cora and five prominent members of his coaching staff, the baseball world was left to wonder what happened.
Yes, the 10-17 start the Red Sox were off to this season was disappointing, but it also seemed like such a small sample size for a team that won 89 games last year.
Obviously, a lot of factors go into a firing with this kind of magnitude. We now have more information on what happened behind the scenes, and it involves shortstop Trevor Story.
Cora’s firing sent shock waves across the league. But what happened?
On Monday, CBS Sports’ Julian McWilliams reported that Story’s 2025 comeback season was viewed differently by various people in the organization. Cora’s decision to bat Story second in the order early in 2026 raised internal questions.
“The disconnect on the field circles back to Story,” McWilliams wrote. “There were those in the organization who believed Story was past his prime and no longer capable of being an everyday impact player.
“Even in a 2025 season in which Story started slow but finished with 25 home runs and 96 RBIs, the front office was not fully convinced, pointing to underlying metrics that suggested the production was not sustainable.”
However, the performance has not been sustainable.
In 27 games during 2026, Story has an unimpressive .198/.235/.297 slash line with two home runs. If that wasn’t enough, his fielding has also been awful with -2 Outs Above Average, per Baseball Savant.
Story was distraught about Cora’s firing, even saying that Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow’s talk with the players wasn’t satisfactory.
“I mean obviously, it’s kind of up in the air what the true direction of the franchise is,” Story said per ESPN. “Some of the best coaches in the world didn’t get a fair shot.
“Those are conversations that need to be had. They’ll be had today and onward going forward, too.”
Story has been moved down in the lineup since, but it wasn’t enough to save his manager’s job.
But why now, just 27 games into the season?
Breslow said that Boston is still trying to compete for the division. It’s not unheard of, but it will be challenging.
“It really comes down to the belief that we have the players and the belief that we have in the group to accomplish what we set out to accomplish by acting today,” Breslow said. “It gives us 135 games ahead of us, so we’ve got almost a full season’s worth of run to take advantage of this fresh start and ultimately to compete for a division.”
When the Philadelphia Phillies fired manager Joe Girardi in 2022, it wasn’t this early. However, when interim manager Rob Thomson took over, they surged and made the World Series.
So, there is a blueprint for the Red Sox. However, everything has to go right for Boston, which is down seven games in the AL East.
Matthew Singer Matthew Singer is a sports reporter covering MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2025, and has two years of experience covering local professional, collegiate and high school sports, including writing for Cronkite News and Arizona PBS. More about Matthew Singer
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