Well, the Philadelphia Phillies missed out on their top choice of manager for next season. Former Boston Red Sox skipper Alex Cora informed the club on Tuesday that he’ll be sitting out the 2027 season, leaving the Phillies to sort through their B-list of candidates. Frankly, who can blame him? From Cora’s perspective, it’s hard to see why the Phillies would be an appealing destination.
All of the Cora speculation dates back to April of this year when beloved Phillies manager Rob Thomson was sacrificed after the club’s horrifying 9-19 start. In a press conference explaining his decision, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski candidly told reporters that he offered the Phillies job to Cora, who himself had been cut loose by the Red Sox just days before.
Evidently Cora had decided to spend the rest of the season with his family in Puerto Rico instead of jumping back into a managerial gig.
The history between the two reaches back to 2018 when the Red Sox that had been assembled by Dombrowski won a World Series with Cora at the helm. The two men overlapped Boston tenures for the 2018 and 2019 seasons before Dombrowski was canned at the tail end of the latter campaign.
Apparently Cora made a heck of an impression on his old boss, as Dombrowski claimed in April, “I think Alex Cora is one of the finest managers in the game of baseball. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Hall of Fame managers like Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland… I think if Alex Cora decides to keep managing, he has a chance to be in that same category, that’s how good he is.” High praise indeed.
Considering the mountains of praise Dombrowski heaped on Cora, as well as the fact that he publicly stated he offered Cora the Phillies job, the prevailing sentiment this offseason has been the Phillies’ managerial post is Cora’s to lose. Well, it seems he threw Dombrowski a curveball when he declined to take the position this week, and it’s hard to blame him for his decision.
First and foremost, Alex Cora is not hurting for money. The Red Sox are still on the hook for his $7.25 million salary in 2027, meaning he can simply kick his feet up and go on an African safari while still being paid quite handsomely. The Phillies may have offered him a boatload of cash, but he’s already got that. It’s hard to blame the man for turning down even more millions in order to spend time with his young family.
The Phillies don't have a bright enough future to convince Alex Cora to come to town
Then there are the baseball-related reasons. Alex Cora is a World Series champion manager who has made plenty of money. He can afford to be picky when it comes to his next job, if he even wants one. In that case, why would he choose the Phillies?
The Phils are clearly at or near the end of this core’s competitive window. The bottom is beginning to fall out with aging stars Aaron Nola, Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto, and who knows how much longer Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Zack Wheeler can hold off Father Time? Add to that a miserable farm system and bloated payroll, and the Phillies’ future looks pretty bleak.
Now, Cora may not particularly care what the 2032 Phillies will look like, but he certainly would want to win with the 2027 team. However, is that a realistic goal? The Harper/Schwarber/Wheeler-led core has produced diminishing postseason returns for five straight years, and the lack of an effective player development system means reinforcements are probably not coming. Quite frankly, this is the team the Phillies are stuck with, and it’s just not good enough.
With all of that in mind, it’s easy to see why Alex Cora passed on a stressful job located in an unforgiving city beholden to a fanbase that’s out for blood. Could that opportunity really have trumped an extraordinarily well-paid year-long vacation? Never in a million years.
Add us as a preferred source on Google