The 2026 season hasn’t gone the way anyone around the Boston Red Sox had planned, on or off the field. Those struggles led to the dramatic firing of manager Alex Cora and several staff members. That also led to the promotion of Triple-A manager Chad Tracy to the big leagues.
It might be easy for Cora to have some animosity toward the manager who took his job, but he doesn’t. In fact, as Ken Rosenthal reported in The Athletic, the two have even stayed in communication and maintained a strong relationship.
“It’s what we do,” Cora said. “We are a fraternity, I learned that at a young age, and you have to pay it forward. You don’t forget that no matter your role in baseball.”
Tracy is now 40 years old and has been managing the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox since 2022. That allowed the two to build a personal relationship, working key roles within the Red Sox organization.
“Chad has always been there for me. From the moment he joined the organization, I felt like I had a teammate who saw things the way I did and who was always willing to listen when I needed someone to talk to about team matters,” Cora said.
Chad Tracy Has Leaned on Alex Cora While Managing the Boston Red Sox
GettyBoston Red Sox manager Chad Tracy
Being thrust into managing any MLB team is difficult. It’s that much harder when it’s a struggling Boston Red Sox team in the middle of the season. So, Chad Tracy has taken to leaning on his network, which does include Alex Cora.
“Alex has been incredible to me. The details of it, I’ll leave out. But we’ve talked a handful of times and he has expressed nothing but support for me. It doesn’t surprise me. He’s an amazing human being,” Tracy said.
“We’ve talked. And that was comforting. Being able to still talk to him, it meant a lot to me that first couple of weeks.”
Another key figure who Tracy has to lean on is his father, Jim Tracy. Jim had been an MLB manager with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Colorado Rockies. That time with the Dodgers gave him his own personal relationship with Cora, who played for Los Angeles at the time. Cora still remembers him fondly.
“Jim was the manager that really gave me the opportunity to grow as a player,” Cora said. “He accepted me as a thinking player, not as the most talented player. Without him, probably I don’t become a manager.”
Of course, for Chad Tracy, this gives him another figure with managerial experience who he can lean on. The question is if he wants to go to his father or someone with a perspective on this Red Sox team, like Cora.
The Boston Red Sox Are at the Tipping Point in 2026
GettyRed Sox CBO Craig Breslow
The Boston Red Sox decided to fire Alex Cora when they were sitting at 10-17. At the time, it was widely seen as an act of preservation by CBO Craig Breslow, who has been heavily criticized for his communication and roster construction.
Since then, things haven’t improved for the Red Sox under Chad Tracy. Boston is 27-36, or 17-19 under Tracy. That’s good for 10.5 games out of the AL East and fourth-worst record in the AL on the whole.
This is also at a time when the Red Sox are at a tipping point in the season. For Breslow, who fired Cora on the argument that the team was supposed to win now, selling off pieces would be admitting the season is a failure. However, it might already be too late to buy new pieces and improve on the field to the point where the Red Sox are actually competitive.
It’s no surprise that some reports have the Red Sox looking for a right-handed power bat, while others have them trading away almost the entire bullpen.
Ex-Red Sox Manager Alex Cora Opens Up About Communication with Team