The Boston Red Sox have been one of the top teams lately and seem to be enamored by what manager Alex Cora has done since taking over. ESPN’s Jeff Passon reported that the two sides were in contract negotiations about Alex Cora’s contract. He was on the last year of his contract and Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that they agreed to a three-year contract for more than $21 million over the life of the deal.
Cora’s new deal would make him the second-highest paid manager in MLB, only trailing Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell’s five-year, $40 million deal signed this offseason. This is the sixth overall season that Alex Cora has been the manager for the Boston Red Sox and has a 494-416 record (.543 winning percentage) and made the playoffs twice, including the 2018 World Series. Let’s take a look if the team is going to be able to play well enough to make the postseason.
Can the Boston Red Sox make the playoffs this season?
As of this writing, the Boston Red Sox are in prime position to make the playoffs in one way or another. The team is 54-46 so far and are six games back in the AL East while only a singular game out of the AL Wild Card. This Red Sox team has been overperforming their pre-season expectations, especially when they had starting pitcher Lucas Giolito have to get Tommy John surgery before the season even began.
This Boston Red Sox team has been producing and a lot of the reason has been their ability to hit as the team has done incredibly well as they are fourth in MLB with a .753 team OPS. They have outstanding hitters with guys like third baseman Rafael Devers and center fielder Jarren Duran, who each have better than a .840 OPS this season. Boston has been heating up as they are 25-17 since the beginning of June. Their young pitchers are also stepping up and really performing better than what was expected.
This Red Sox team has been doing well and need to continue winning games. This Boston team has actually been underperforming inside of Fenway Park with a 24-25 record at home. It will be interesting to see if they can improve and make a move at the MLB Trade Deadline and bolster the roster to the point where they can drastically step up and climb up the standings during the dog days of summer.
