Red Sox players voice their displeasure with Alex Cora's firing originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The ramifications of the Boston Red Sox's firing Alex Cora and his coaching staff are beginning to take hold. After a press conference on Sunday, it was revealed that Cora’s firing was the call of the Red Sox chief baseball officer, Craig Breslow, per Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy.
“Yeah, look, Craig leads our baseball operation, and he's made several bold decisions and recommendations,” Kennedy said at a press conference on Sunday. “And this was one of them [firing Cora], and we fully support it, and that's why we took the action we took.”
Despite Kennedy and Breslow being happy with their decision, the Red Sox players aren't thrilled.
So far, two players have spoken to the media regarding Cora’s firing: shortstop Trevor Story and right-hander Garrett Whitlock. Both were displeased with the firing, with Story telling Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com that, "some of the best coaches in the world didn’t get a fair shot.”
Whitlock’s answer was more revealing, saying neither owner, John Henry nor Kennedy, spoke to the players during a meeting. Instead, Breslow addressed them for two minutes, according to Tim Healey of the Boston Globe, while interim manager Chad Tracy spoke for roughly five minutes.
More News:Report: Red Sox clean house by firing Alex Cora and his staff
Whitlock also told Healey that the players weren't invited to ask questions, and “They made it very clear that we get paid to play baseball and we need to just focus on playing baseball."
Given this tension in the Red Sox clubhouse, Tracy now has the added task of rebuilding the fractured relationship the players have with the front office. At 10-17, the Red Sox sit eight games out of first place in the American League East.
A change in the coaching staff could be what gets the Red Sox back on track, but time will tell.
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