Alex Cora looked like a lock to be named a finalist for the American League Manager of the Year after leading the Boston Red Sox to a 92-win season in a year many had them missing the postseason altogether.
Boston defied odds and defeated the New York Yankees in the AL Wild Card Game and the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Division Series before falling to the Houston Astros in the AL Championship series.
The Red Sox also were in first place for over 80 days in the AL East, and remained in the postseason race despite a COVID-19 outbreak toward the end of the season, Matt Barnes struggling in the second half and a slew of other pitching problems.
Despite a 92-win season (much of which was done without Chris Sale), Cora was not named a finalist. But he's not taking it personally, he said, because he's not focused on individual awards.
"I'll take what everybody's saying right now, but like I told somebody today, my goal and our goal is not to win individual awards," Cora said during an appearance on "Merloni & Fauria." "Our goal was to win the World Series and we fell short. You look (at) what happened in the World Series and how it went down, and you think the way we did things and some things we probably could have done better. Hopefully we can get better for next year and be on the stage where the Astros and the Braves were. Hopefully we can have that trophy at the end."
The Red Sox have some areas of need to address this offseason -- mainly in the pitching department -- which chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom acknowledged desire to "go out and add talent" in that area.
Boston already has reportedly offered Eduardo Rodriguez a multi-year deal on top of his $18.4 million qualifying offer, but with uncertainties in the bullpen after declining MartÃn Pérez and Garrett Richards' options, the team has some work to do ahead of the 2022 season.
