New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone has an ally in an unlikely place — the Boston Red Sox dugout.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora heaped praise on the oft-criticized Yankees skipper on Tuesday, almost a month after New York signed Boone to a two-year extension.
“They’re a really good team, managed by one of the best in the business,” he said, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “Yeah, Gerrit is out, but Gerrit was out last year and they made it to the World Series. … That guy over there, man, I know [Aaron Boone] gets a lot of [crap] from people. But he’s one of the best in the business.”
Boone has spent seven seasons as Yankees manager, finally taking them to the World Series last October, where they lost in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is 603-429 overall with six playoff appearances in that time, but his failure to win a World Series, in-game blunders and apparent regression from several key players over the years have kept him on the hot seat.
Cora, meanwhile, won the World Series with Boston in 2018, his first season as a big-league manager. He’s only brought the Red Sox to the postseason once since then, however, losing to the Houston Astros in the 2021 ALCS. Cora also missed 2020 after the team fired him amid the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. They re-hired him a year later.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora enters 2025 with some pressure
Some may be surprised to see Cora at Red Sox spring training at all this year. Last season, Cora was riding out the final year of his contract and few expected him back.
Now, Cora enters the season trying to avoid a fourth consecutive season without a winning record (the Red Sox went exactly .500 last year). Part of that is Boston’s front office not putting a winning team on the field over the past few years.
A lack of talent cannot fairly fall on the manager, but it often does. The three-year, $21 million extension the Red Sox signed him to last year was met with mixed reactions from Red Sox fans, taking it as a sign that the status quo was just fine at Fenway.
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