The Ben Maller Show: Baseball's Shifting Power Dynamics

The former Red Sox manager who was "whacked" back in April says he expects to manage again eventually, but Ben Maller isn't buying the sales pitch. Alex Cora told reporters this week that he turned down an offer from Dave Dombrowski to manage the Philadelphia Phillies, playing what Maller calls "the family card from the bottom of the deck." Cora claimed he needed time with his kids, but Maller notes dryly that "most families want their people to work" — and that Cora's own children "want him to manage again."

The Alex Cora Problem

Maller argues that Cora is "living the Marco Polo lifestyle" right now, "enjoying the life of Riley, waiting for some desperate horny owner to call him up." But he pushes back hard on the idea that Cora holds all the cards. "Alex Cora is not some managerial Fabergé egg," Maller says. "He's more like raw oysters. He's an acquired taste." The critique rests on three pillars: Cora's "super-sized ego" despite being "not very good as a player," his baggage from the Houston Astros cheating scandal, and the inconvenient fact that "Boston's clubhouse and the quality of life improved after he vacated the building." The Red Sox turned on the afterburners after Cora was excommunicated, which Maller says took "a lot of that aura" off his reputation.