Alex Cora outlines new season goals ahead of MLB Opening Day 2023 - “I’m not here to finish last; I’m here to win championships"
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora feels he has enough motivation to lead his team to a successful 2023 season.
Cora has been around the baseball world for the last 25 years. As a player, his most notable stints included a debut Majors spell with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox.
He was part of the 2007 Red Sox World Series winning roster. Cora, after turning to dugout jobs, has also tasted success, first winning a World Series in 2017 with the Astros and then leading the Red Sox to a World Series win in 2018 as manager.
However, the Red Sox haven't been able to repeat their 2018 accomplishments since then, only making it to the playoffs in 2021 where they fell to the Astros in the ALCS. Last season, they posted a 78-84 record and finished last in the American League East division.
Cora feels that in the upcoming season, he has to push his team to get the results he wants:
"There’s a lot of reasons out there that I can go out there and do my job the way I know I can do it. It’s not that last year I didn’t do it, just plain and simple, we sucked. ... I’ve just got to get locked in on my group and keep pushing them. We finished last, last year. That’s not acceptable. I’m not here to finish last. I’m here to win championships.” Cora added.
Alex Cora hints at incidents that have been up and going before the season
Even though the Red Sox manager didn't specify the offseason incidents that lit up a fire in him, Alex Cora said that he has taken them personally.
He didn't choose to comment on the release of Evan Drellich’s book, “Winning Fixes Everything,” which detailed the Astros’ cheating scheme in 2017. That seems to be the only offseason incident involving him.
“I’ve got a lot of reasons to go out there and guide this team to where we want to go,” Alex Cora said. “I always have the same expectations just like the fan base and the organization. But there’s a lot of things that happened in the offseason that I took personal. It’s not baseball-related.
"I think it’s life-related. If I needed a chip on my shoulder, then I just got another one. I don’t want to say I’m more locked in than in previous years, but people (lit) a fire under me in the offseason, personally."
Regardless of the attitude Alex Cora brings to the clubhouse, at the end of the day, the Red Sox roster will be tested in their pursuit of a deep playoff run.