The Boston Red Sox had high expectations going into the season, but after a 10-17 start to the season, the team fired Alex Cora and several members of his coaching staff.
Nothing was going well for the Red Sox early in the year. The stars were playing badly, fans were booing the team, Craig Breslow was under fire and there were "sell the team" chants at Fenway Park. Cora ended up taking the fall, and after seeing what Chad Tracy did, it's hard to argue the Red Sox did not make the right move.
However, Cora thinks he and his coaches were fired because the team's pitching struggled early.
"I honestly feel like we got fired, or I got fired, because we did not pitch in the month of April," said Cora on Baseball Isn't Boring. "It's as simple as that."
Cora went through a list of bad pitching performances in April, noting that things were simply not clicking. He also credited the Red Sox's opponents in those games. Specifically, saying Yordan Álvarez got to them in Houston. Cora also pointed out Garrett Crochet's struggles, Justin Slaten's injury and Garrett Whitlock's stint on the paternity list as other issues that held the pitching staff back.
From the start of the season until the day Cora was fired, the team had the 20th-best ERA in baseball, at 4.44. The Red Sox did end up getting pitching figured out, and Cora gave the team credit for that.
"We didn't pitch. We were in that situation in April because we didn't pitch," said Cora. "That was something I told the coaches before: 'We have to make sure we get it right.' I have to give them credit. The analytics department and the people involved. They made some adjustments very, very quickly to our pitching program and our pitching algorithms. We were on the verge of starting to pitch better. I think the proof was there. They made some adjustments. They pitched better. The reason they made it to the playoffs, like we set up to do in the offseason."
Ultimately, had the Red Sox pitched better early in the year, Cora may have ended up sticking around as the manager.