Red Sox manager Alex Cora hasn’t minced words when discussing the organization’s approach to the July 30 trade deadline.
Cora wants to get “greedy.”
Boston is playing good baseball as of late, carrying a 45-39 record into Wednesday’s matchup with the Miami Marlins. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that the Red Sox could build a lead in the wild card race, which in turn would make it more likely they buy at the deadline.
Cora’s comments last week essentially painted that picture, but some took them as a way to put pressure on the front office. It isn’t nearly that complicated.
“I think people took it the wrong way like I was putting pressure on somebody else,” Cora told Chris Cotillo of MassLive in an exclusive interview Tuesday. “Nope. I’m trying to get this group to understand we’re good enough to be better. We showed it in the month of June and hopefully we can do it in July.
“The greedy part is challenging this group to keep going. Like, ‘Don’t settle because we’re in the hunt for a playoff spot.’ No. Just keep pushing, keep pushing. If we do it as a group, you’ll never know what can happen.”
The Red Sox, despite whatever happens around the deadline, haven’t changed what their goal is.
“We’re not winning games to put pressure on the front office. We’re trying to win games to make it to the playoffs,” Cora said. “There’s this idea that we have to put pressure on them. No… we want to win because we want to win. Whatever happens in three weeks or a month is gonna happen. Our goal is to win each series, to win every game. That hasn’t changed. It just happens that now people are going to start talking about it because it’s July.”
Cora added: “There’s no B.S. No more excuses or complaining because of this or that. We’ve just got to continue to play baseball.”
Boston has a few series that could swing the decision-making process. It will visit the New York Yankees for a three-game series starting Friday, before hosting New York in the final series before the deadline.
If the Red Sox can win both, and take care of business in between, they could look a lot different entering August.
