The season's first managerial casualty. Plus: The front-office member to follow

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If you told me when I signed off for the weekend that I’d be writing about a managerial firing today, I would have guessed it would be the Phillies, Astros or Mets, since those teams have spent the back half of April trying to out-stink each other. The Red Sox weren’t exactly thriving, either, but it was still shocking to learn they fired manager Alex Cora and a slew of coaches on Saturday. Cora, who posted a .534 winning percentage since the Red Sox hired him in 2017, is a well-respected manager, both around the league and — as Red Sox players made very evident after the firing — in the clubhouse. Trevor Story was perhaps the most vocal, saying he felt like the coaching staff “didn’t get a fair shot.” From Spencer Nusbaum’s story: (Story) also said the message and explanation from (chief baseball officer) Craig Breslow were not satisfactory and that he needed to talk to Breslow “today.” Story said he wished the clubhouse had been consulted first, but that’s “not the nature of the business.” It didn’t immediately appear that Cora shared that frustration. He posted a one-word update: “Happy!” Sounds potentially messy. And as Britt Ghiroli reports: that’s still one more word than owner John Henry has said publicly while his team is in turmoil. But there was one more detail about the firing that felt too on-the-nose to be real: As captured by Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the team hired a bus to pick up the fired staff members from the hotel in Baltimore. Let’s just zoom in on the side of that bus … Oh dear. Cora has been replaced by interim manager Chad Tracy, who managed many of the Red Sox players while they were in the minor leagues. More managers: Tyler Kepner gives us a list of candidates who might be next up for open jobs. More Red Sox: Among those let go was Jason Varitek, who was “reassigned.” But Cotillo reports that he may not be staying with the organization after all. Throwing it to you Ken, for more Boston fallout. It probably won’t be during the season, though the John Henry ownership certainly wouldn’t be above it. Heck, the Red Sox could win the World Series — unlikely as that might be with the roster Breslow constructed — and it would only spare him for so long. Ask Dave Dombrowski. Ask Ben Cherington. Ask Theo Epstein, who once escaped the Henry regime in a gorilla suit, only to return, win a second Series and then bolt for the Cubs. Oh, to hear the honest thoughts of Epstein, back with the Fenway Sports Group as a part-owner and senior adviser, on the latest installment of As The Red Sox Turn. It’s an endless game of survivor at Fenway Park, only no one ever survives. Not top executives. Not superstars like Mookie Betts, Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman. Not managers like Terry Francona, John Farrell and, now, Cora after the team’s 10-17 start. A participant in previous Red Sox soap operas, Cora is not exactly an innocent victim. He won a power struggle in 2023 over Breslow’s predecessor, Chaim Bloom. And for all his well-documented communication skills, he failed last season to talk Devers into playing first base, a position Devers embraced immediately after getting traded to the Giants. The Red Sox have made the playoffs only twice since winning the 2018 World Series. Cora was the manager the entire time except in 2020, when he was suspended for his role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. Of course, he also worked for three different heads of baseball operations, with the Red Sox careening from one team-building strategy to another. Cora wasn’t the one who last offseason failed to trade from the Red Sox’s surplus of young outfielders. The one who blew the pursuit of Bregman in free agency. The one who then pivoted to run prevention, leaving the Red Sox with an offense that requires Roman Anthony at 21 to be the next David Ortiz. Breslow did all that. And while the decision to fire Cora likely was not his alone — the Sox brass spent Saturday night getting their stories straight, in advance of one of their patented postmortems — Breslow’s fingerprints seemed rather apparent in the dismissals of five coaches and reassigning of another, game-planning coordinator and franchise fixture Jason Varitek. As noted by The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey, Breslow kept pitching coach Andrew Bailey, a close friend from his playing days. The other Breslow-selected members of the pitching group also were spared, even though the Red Sox began the day ranked 24th in ERA. It’s not like we haven’t written about the Mets in this space recently. But after being swept by the Rockies over the weekend, they’re simply the biggest and most perplexing story in the sport. After missing the playoffs last year, New York made massive changes to its roster. But after a 12-game losing streak was snapped by two wins last week, the weekend saw the Mets hit what they have to hope is rock bottom. Because if this ain’t it, it’s about to get apocalyptic. The Mets are 9-19, tied with the Phillies for the sport’s worst record. This feels like a floor falling out, and as absurd as it sounds to say in April, it feels like time is running out to salvage the season. It was just a two-game series between the Diamondbacks and Padres in Mexico City over the weekend, but they packed a week’s worth of drama into those 18 innings. On Saturday, the DBacks took a 4-0 lead early, then watched as two Ty France solo home runs bookended a Padres scoring explosion that included a four-run seventh inning. That game also saw Mason Miller break a franchise record by extending his scoreless streak to 34 2/3 innings. Then yesterday, the script was flipped, as the Padres jumped out to an early lead of 6-0, thanks largely to two home runs by Manny Machado. But just like the day before, it was the seventh inning that undid the lead: What had been a 7-2 score was quickly turned into an 8-7 deficit, with a Tim Tawa grand slam doing the bulk of the damage. By the time it was all over, the DBacks had a 12-7 win. A month into the season, we’re starting to see trends in ABS challenge usage. Zack Meisel breaks down how teams varied in their approach. On Saturday, Phillies starter Zack Wheeler made his first start since last August. He took a no-decision, but the Phillies snapped a 10-game losing streak. On Friday, Cody Stavenhagen wrote about Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson finding his power at just the right time. Torkelson has now homered in five straight games. With all the recent extensions signed by pre-arbitration players, Jim Bowden tells us who could be next — and why it would be borderline impossible for the Pirates to extend Paul Skenes right now. Next in our “three best leaders I played with” series: Ryan Dempster, who pitched for 16 years with the Cubs, Marlins, Reds, Red Sox and Rangers. Eno Sarris analyzes some recent outings by starting rookie pitchers to measure their MLB readiness. Yankees are calling up Jasson Domínguez. They also demoted 2024 AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil to Triple A after yet another rough outing yesterday in Houston. Shohei Ohtani’s bat is waking up. He snapped out of a slump yesterday with his first three-hit game of the season. He also snapped a career-high 59-plate-appearance homer-less streak as the Dodgers beat the Cubs 6-0. Speaking of, the Cubs are off to a great start, but they’re also churning through pitchers at an alarming rate. A few top-notch arms are nearing returns from the IL. Jared Jones (Pirates), Nick Lodolo (Reds) and Trey Yesavage (Blue Jays) should be back on their respective rosters soon. Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The Instagram reel showing Dalton Rushing’s alleged message for Jung Hoo Lee. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms