The Boston Red Sox on Sunday closed out their 2020 abbreviated season with a 9-1 win over the Atlanta Braves, but before the game, the team announced it wouldn’t be bringing Ron Roenicke back to manage the team in 2021.
Roenicke took over the team unexpectedly after former manager Alex Cora’s one-year suspension from Major League Baseball led to him and Boston mutually parting ways.
Naturally, there’s been speculation that Cora will return to lead the team next season, but Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom wasn’t playing into it.
“With respect to Alex, and I know this is a question I got a couple times during the season and I think you guys know where I stand on Alex, but I know I didn’t get into very much detail about it during the season,” Bloom said in his pregame press conference.
“That was really out of respect to Ron. I thought that Ron deserved to be evaluated without anybody looking over his shoulder. So I know that’s not the case anymore but I still don’t really want to get into any detail on my thoughts on Alex. I don’t want to say anything about Alex that I haven’t already said to Alex, and obviously I haven’t spoken to Alex. So there will be a time where I can get into more detail on Alex and his situation and my thoughts on it, but that time isn’t now so I’m hoping everybody will respect that.”
Cora led the Red Sox to a World Series title in his first year as manager. If Boston is considering bringing Cora back, it isn’t revealing his candidacy, and can’t speak with him until the Major League Baseball season comes to a close, anyway.
We’ll see how it all plays out in the offseason.
