TORONTO — Manager Alex Cora has spoken confidently in recent days about how the Red Sox will be better in 2023.
But why is Cora so confident? The future looks as uncertain as ever for the Red Sox who have seven players — Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Tommy Pham, Rich Hill and Matt Strahm — who have the ability to become free agents. Possibly $121.5 million is coming off the books. Bogaerts is expected to opt out of the final three years, $60 million left on his contract. Pham has a $12 million mutual option. And chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom must decide whether to extend qualifying offers to Martinez, Eovaldi and Wacha.
“I do believe in the offseason, we’ll attack it the right way,” Cora said. “There’s a plan in place, starting with Kiké (Hernández).”
The Red Sox already signed Hernández to a one-year, $10-million contract.
“That tells you where we’re at, how we think about the future,” Cora said. “Obviously there’s no promises. You’ve just gotta be optimistic and that’s the way I see it. Obviously, this division is not going to get any easier. But I don’t believe it’s going to be one of those that from now on somebody’s going to win 108 games in this division. Everybody’s going to be banging heads the next two or three years.”
The Red Sox’s 9-0 loss to the Blue Jays here Friday guaranteed that they will have a losing record and finish last in the AL East for the fifth time in 11 years.
Cora’s team has gone 23-48 against AL East teams. The Sox have gone 52-34 against everyone else, including 6-1 against the Mariners who clinched a playoff berth Friday.
“Right now, we’re in last place,” Cora said. “I bet going into next season, we’re going to be picked to finish last in the division. And it is what it is. You have to live with that, right? But I’ve seen other weird stuff happen in this game. Last year, nobody thought we were going to make it to the playoffs and we did. This year, everybody thought we were going to make it to the playoffs and we didn’t make it. So the way I put it is we’re going to put (in) work in the offseason. The front office has been very clear — and ownership — that we have to get better in every aspect. And from my end, we have to be better with whatever talent we have next year. So it’s a total team effort, organizational effort, and we’ll go from there.”
Red Sox president Sam Kennedy recently told MassLive.com’s Fenway Rundown podcast it is “mind boggling” that people think the Red Sox are cheap.
Boston plans to spend money on its own players and free agents this offseason.
“We’re not closing the door on a lot of these guys (pending free agents),” Cora said. “Everybody thinks like everybody is going to be gone. Some of them are going to be here, some of them aren’t going to be here. But from my standpoint, from my seat, what they did in ‘18 ... that was probably the best team in the history of this organization. The way they went about it that year was crazy. What they did last year was amazing. And the support they gave me in ‘20 from afar.”
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