FORT MYERS, Fla. — For his sixth time as Red Sox manager, Alex Cora perched on the wooden bench just outside the clubhouse at JetBlue Park on Tuesday and took questions about the start of spring training.
Who do you think will be there next year?
Cora is in the final year of his contract and accepts the idea that this could be it for him with the Red Sox.
“No. Not at all,” Cora said quickly when asked if he was uncomfortable going into the season with an uncertain future.
That’s something any manager in the same situation would say, but this time it’s actually true. Cora is working for his third head of baseball operations since being hired before the 2018 season, and the organization has taken a sharp turn in philosophy, cutting payroll and adopting a long-term strategy centered on prospects.
Cora will always appreciate the Sox giving him a chance to manage and even more so bringing him back after his season-long suspension in 2020.
“I never thought I was going to be back managing as soon as I did,” he said.
But Cora also doesn’t see himself managing to a point where the job saps his health the way it did with his mentor, Terry Francona. Cora experienced some of that last season, gaining weight and feeling worn down.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, last season took a toll on me,” he said. “Mentally, physically, it was tough … I felt awful physically last year. I felt awful health-wise, energy-wise. It was bad.”
After a not-so-gentle jab from his mom — “She crushed me” — Cora changed his habits. He’s now a runner, logging 4 miles Tuesday before he came to the park.
“Reset, recharge, be energized, and attack the season the right way,” Cora said.
Cora has already managed the sixth-most games in Red Sox history, 810. Since 1962, only Francona has managed more. There’s an expiration date that’s coming up soon.
“There’s more in life than baseball,” said Cora, who has taken notice of manager Jürgen Klopp deciding to step away from Liverpool FC after eight-plus seasons with Fenway Sports Group.
“I don’t see myself managing 10 [more] years,” Cora said. “I envision myself doing other stuff in the game with a family back home in Puerto Rico.”
If Cora has four or five years left on the bench, he’ll want that to be with a contender. For now he’ll play out his deal with the Sox and see what happens.
“I don’t want this season to be about me,” Cora said. “It’s about the Boston Red Sox and how we need to bounce back to be better to play in October.”
Would he still want to be in Boston beyond this year?
“I don’t want to talk about that right now,” Cora said.
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, who is eager to put his stamp on the organization, didn’t shy away from the topic either.
“It’s as awkward as one makes it,” Breslow said. “Alex has been pretty outspoken about his comfort with the situation. Similarly, I’ve talked about how excited we are for him to manage this team.
“Any conversations that we have will take place between Alex and me. Neither of us wants this to be a distraction. I think so long as we can honor that, that it doesn’t have to be one.”
Breslow acknowledged that the offseason veered off in an unexpected direction, one that left the Sox comfortable with only modest upgrades.
“We can appreciate that things haven’t come together in maybe a way that I anticipated,” he said.
The result is Cora being handed a team of mismatched parts. There are too many lefthanded hitters and not enough lefthanded pitchers. Several of the leading rotation candidates would be relievers on a contending team, and the bullpen is a mosaic of fringy big leaguers anchored by Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin.
They could be traded in July, if not sooner. Breslow referred to Jansen as the closer “as of right now.”
Jansen is set to arrive in camp Wednesday and shouldn’t unpack from the sound of things.
Breslow is being pragmatic, which is what the situation requires. He should have a manager who can grow into the job as Brandon Hyde did with Mike Elias in Baltimore.
Maybe that’s third base coach Kyle Hudson, pitching coach Andrew Bailey, or somebody from outside the organization. It’s not Cora. His next job will be with a team ready to win.
The long goodbye is underway.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.