The Red Sox won’t be interviewing Red Sox bench coach Matt Quatraro for their managerial vacancy. Per Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal, Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom cannot hire anyone from the Rays for a period of two years. The condition was put into Bloom’s contract when the Rays allowed him to be hired away by Boston, which certainly makes sense, given the number of Rays executives who have been poached by other organizations the past couple of years.
Expanding the agreement to include uniformed personnel also makes sense, given that the Rays and Red Sox are divisional rivals. One might imagine the Rays being more amenable to letting someone like Quatraro take a promotion with, say, the Pirates, a league away. They proved once again to be rather prescient in putting this agreement in place before letting Bloom join Boston.
Bloom has no shortage of candidates, however. James Rowson of the Marlins, Will Venable of the Cubs, Mike Bell of the Twins, Skip Schumaker of the Padres, Luis Urueta of the Diamondbacks, and Don Kelly of the Pirates are all rumored to be in the mix. And while none of those names carry the public weight of, say, Alex Cora, the rumored favorite for the position, the process is sincere, per Rob Bradford of WEEI. Bradford is quick to point out that Kevin Cash was an unknown of a similar ilk when Bloom and the Rays chose him to be their manager.
Alex Cora remains the favorite until we hear otherwise, but these other candidates have time to make an impression. Boston cannot speak with Cora until after the World Series when his suspension will be lifted.
“The Red Sox won’t be interviewing Red Sox bench coach Matt Quatraro…”
Huh?
When the first sentence in your story is confusing and inaccurate it sort of makes for a tough read.
Not to mention, now that I get to the comments it has been noted numerous times…and still not fixed.
Note to Zencka. Read the comments after you post and correct your errors.
The Red Sox can’t interview their own bench coach for their managerial opening?
Is this a misprint?
Oh, never mind. It is. Quatraro is TB bench coach.
Think you meant to say Matt Quatraro is the Rays bench coach.
If they go ahead and rehire Cora, I’ll never believe that all of this was anything more than a charade. It just seems like they’re trying to slow-walk us to that eventual conclusion in a way that will allow them to claim that there was a search and a process. I hope I’m wrong, but it seems inevitable.
Everything aside, I think Cora can be a very good manager
Sure, and that’s fine. In fact, he’s already been successful in that role. No denying that. It just seems like we’re headed to one of those all-too-common moments where we’re told that what we’re seeing is not what’s really happening. If you’re going to hire him, just do it and be straight about it. Again, I hope I’m wrong.
Even openly considering or not denying Cora is a candidate makes the Sox and MLB look worse today than when the story first broke. The way the league is married to fantasy and legalized gambling sends the wrong message regarding this and future cheating scandals. Wait until the first lawsuit makes it to trial over gambling losses resulting from. cheating. Class action damages will be staggering. At some point a suit will survive summary judgment motions and get in the hands of a jury.
I think Bloom wants to see all the candidates before settling on one. I hope it’s Cora, but he wouldn’t be doing his job if he did not talk to everyone on his radar.
What if cora says no and goes else where. The red sox need to have other options nothing wrong with them interviewing others
Cheaters often have success.
Rehiring Cora would be an awful look for the game.
The game doesn’t care. Stooge Manfred has run the league into the ground. Laughing stock of the sports world.
No, NBA and NFL are in far worse straits…. But Manfred is trying to fundamentally change the game
Is Manfred a king with ultimate power, or are the owners just letting him do what he wants, or do the owners actually agree with some or the garbage rule changes. I do not believe he is the monarch of the mlb with ultimate authority…..so there must be others to blame as well…..
Agreed. I can see Pete Rose losing his you know what if that happened. I know it’s two different things, but both have impacts to the game and it’s reputation, or at least I would guess that would be his argument.
Both impact the integrity of the sport. Strange how the league feels doing something that can lead to you impacting the game is far worse than doing something that actually impacts it.
Trades for Chapman and Osuna were worse
Dude plunges all of baseball into its worst cheating scandal in history and the Red Sox want to bring him back? Somebody needs to dipstick the Red Sox character reservoir, they sound like they are more than a few quarts low.
Nice try but this fake morality is probably just a smoke screen because chances are that you’re not a Red Sox fan and you just don’t want them to hire him back and have the chance to beat your team and be successful again.
So wanting the game to have some standards is “fake morality”? I really dont care who they hire. I just see hiring Cora as a complete abandonment of character. If character is unimportant to you, I imagine cheating is no big deal either, as long as you win. And no, I dont particularly follow the Red Sox, I think National League ball is much more compelling.
Empirejim – the spins people will put on phrases to avoid the truth is crazy. They use words like hatred and fake morality to spin a clearly wrong act into something that’s not so bad, completely understandable and easy to forgive.. The number of people who don’t see right and wrong as black and white seems to grow every year. Is it wrong to cheat? I say yes. Does a person deserve a second chance? Sure given they have taken some action to avoid doing it again. Did Cora? No. He went to Boston and blew his second chance. Does he deserve a third chance? Is this beginning to sound like the Darryl Strawberry story? No third chance until there are years of rehab and tons of public service performed. And then, a psychological evaluation of the individual to see if cheating is not likely to happen in the future. Cora is years away from what would have been a fair punishment. Thus, the Red Sox should turn the page.
As a Sox fan, I’ve been adamant that there is no place for PED users in the HOF and any rehab of Cora belongs in the minors.
Are you a Redsox fan? NOT!
There are plenty of other good managers !!!!!!!
I still am not sure where the media got the idea Cora is the favorite. Seems like a trial balloon the red sox put out there for a reaction but unless the Red Sox owners are even stupider than they have demonstrated in letting Betts leave, not even they can bend this low. All next season would be nothing but questions about the cheating scumbag Cora
I believe it was far less that the Red Sox management “let” Betts leave as it was Betts not wanting to stay in Boston, independent of any long-term deal that might have been offered. The reality is that regardless of John Henry’s actions, Boston remains a, shall we say, less than welcoming environment for athletes (and their families) of a certain ethnic background.
Gomez – ABSOLUTELY CORRECT
Had there not been the pandemic, how many believe Betts would have signed mid season with LA at any price? He made a decision to have the market set his value years ago, going year to year. COVID forced a change and truthfully, any one of us would have made the same decision.
Many players extend before the 7th year in case they get hurt. The league minimum and then three years of arbitration all go away if you can not play any more for some reason. Players used to sign the guaranteed contract as “security for their family”. Now to hear a player pass on $300,000,000 because it is not enough then say they wanted to stay is a LIE.
The Red Sox can hire whoever they darn well please. That said, maybe there’s a chestnut in the pile of candidates. I think Cora’s a smokescreen. I could be wrong … but I don’t think so! It’s a jungle out there.
I think you’re right. There’s no way chaim Bloom hires the old guy from the previous regime. There’s plenty of good baseball men out there that would do fantastic in the role of managing the Red Sox.
Gary – totally agree!
Unless he has no choice. If the decision was totally his, why not defuse things by saying the team is moving in another direction? By allowing rumors to float, it’s creating discussion while normally good can divide the fan base. The pandemic has made many of us realize we LOVE baseball but we no longer NEED it.
anybody that thinks Cora didn’t bring his cheating ways to the Sox is living in a fantasy world
He was almost assuredly hired so the Red Sox could understand how the Astros were cheating and to bring that cheating to Boston. He did.
Ever hear of forgiveness and regret?
What exactly did Cora and the team do that other teams didn’t do?
It’s a bad look for MLB to hire Cora; bad for the Red Sox; it’s bad for Bloom, highlighting that he really has no control.
Pick someone new, untainted.
Agreed.
Bloom doesn’t want Cora. Why all the interviews of Cora was going to come back?
Makes for good headlines and chatter but you’re right, it’s not happening. No way.
Media has their own agenda, and the truth is not on it
Off topic but I’m surprised Bruce Bochy’s name hasn’t come up for the White Sox position. He seems to be exactly what they say they’re looking for.
Not excited by any of these names but i do not want to see Cora back. Don Kelly and Skip Schumacker are interesting and I’m sure Billy McMillan will get an interview. I’m surprised we haven’t heard Mark Kotsay’s name yet
GAG ME
wish we could!!
Imagine that went for players too that stipulation would be every contract
I think it’s it’s kinda obvious there going to bring back Cora or bring in Urueta I don’t think they should give it to Tek yet he should be a bench coach first with next season being kinda a odd one I don’t want to see Tek get tossed into that kinda situation if the Sox spend money on this time then never mind I would want him but without a starting rotation worth a damn nobody starting out should want to start like that
Can’t have Tek now has a bench coach because then he’s the manager in waiting should the next one fail or the team looks stupid if he manages elsewhere.
Jason Varitek should be the new manager
As a manner of Red Sox Nation, is rather Bloom hire a different manager. If we rehire Cora, the next Championship we win with him at the helm will be criticized by many fans as illegitimate Bc of Cora’s sketchy past with the Asterisks and my Red Sox. While I don’t believe what we are accused of doing in 2018 was anywhere near what the Astros did, some fans are still whining and saying what we did was the same. (Even though we had no buzzers, trash cans, or hidden cameras.
*member
Are you criticized by sox fans or other fans ?
Sox fans won’t care as much about that because we will know it’s on they uppity up kinda like are pats they may have had deflated balls but they weren’t in the SB I believe ever team cheats some do it better then others that’s why teams and fans cry so they rat and tell
As for other fans who cares a wins a win it don’t bother me if they cry because of this or that it’s what they do
The reason it’s confusing is that the Astros used the media room like we did so we are both guilty of that minor infraction and deserve suitable punishment. The impact was minor to game results but it’s cheating and it deserves punishment.
The Astros also did the real time cheating where a person ralayed decoded signals to the dugout and they conveyed the signals through banging and other methods. That’s the part the Red Sox didn’t do and that cheating impacted up to 90 games and 3 post season series including Boston, NYY and LAD. That’s the big difference.
Baseball chose to minimize the punishment because the public did not contact their congressmen to the degree they did with steroids. So if the public doesn’t appear outraged apparently there is no reason to hurt the game by suspending players or the manager and coaches behind it. The light slap on the hands to Cora, Hinch and Beltran basically told them that if they plan on cheating again, next time don’t get caught.
Integrity wasn’t much of a consideration in handing out the penalties. The good of the game is all that mattered. Very disappointing.