{"id":96763,"date":"2025-06-11T21:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T21:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/96763\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T21:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T21:37:11","slug":"red-soxs-alex-cora-explains-controversial-rookie-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/96763\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox&#8217;s Alex Cora Explains Controversial Rookie Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Red Sox are slated to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/yankees\/roster\/probable-pitchers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">face multiple left-handed pitchers<\/a> this weekend against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park.<\/p>\n<p>Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer likely will spend that time on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Red Sox manager Alex Cora has been steadfast in his approach to <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/06\/red-soxs-alex-cora-details-plan-for-roman-anthony-marcelo-mayer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">avoid left-on-left matchups<\/a> with rookie batters, platooning the likes of Rafael Devers, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Mayer and likely Anthony. It\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NESN\/status\/1932899086069370956\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">something he was asked about<\/a> on Wednesday, which sort of struck a nerve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know, maybe (the rookies will play) Friday, maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday,\u201d Cora said, as seen on NESN. \u201cLet\u2019s wait until we see the lefty, and then when you seen the lineup you guys can ask me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have some good righties here. If we don\u2019t play Romy (Gonz\u00e1lez), if we don\u2019t play (Rob Refsnyder), is that good for the team? I get the whole conversation. I get that (the rookies) are great hitters, they\u2019re great players, but those two guys are really good at what they do. We\u2019re trying to win as many games as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Cora has a point in being frustrated with the conversation, as his track record is nearly perfect with this approach. The Red Sox like to slowly integrate rookies against left-handed pitchers because the jump in opponent quality from the minor leagues to the major leagues is so large.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Boston can point directly to last weekend\u2019s series in New York, when Gonz\u00e1lez, Refsnyder and Mayer combined to help win two games in that platoon role \u2014 with others around them moving around the diamond to accommodate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t play 13 position players. We cannot,\u201d \u201cI get it, people get frustrated, but I get frustrated, too. I get the same question over and over again, but I\u2019ve been doing it like this since 2018. Rafael Devers platooned in 2018, and right now he\u2019s one of the best hitters in the big leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anthony and Mayer are supposed to be super prospects, so the <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/06\/alex-cora-explains-difficult-pinch-hit-decision-vs-yankees\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">platoon splits might be fewer and farther between<\/a>, but numbers support this approach \u2014 no matter if it\u2019s fun for fans or not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Red Sox are slated to face multiple left-handed pitchers this weekend against the New York Yankees&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[858,5,141,48,2542,1248,4,89,2543,793],"class_list":{"0":"post-96763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-alex-cora","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-bostonredsox","13":"tag-marcelo-mayer","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-red-sox","16":"tag-redsox","17":"tag-roman-anthony"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114666893704448720","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}