Following the departure of Ron Roenicke, there's plenty of speculation about Alex Cora potentially rejoining the Boston Red Sox as manager.
That decision is in the hands of chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
Red Sox president Sam Kennedy tiptoed around Cora questions during Monday's press conference while emphasizing ownership won't have a say in the new hire.
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"I just want to be very clear that Chaim and his team will run the process and ultimately make the decision on who the next manager of the Boston Red Sox will be," said Kennedy. "We are not going to talk about candidates. Right now, I'm sure at some point it will be appropriate to, and Chaim will address that. My job as president and CEO is to run the organization day to day.
"Hopefully we do a good job of putting the right people in the right places to make those decisions and trust and empower them to make those decisions. When it comes to the managerial selection for the Boston Red Sox, that rests squarely with our baseball operation and ultimately with Chaim Bloom."
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Bloom addressed the Cora questions on Sunday, and he couldn't have been much more vague with his answer.
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"With respect to Alex -- and I know this is a question I got a couple times during the season and I think you guys know where I stand on Alex -- but I know I didn't get into very much detail about it during the season," Bloom said. "That was really out of respect to Ron. I thought that Ron deserved to be evaluated without anybody looking over his shoulder. So I know that's not the case anymore, but I still don't really want to get into any detail on my thoughts on Alex.
"I don't want to say anything about Alex that I haven't already said to Alex and obviously I haven't spoken to Alex. So there will be a time where I can get into more detail on Alex and his situation and my thoughts on it, but that time isn't now, so I'm hoping everybody will respect that."
Whoever the next manager is, they'll be tasked with turning things around in Year 1 following what was a disastrous 2020 campaign for the Red Sox. They finished with the fourth-worst record in MLB at 26-34.