Good morning! The Phillies — wanting to get in on some of that sweet, sweet dysfunction — copied the Red Sox by firing their own manager yesterday. Rumors immediately swirled that Alex Cora would reunite with his old boss, Dave Dombrowski. But those rumors were quickly quashed when it was revealed that interim manager Don Mattingly would be given the rest of the season (a level of job security that Craig Breslow did not give to Chad Tracy). As it turns out, though, the rumors were based solidly in fact.
From Chris Cotillo:
Within 24 hours of his dramatic firing by the Red Sox on Saturday, Alex Cora received a new job offer from a familiar boss.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski confirmed Tuesday that he tried to hire Cora in the immediate aftermath of his firing Saturday night. Despite still having a manager (Rob Thomson) at the time, Dombrowski made an overture to Cora on Sunday. Cora declined, citing a desire to spend the rest of the season with family, and Dombrowski pivoted, firing Thomson and replacing him with interim manager Don Mattingly before Tuesday’s game.
Cora is free to sit on his couch for the rest of the season and keep collecting paychecks from the Sox (about $7.5 million worth of them) which sounds pretty good to me. But Rob Thomson is not going to be the last manager fired this year, and the rumors will keep coming. So what do you think, will we see Cora back in the bigs this year? Would you want to work or would you take the cash and spend the summer roadtripping to music festivals or something? Talk about that and whtever else you want and, as always, be good to one another.
