Yankees’ Aaron Boone ‘shocked’ to learn of Alex Cora’s firing
HOUSTON — The New York Yankees’ arch nemesis stunned the baseball world on Saturday, as the Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora following a 10-17 start to the season. Boston also canned five members of Cora’s big league staff: hitting coach Peter Fatse, third base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. Lawson previously served as the Yankees’ hitting coach; he was fired midway through the 2023 season.
Triple-A manager Chad Tracy will take over for Cora in an interim capacity. With news of Cora’s dismissal starting to spread as the Yankees began their game against the Houston Astros on Saturday, Aaron Boone said that he was “very shocked” to learn of his friend’s firing. “I wasn’t sure if it was true initially,” Boone said after an 8-3 win.
“I had heard whispers of it as we were walking out. So certainly, surprising and probably caught us off guard. ” On Sunday, Boone added that he connected with Cora on Saturday night.
“Somebody of Alex’s stature in the game, and obviously being a division rival, and our chief rival, obviously caught us all off guard, shook the world, or shook us a little bit,” Boone said. “Like, ‘Man, who saw that kind of shakeup coming at this point? ’ So look, as you know, Alex is a really good friend.
I had a really good talk with him last night. He’s going to be fine and great. “He’ll have many opportunities to do whatever he wants moving forward.