Red Sox’s Alex Cora Reiterates ‘Message’ In Alex Verdugo Situation

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora is holding everyone accountable.

With less than two months left to play, the Red Sox have an opportunity to muster up a late-season run and clinch a playoff berth. That’s still on the table for Boston despite having gone 1-4 to begin a crucial 10-game homestand. But it won’t come easy. The American League Wild Card race remains tight and the Red Sox, recently, have done justice by their campaign to the finish line, falling apart in the worst possible time to sit dead last in the AL East.

Knowing the totality of the circumstances at hand, Cora felt the need to set the record straight during Saturday’s in-house situation involving Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo.

“You have to take a stance and you have to take care of the rest of the clubhouse, right? It’s not only a one-man show, it’s 26 guys and even more than that, right?” Cora said Wednesday on WEEI’s “Gresh & Fauria” show. “The message should be loud and clear to those kids that are coming up. The prospects and everybody that will be part of the organization in the upcoming years. We expect certain things out of players and we gotta be available on a daily basis for us to win ballgames.”

Without getting into the specifics of what went down before Cora yanked Verdugo out of the lineup just hours before taking the field, calling it a manager’s decision, Boston’s skipper insinuated that availability was the key factor — something that’s worked against the team all season long.

Cora has been subjected to adapting with the healthy pieces in place, normalizing relief pitchers fulfilling opener roles in order to keep the staff intact.

The Red Sox just got Trevor Story back on the field after missing the first 112 games of the season, plus the arrivals of Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck are still pending. Therefore, lacking in the availability department isn’t ideal, especially for the Red Sox.

“Alex is a good player. He’s a really good player,” Cora said. “He can do a lot of things on the field. It’s just a matter of that day, we needed to take a stand, I needed to take a stand and I hope the message was loud and clear.”