Why Alex Cora Can Finally Feel Good About Red Sox Pitching
BOSTON — When Alex Cora gets a healthy starting rotation, he takes the Red Sox to the postseason. Somehow that’s only happened twice in his six seasons as Boston’s manager.
The Red Sox did have three homegrown starting pitchers make 30 starts last season in Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford. Boston needs upgraded production and durability across the rotation to return to the playoffs. The regular season Red Sox debut of Lucas Giolito helps while the impact additions of Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler.
Craig Breslow’s plan for developing a pitching pipeline also pays off for 2025 with arms such as Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts and Quinn Priester at the ready for a spot start for the Red Sox. The added depth on call in Triple-A Worcester makes a major difference, especially for a big-league staff that succumbed to struggles and injuries in the second half of the last three seasons.
“The deeper, the better,” Cora told reporters during “Fenway Fest” Saturday. “Added some capable guys with stuff that can help us. The bullpen too.”
Bullpen days became more and more frequent for the Red Sox the last few seasons. Cora certainly seems happy to rely on the depth that can slash that necessity for this season.
“It’s better to have a name than a bullpen day to be honest with you,” Cora said. “I think we’re deeper. We’ve got good stuff too. We saw it toward the end of the season. I think that was a good measuring stick for us to know what we needed to do in the offseason. If we accomplished that, we were going to be deep.”
Cora acknowledged the aforementioned reality that the Red Sox playoff runs in his tenure emerged off the foundation of steady starting pitching. That’s going to have to be the case yet again in 2025.
“Shoot, the two years we made it to the playoffs, we stayed healthy,” Cora added. “We had horses. They carried us to the playoffs. That’s what we’re looking for.”