When the Red Sox fired Dave Dombrowski as their president of baseball operations in August 2019, then-manager Alex Cora was in just his second year as a manager, still trying to find his footing despite winning the World Series a year prior.
"This is the guy that gave me a shot to become a big-league manager," Cora said of Dombrowski at the time. "For four or five years, you go through this process and nobody gave you a shot. All of a sudden, Dave Dombrowski, 40 years in the big leagues, decides to give me a chance to run this organization as a manager."
Cora, who is under contract through next season, made it clear he had no interest in taking another job this year after being fired as Red Sox manager last week. He told CBS Sports that he plans to return home to Puerto Rico and be with his family for the remainder of the season. He also made that clear to Dombrowski, who admitted that he offered Cora the Phillies job even before firing manager Rob Thomson.
But the former colleagues finding their way back to each other still seems inevitable.
Dombrowski's Collaborative Approach
Both privately and publicly, Cora has long backed Dombrowski, consistently praising the work done during the latter's tenure running baseball operations. Dombrowski's more traditional approach, which leans heavily on coaching staff and scouting evaluations, makes people inside the building feel empowered. Even at the front office level, he would bring lower-level executives into trade discussions, giving them a voice in rooms they typically wouldn't be in.
Under chief executives Chaim Bloom, who succeeded Dombrowski, and Craig Breslow, who took over for Bloom in 2023, "collaboration" became the buzzword in the Red Sox organization. But that hasn't necessarily been the reality under Breslow, according to people familiar with the dynamic who describe a much tighter, more closed-circle brain trust.
"We had one meeting with him and he was so weird," said one former Red Sox front-office employee of the current chief baseball officer.
Collaboration was viewed as Bloom's strength, oftentimes to a fault. But the moves and overall vision under the now-Cardinals executive never quite sat right with Cora, who felt the organization didn't do enough to acquire the kind of talent needed to make a real postseason push. The Red Sox went 267–262 with Bloom in charge, a tenure that included a run to the ALCS in 2021 but also the departures of Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts.
Dombrowski Gets Results
Dombrowski, on the other hand, went out and got help. Take 2018 as an example. The team needed to bolster its rotation, searching for a high-powered right-handed arm who could also be a weapon out of the bullpen if needed. They landed Nathan Eovaldi. They needed a bat against left-handed pitching. They went and got Steve Pearce. Ian Kinsler put a bow on the trade deadline, giving them much-needed veteran depth at second base with Dustin Pedroia unavailable. Pearce was named World Series MVP. Eovaldi became a postseason staple, gutting out 6⅓ innings in relief in Boston's 18-inning Game 3 against the Dodgers. They lost that game, but Cora has often pointed to that outing as the reason they wrapped the series in five.
Cora thrives with a strong voice above him. Dombrowski is a straight shooter. You know where you stand. He'll give Cora room to do his job, but he's not afraid to step in when it calls for it.
Accountability Matters
Accountability is at the center of Dombrowski's pedigree. He'll own his misses, even when it's uncomfortable.
Take the Andrew Cashner deal: the Red Sox acquired Cashner from the Orioles at the 2019 trade deadline, hoping he could stabilize a rotation hit by injuries. It didn't happen. Cashner posted a 6.54 ERA in 53⅔ innings in Boston.
Later that summer in Cleveland, Dombrowski was asked how he viewed the trade. Cashner was standing just a few feet away. It didn't matter.
"The trade didn't work out," Dombrowski said.
There are few executives in baseball willing to be that direct when the stakes are high—and that's exactly what could make a Cora-Dombrowski reunion in Philadelphia so compelling.