Craig Breslow Offers Update On Extension Talks With Alex Cora

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora is in the final year of his current contract, but he has said he is in no rush to discuss his future with the club.

“I think the future is the Red Sox and getting these guys better,” Cora said at Red Sox Winter Weekend in January. “‘I’d be very selfish if I start talking about Alex Cora and what the future holds. The best way to do it is to be a good teammate, like I’ve always been. Let’s take care of 2024.”

So far with a 5-2 record to begin the season, Boston is off to a tremendous start and Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow offered insight into the team’s early success, as well as where extension talks with Cora stand during his appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” on Wednesday.

“Conversations about Alex’s future will take place between Alex and me,” Breslow said. “I don’t think that it makes sense to speak to a specific timeline outside of saying that neither Alex nor I want this to be a distraction. I think we’re both very, very capable of preventing it from becoming a distraction.

“There are certain realities that we can only face by living through a season that are really, really important in establishing the trust and accountability and transparency required for a really strong and lasting relationship. I’m very excited about the start that we’ve gotten off to.”

Breslow added that when he came to the Red Sox in the offseason he was made aware of the culture change Cora was focusing on in the clubhouse.

“I’ve gotten an appreciation for kind of what the culture had been,” Breslow explained. “(…) In talking to Alex, it became clear that he wanted to raise the level of competition, candor and accountability. And those were all things that I believe in very, very strongly. So, we set out to do that from very early on in my days here.”

The Red Sox players apparently bought into the change Cora instilled in the clubhouse and it was evident to Breslow as early on as spring training.

“There was competition surrounding everything we did,” Breslow said. “(…) That ideally carries into the season, where we’re competing for every pitch, every ground ball and every fly ball, and holding each other to the standard that we’ve come to expect in Boston.”

Boston is in the midst of a 10-game road trip to start the season and because of the outstanding pitching the Red Sox have gotten, they are riding a four-game winning streak with a 5-2 overall record.