After serving a suspension for his involvement in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, Alex Cora has been sidelined for the past year. Now that the Boston Red Sox have given him another opportunity to lead, Cora is lounging back in his manager’s chair and enjoying every second of being back in spring training.

“This is my desired location. I’m at this point,” Cora declared the previous week. “I love every second of it, and I’m not going to take it for granted.”

After leading the Red Sox to a World Series championship in 2018, Cora—his first season as manager of Fenway Park—became one of Boston’s most well-liked sports figures. Many Red Sox players were disappointed that Cora would not be managing them when Boston fired Cora following the collapse of the Astros’ trash-can banging scheme.

Shortstop Xander Bogaerts said in January of last year, “He’s someone that we all enjoyed playing for, and I loved to just sit and have a nice conversation with him, baseball-wise.” “He’ll be someone we’ll miss a lot, me especially.”

Early in spring training, the Red Sox clubhouse’s acceptance of Cora following the fallout from the sign-stealing scandal was confirmed, if any doubts existed.

Pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez said, “You know everything we went through, winning the World Series in 2018, I just feel happy that he’s back.” He resembles both a brother and a father. When I speak with him, I occasionally feel like a teammate, and that’s a part of our relationship that we can improve. We’re going to improve it.

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Chris Sale said he stayed in constant contact with Cora even when the skipper was not leading the Red Sox, particularly when he was starting his Tommy John surgery recovery.

Sale used the terms camaraderie, trust, and passion to characterize the effects of Cora’s return to the team. Sale is well-known in the Red Sox clubhouse as a leader who doesn’t use platitudes and approaches the game with an old-fashioned mindset. He frequently sports a “All me, PED free” T-shirt.

“He wants to win, he does everything to better himself, the coaching staff, the team, the organization,” Sale stated. “Being able to have that trust in the captain, he’s the guy running the show, he’s the guy putting the lineups up, he’s doing pitching changes and having that trust in knowing that he’s got your back to the very end.”

Cora hopes to help Boston avoid a repeat of their 2020 American League East last-place finish by bringing this season’s worth of pent-up enthusiasm and excitement about baseball that he was unable to channel while watching games from his couch instead of the dugout.

“I’m going to do it the same way I’ve done it in ’18 and ’19,” Cora stated. “Convinced, confident, and attempting to place these guys in win-win situations. I know how to do it this way. I work like this; let’s see where it leads.”