Former Red Sox skipper Alex Cora is suspended for all of the 2020 season as a result of the role he played as the Astros’ bench coach in their 2017 sign-stealing scandal, but it may not be long before he’s in a prominent position again. If the World Baseball Classic takes place in 2021, Cora may be in line to manage or perhaps serve as the GM of the Puerto Rican team. On potentially hiring Cora, president of the Puerto Rican Baseball Federation Jose Quiles told Primera Hora (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com): “Of course we would consider it. We already know the work he does. He would be considered as much for general manager as he would be for manager.” Cora was the GM of the 2017 Puerto Rican club that lost just one game – the championship round against the United States.
Here’s more from around the game…
- High-end Tigers pitching prospect Casey Mize is holding out hope that he’ll make his major league debut in 2020, as Chris McCosky of the Detroit News writes. “It is very frustrating,” Mize told McCosky the coronavirus-forced shutdown. “This is the year I’d hoped to spend a lot of quality time in the big leagues and make my debut. And if there is a season, that is still my goal. That is still something I want to accomplish.” The 22-year-old Mize is keeping in shape by throwing five days a week, including a 40-pitch bullpen session every Wednesday. The No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft, Mize further proved himself as one of the best prospects in baseball last year when he threw 78 2/3 innings of 3.20 ERA ball during his Double-A debut.
- Contraction of minor league teams seems to be on the way, but the Cubs won’t be among the franchises affected, Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago details. They’re not in position to lose any of their affiliates, which Cubs senior director for player development Matt Dorey told Wittenmyer is “not surprising at all.” The Cubs have been impressed with the work that all of their lower level teams have put in, Dorey explained to Wittenmyer, and they believe those partnerships will continue. “It’s amazing how much investment in resources they’ve made to put our players in the best position to develop,” Dorey said.
- Changes to the minor league setup may allow the St. Paul Saints of the independent American Association to become an affiliated team, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America reported earlier this week. But the Saints are content in their current position. They’ve “had very little to do with this other than our name being mentioned,’’ executive vice president and general manager Derek Sharrer told Jim Paulsen of the Star Tribune. Sharrer added: “We’re a member of an independent league, and we’re very happy with it. Our heritage, our DNA, is tied into being independent. We’ve had success both on and off the field. We provide a brand of entertainment with a certain renegade independent feel to it, but we’re certainly flattered to be in the discussion.”
- The Nationals are the latest team that has committed to paying their non-player employees through the end of May, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. They join most of the league’s other clubs in that regard.
Ya know, I noticed Cora highlight his Puerto Rican heritage and his non-profit work when it was revealed he cheated. He didn’t exactly apologize, moreso he tried to deflect from his bad behavior with good behavior of his on the public record. My point is, Puerto Rico has other baseball legends. They and Cora should stop associating with one another. He should just go away for a while.
Cora spoke about his humanitarian efforts in Puerto Rico on the field post game after winning the World Series with the Red Sox. He also spoke about it day 1 of being hired and several times in between. In fact he mentioned it was one of the reasons he wanted to manage for the Red Sox as they agreed to support his efforts if he was hired. He has been providing aid and talking about it for years before this scandal broke.
What is your point Dave? His humanitarian efforts aren’t getting him back in to baseball’s good graces and judging by footage of Puerto Rico I’d say he hit better in the big leagues than his efforts on helping a poorly-run Puerto Rico. And since he seems to be clueless about his own team’s methods of ‘gaining that competitive edge’, no reason he should be hired ever again.
Like my wife always says, “Once a cheater, always a cheater.”
facts
Astro hitters knew the pitches that were coming because Alex Cora developed a system where they relayed information real-time from the video room by hitting trash cans. And we’re seriously talking about him coaching again because they are “familiar with his work.”
I was thinking the exact same thought. What exactly are they familiar with? Or his role as a “manager” in 2018?
It’s Good to see the Nationals (and other MLB teams taking care of the lowest wage employees that have the least resources to deal with long term unemployment. To be sure, this is as much a PR move as it is a social consciousness move. The motivation comes from the lessons learned after the ’94 strike and the 9/11 attacks. But credit is still do given they were not required to do this and were proactive about doing it on their own.
It would be nice to see this throughout the sports world as well as the entertainment industry.
Stay healthy
Stay positive (except your tests of course)
Keep the faith
This too will pass
Tigers owner Chris Illitch started that with the million dollar pledge to take care of baseball employees with the most to lose finanicially during this crisis….
Then, other teams and eventually the league stepped up//
the Cubs won’t be among the franchises affected
How can major league baseball let some teams have more franchises?
It probably has to do with financial stability and profitability of each particular franchise.
MiLB teams are cool, but the business side of the game can do away with low A ball teams that don’t turn a profit.
i dont get the “profit” part of it. teams dont own MiLB teams for a profit. probably very little profit on their own. the potential profit is probably just a solid byproduct of the devrlopmental system. if it was all about profit then you would have seen them do away with those teams on their own already.
considering the drastic push for improving pay for MiLB players, as well the the current pandemic, most of these teams are no longer financially capable without the parent club picking up the tab, in that case, the owners’ would just rather have 6 clubs rather than 7, or 5 instead of 6, etc.
Baseball is a business. Profitability is everything. Pace of play rules are driven by marketing and sales’ departments rather than teams actually wanting games to be shorter for any other reason.
If baseball insists on contracting the minor leagues, then we should sue to remove its antitrust exemption. Small cities and towns benefit from MiLB, and if MLB (not exactly hurting for revenue in usual, non-pandemic times, which is when it launched this nonsense) is so greedy that it won’t continue to support this, then let it compete as a business and not an exclusive cartel.
Americans also shouldn’t have to pay 2-10 times the price that people do in other countries for our prescription medication. But the government would have to agree. I am sure that THIS time the government will side with the consumer over the corporations that pay billions in taxes and get presidents elected.
because it has never been in the league’s interest to tell teams how to develop their players. it likely costs much more to host more teams, so the league probably just told them to handle it in the past.
There are MLB teams with more minor league teams than other teams right now.
There are ownerships like Reinsdorfs, that don’t spend money unless they can secure that money, from the taxpayers.
Cheaters still be glorified.. disgusting. He should be banned from all sports
@nitemare
And the liars should be banned from politics.
Somehow one snuck into the W H.
Barack
this is actually perfect
puerto rican leaders (officials) got caught lying and hoarding a whole warehouse of supplies for political gain and it made them look like the liars they always were
please please please. edit and remove my comments that contain no bad words or ill thoughts. only references to real life events. do it you commies
@Astro…..
Commies?
Socialists?
Reli Life Events?!!
Posting exaggerated talking points about political situations is not appropriate for this forum, I have been pleased with the lack of comments like this from the general population, but it seems there is one in every crowd.
As for the amount of traffic it seems pretty steady to me although the troll population seems to be blissfully hybernating
Sweet Dreams
we all know the jig is up. people are not visiting your site not because of wuhanflu but because the outright disgusting censorship of lawful and appropriate commenting. yes i said lawful.
Just go away, man. This is a privately owned site. They have the right to remove whatever comments they want.
Get lost fool! This is a baseball fans sight…A break from toxic politics, brainwashed people like you…
“Lawful” lol…are you suggesting that a privately-owned site violated your 1st Amendment rights?
Also lol at calling the OWNERS of PRIVATE PROPERTY “commies” for disagreeing with you and taking action to protect their property
Finally, get out of here with your racism. It’s not “Wuhanflu” and you’re not clever
Astro – It’s not the sensorship, but the bad attitude like yours that drive people away
You can count on him being back in the Red Sox dugout next year. Since they have not ruled that out 100%. Time heals all wounds and let’s face it MLB is a bunch of hypocrites they pick and choose what they want to prosecute.
Of course Cora will be the Red Sox manager in 2021. That was apparent from that sham of a press conference right through hiring a coach from his staff to be the interim manager. This was the plan from the get go.
You can look forward to seeing Cora in the Red Sox dugout next year. The Red Sox have not closed the door on him coming back. MLB prosecution of these alleged crimes stink they pick and choose who they want to go after
I want Cora back in Boston! He’s had a long time reflecting on his baaaad choices, so there is no reason for him not to return.
Tigers would not be promoting Casey Mize in 2020 even if there is not a season.
Why burn major league eligibility years on a last place 100 loss rebuilding club?!
It makes no sense.
Tigers are in no rush with Mize. He is looking at 2021 or 2022 at the earliest for major leagues as a regular…(it could even be 2023.)…
Of course Cora should be back. He was exonerated as manager of Sox. No wrongdoing whatsoever. The investigation proved that. He was suspended for playing a small role in the Houston scandal that was player driven and Beltran orchestrating it. Once he serves his suspension he can come back to any team. This will be a win win for mlb, Sox and the fans.
I think AJ, n team members, threw him under the bus. Kinda like…..Blame it on the guys not here.
If the St. Paul Saints were to become affiliated with an MLB team, I hope it’ll be the Twins. Being able to pay $10 to see the Twins stars of tomorrow would be fun if the Twins are on the road. Another good thing would be that they could send veterans on rehab assignments on the light rail from Target Field to CHS Field.
Cora, Hinch and the Astros are cheating scum bags!