Unexpected: Red Sox Fire Alex Cora; The Timing, The How & The Why; When Will We See Cora Back in the Dugout?

Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney

ESPN Radio

Sports

3.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Boston Red Sox fire manager Alex Cora, in a stunning early-season move. Buster Olney and Rob Bradford (WEEI, Baseball Isn't Boring) discuss the timing of the firing, how it went down, the power struggle with GM Craig Breslow, what the Red Sox are losing in Cora, John Henry's disappearing act, and when they think we'll see Cora managing again. Then, ESPN's Jesse Rogers stops by to talk about what kind of impact new Red Sox manager Chad Tracy can have on the lineup, Breslow's leadership style, the Chicago Cubs coming off a ten-game winning streak, and Pete Crow-Armstrong searching for his superstar form. 0:00 Welcome 0:30 Rob Bradford (WEEI, Baseball Isn't Boring) 0:53 Boston Red Sox fire Alex Cora 4:21 Power struggle between Cora and GM Craig Breslow 10:05 Who's to blame in all of this 13:24 John Henry's stewardship as owner 15:41 When will we see Cora back in the dugout? 17:56 Can new Red Sox manager Chad Tracy unlock the lineup? 19:49 Breslow's leadership style 24:09 NL East 27:23 Chicago Cubs 30:56 Pete Crow-Armstrong maturing on the field 35:07 Bleacher Tweets CALL THE SHOW: 406-404-8460 EMAIL THE SHOW: BleacherTweets@gmail.com REACH OUT ON X: #BLEACHERTWEETS Follow The Baseball Tonight Podcast on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHeL6O-A-ASmSMwbSCFvPKEq1Cslo_lrw Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5FG6xCcd338SgZjZ9urHRI Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/baseball-tonight-with-buster-olney/id137699414 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network and service.
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0:17.3	Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app.
0:24.6	It's all the ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now.
0:31.9	This is the baseball tonight podcast for Monday, April 27, 2006, and today will be better than yesterday.
0:39.8	I'm Buster Only working from my home in Montana, where I've been busy working the phones
0:43.6	on this crazy weekend following the news about Alex Corr's firing.
0:48.4	Taylor Schwink is working back home in Connecticut.
0:51.9	And we're leading off today because of the Alex Corps situation with Rob Bradford, who, of course, covers the Red Sucks for WEI. And he leads the baseball isn't boring podcast. You always say to me, Rob, I'd rather talk. You're the person I'd like to talk to the most, right? How do you phrase it? Because this applies for you today. Let me just tell you.
1:11.9	There is nobody I'd rather talk to more than Buster Olney right now.
1:16.6	That's a fact.
1:17.6	Well, that's how I feel.
1:19.6	And I knew when I was preparing the podcast for today, I wanted to get you to talk to you about this Alex Chorus situation.
1:26.6	First off, and we've got a lot of ground to cover.
1:31.0	Let's talk about how this went down, literally, because we'll trade notes on this.
1:35.8	So what I heard is, is that they, of course, lose the game on Friday.
1:40.5	The decision to fire Cora happened either Friday night or Saturday morning, depending on what you want to believe.
1:47.3	And then the Red Sox coaching staff was planning on going for dinner after their 17 to 1 victory over Baltimore on Saturday.
1:56.0	And about an hour after the game, you know, as they were in the group text chain, Alex Gore told everyone,
2:01.9	yeah, dinner's off, something came up. And then boom, that's how they start to hear the news.
2:07.0	What did you hear? Yeah, no, I mean, that was it. And it's all happens in that Baltimore Hotel.
2:13.1	And as we saw, also, to top things off, the company that ushered them away was the van was
	...

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