Red Sox fire Alex Cora, promote Worcester skipper Chad Tracy

The Red Sox turned to their Triple-A pipeline in the middle of a collapse, promoting Worcester manager Chad Tracy to interim skipper after firing Alex Cora and much of his staff. Tracy will take over Sunday against the Orioles at Camden Yards, giving Boston a manager who has already spent four seasons building relationships with the organization’s next wave of players.

The move came after a 10-17 start and hours after Boston’s 17-1 rout of Baltimore, a win that snapped a four-game losing streak and followed a three-game Fenway sweep by the Yankees. Boston fell into last place in the American League East, and the club responded by ending Cora’s second run in the dugout after eight seasons and a 620-541 record. The decision marked the Red Sox’s first in-season managerial firing since Jimy Williams in August 2001.

Boston also dismissed bench coach Ramón Vázquez, hitting coach Pete Fatse, third-base coach Kyle Hudson, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. Jason Varitek was not fired, but reassigned to a new role in the organization. Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow were scheduled to address the shakeup Sunday morning in Baltimore.

For Worcester, the promotion is a clear reminder that the modern Triple-A manager is more than a stopgap. Tracy has managed the WooSox since the 2022 season, after being hired in December 2021, and Worcester went 309-285 under him through 2025 with four straight winning seasons. He reached 300 victories in his Worcester managerial career on Aug. 31, 2025, and became the first Red Sox Triple-A manager to post winning records in each of his first four seasons since at least the 1930s.

That track record matters now because Tracy already knows many of the players Boston may need to lean on immediately. He has managed Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Connelly Early and Payton Tolle in Worcester, along with big leaguers such as Masataka Yoshida during a rehab assignment and players like Jarren Duran, Connor Wong, Ceddanne Rafaela and Kristian Campbell as they moved between levels. Collin Hetzler was also added to the major league hitting staff, while Chad Epperson, who managed Double-A Portland since 2022, came up as interim third-base coach.

John Henry said Cora will always have the organization’s gratitude for the 2018 championship and his impact on the city and club, but the immediate future now belongs to a manager who has lived inside the Red Sox’s development machine. Boston did not just change dugouts; it elevated the person who has been closest to the next roster shuffle all along.