Alex Cora declines Phillies proposal (for now) but flopping team needed 'new voice'

Philadelphia Phillies boss Dave Dombrowski wasn’t evasive Tuesday, didn’t try to be politically correct and didn’t bother to soothe anyone’s feelings. He wanted to hire Alex Cora to be the team's next manager. He might have even begged Cora at times to be their manager, saying that not only is he one of the finest managers in the game, but a future Hall of Famer.

Dombrowski didn’t even bother to wait 24 hours after Cora was fired by the Boston Red Sox on Saturday to offer him the Phillies managerial job with Rob Thomson still employed . It wasn’t until Monday morning that Cora, in the second year of a three-year, $21. 75 million contract, told Dombrowski that he was sorry, but he was going home to Puerto Rico for the summer.

He wanted to be a “full-time dad" for his eight-year-old twin sons with a daughter in graduate school. “I thought he might take it, but as time went on over the next day,’’ Dombrowski said after making the offer Sunday, “it was apparent from his perspective that he wanted to take time with his family. " Dombrowski, Phillies president of baseball operations, was disappointed, but certainly understood Cora’s reasoning.

He then had to make a huge decision himself. Should he stick with Thomson, or fire him anyway, and determine if there’s anyone in the organization who could make a difference? “There's no question we have the talent," Dombrowski kept saying.