Red Sox fire manager Alex Cora, clean house amid terrible start

Alex Cora against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Red Sox fire manager Alex Cora, clean house amid terrible start

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Apr 25, 2026 8:06 PM ET

Saturday was a rare good day for the Boston Red Sox this season as their bats finally came to life and a dominant 17-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles, improving their record to 10-17. The latter number is the problem, and it resulted in Red Sox management completely gutting their coaching staff after the game. Including manager Alex Cora.

Red Sox completely clean house, fire Alex Cora and most of coaching staff

ESPN's Jeff Passan reported on Saturday evening that, along with Cora, the Red Sox also fired hitting coach Peter Fatse, bench coach Ramon Vazquez, game-planning coach Jason Varitek and third-base coach Kyle Hudson.

Cora still had two years remaining on his contract and has been with the Red Sox since the start of the 2018 season.

During his tenure with the Red Sox, they made the playoffs three times, including the 2018 season, where they won the World Series.

The Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora, hitting coach Peter Fatse, bench coach Rámon Vazquez and game-planning coach Jason Varitek, sources tell ESPN.

While the Red Sox won today, they are 10-17 and in last in the American League East. Massive change is coming in Boston.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 25, 2026

Boston entered the 2026 season with massive expectations and a lineup full of young players that the team hoped would be stars. But that lineup has been a major issue, and even with Saturday's 17-run outburst are still only tied for 19th in the league in runs scored.

Whether all of that is on the manager and coaching staff is certainly up for debate, but when you have a manager who has been there for so long and a team with big expectations that is struggling, that's usually a time for changes to get made.

It's also the sign of a desperate front office that is starting to realize maybe it put together a flawed team and needs to do something to try and shake things up. Maybe it will. But if it doesn't, that same front office runs out of cards to play and puts itself in the crosshairs for change.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on X @AGretz

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