If the Boston Red Sox have any advantage in the Alex Bregman sweepstakes, Alex Cora is a big part of it.
Cora’s history with Bregman is well-documented, as the former was the bench coach on Bregman’s controversial Houston Astros World Series champion team in 2017. At this time last year, we were talking about how Cora’s relationship with Bregman might help the Red Sox land him, and that bore fruit.
Having opted out of the final two years and $80 million on his contract, there are plenty of questions remaining about the Red Sox’s willingness to front the sort of long-term offer Bregman is seeking. How does Cora feel about the situation?
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Cora addresses Bregman’s free agency
Speaking on the Friday episode of the “Section 10 Podcast,” Cora said he remains in contact with Bregman every day and strongly hinted that he wanted the three-time All-Star back in a Red Sox uniform, which he seemed to think was at least a decent possibility.
“I text him everyday. We go back and forth,” Cora said. “Obviously, cannot go into details and all that, but it’s a guy that really like, we respect. What he did last year was what everybody thought he was gonna do. That was very simple.
“The leadership part of it is real. The player is real. The defense is amazing, and he’s a good guy, and I truly believe he actually embraced the Boston thing. The Sam Adams commercial, I mean, cmon bro. That guy, he gets it. It’s a guy, obviously, he’s a game-changer, and he had the right to opt out, but at the same time, we know that he enjoyed playing in Boston and at Fenway.”
Cora never misses an opportunity to gush about Bregman, and that matters. When you’re thinking about committing nine figures to someone, you want to know they’ll be a model citizen and help push the winning culture forward, and that’s become Bregman’s calling card.
All that said, the Red Sox still have about a thousand permutations of how this offseason could play out, and some don’t include Bregman. To some degree, it comes down to chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s priorities and how he acts on them.
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