The Boston Red Sox remain in full offseason mode, rebuilding after last season’s dead-last finish in the American League East. However, this hasn’t stopped the early 2023 season predictions from starting.
And the one about Red Sox manager Alex Cora is bold, to say the least.
With 2022 a grim chapter in the past, going forward next season won’t be easy. This is especially true for Cora. While Boston’s front office made a few additions like Kenley Jansen and Masataka Yoshida, they also lost some big names like Xander Bogaerts and Nathan Eovaldi.
This poses a serious challenge ahead. However, MLB.com writer Anthony Castrovins made an early prediction in Cora’s favor. He predicted Cora would win AL Manager of the Year, which, if it happens, would mark his first debut as a skipper in 2018.
“The Red Sox stunk in 2022, which if recent history holds, means they won’t stunk next year,” Castrovins wrote Wednesday. “Cora is one of the best baseball minds in the game, and most people have moved on from the sign-stealing scandals he was involved in. If the Sox were to climb out of the East cellar and somehow make it to October, Cora would be the obvious one. AL Manager of the Year Candidate. It’s hard to say at this point how they’ll do it, but then again, they’re known to oscillate between extremes, and this award rewards extreme overachievement.”
As Castrovins noted, the Red Sox have fluctuated in the standings in recent years. In the seasons prior to the 2013 and 2018 World Series victories, the Red Sox won zero playoff games. With Boston falling short of postseason contention in two of its last three campaigns, there is certainly room for improvement.
The Red Sox finished with a 78-84 record last season. Notably, they never found their stride against their division opponents and went 26-50. With plenty of time left in the offseason, the Red Sox could add more before spring training in February.
