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Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora has made his first public comments since Juan Soto agreed to his massive contract with the New York Mets, and there appears to be no hard feelings after Boston aggressively pursued the superstar.
Boston came on late as a potential destination for the former New York Yankees outfielder before Soto signed with the Mets on Sunday for a record 15 years and $765 million.
“From my end it was fun,” Cora told the media on Monday. “To get to know Juan Soto and players of that status, it’s amazing. The kid.. all I can say is that he gets it. It was a good experience and I learned a lot.”
He added that Soto's historic decision is”good for baseball.’’
With Soto now off the table, the Red Sox must switch gears as the free agent dominoes begin to fall. The team has already been linked to all the big names out there, including pitchers Max Fried and Corbin Burnes, as well as hitters like Teoscar Hernandez and Nolan Arenado, who is available via trade.
“I think the one thing we want to avoid is putting ourselves in a position where the success of our offseason hinges on a single transaction,” Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow told MassLive. “Because there’s just too much uncertainty around any of that. We have to constantly think about, ‘OK, this is Plan A, but if that falls through, what does Plan B look like and what can does Plan C look like?’ And so on.”
Breslow added in the same interview that starting pitching remained the club's biggest area of focus this winter. The team was willing to go big for Soto (though not big enough), so surely they'll be a factor for the best starters available. The Red Sox, who went 81-81 in 2024, actually got significant production from their rotation, but they need another front-end starter to go with Tanner Houk.
