Source: Alex Cora content being ‘full-time dad’ over managing Phillies or any other team this year
It’s unclear whether Dave Dombrowski made an official offer to Cora to replace Rob Thomson before elevating bench coach Don Mattingly to interim manager.
Alex Cora will almost certainly manage another major league team, maybe even the Phillies.
But it won’t be this year.
The Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson on Tuesday, three days after Cora got let go by the Red Sox. But a source close to Cora said he’s content with being “a full-time dad” and spending the summer at his home in Puerto Rico.
Cora, 50, is close with Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, whom he considers “a mentor,” according to the source. Dombrowski hired Cora in Boston in October 2017, and they won the World Series together a year later.
» READ MORE: Phillies fire Rob Thomson after 9-19 start; Don Mattingly named interim manager
It’s unclear whether Dombrowski made an official offer to Cora to replace Thomson before elevating bench coach Don Mattingly to the managerial role on an interim basis through the end of the season. But Cora has let it be known that he’s choosing family over baseball for the rest of the season.
Cora is under contract with the Red Sox through 2027 and is due to be paid more than $13 million. He and his wife, Angelica, have twin sons who turn 9 in July. His daughter, Camila, is in grad school at the University of Miami.
Mattingly, who turned 65 earlier this month, said in January that he believed his days as a manager had “passed me by.” His son Preston is the Phillies’ general manager.
“I see the energy it takes to deal with the media twice a day, to have the conversations with players,” said Mattingly, who managed the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Miami Marlins from 2016-22. “You’ve got the front office, dealing with that aspect. It just never really stops. I’m assuming Rob’s phone’s ringing when he’s home during the offseason.
“I look at myself and say, ‘I don’t think I have the energy for that anymore.’”
Hunter Pence's 368-day stint with the Phillies was a study in extremes. Acquired at the trade deadline in 2011 as the missing right-handed bat for a World Series contender, he got dealt a year later by an underachieving team. And with the Phillies in full-on crisis mode this week, Pence sits down with "Phillies Extra," the Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss how quickly a team's fortunes can change. Watch here.
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