Boston Red Sox: Alex Cora’s great expectations for 2018

Boston Red Sox newly christened Alex Cora has a hefty task in front of him with an extensive list of expectations. Here’s a meeting that I presume Cora, President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski and Owner John Henry having. 

It’s the middle of February 2018 in Fort Myers, Florida. The Boston Red Sox are at their spring training facilities in the early days of spring training. At this point, everything is fresh and new. The guys are seeing each other for the first time in a while. They joke and mess around with the guys that they’ll be going to battle with every day throughout the dog days of summer and hopefully into the chilly days of October. The sun beats down on their faces, setting a picturesque backdrop for a beautiful, early spring’s day.

Life is good.

But in a little corner office of JetBlue Park, the mood is much different. The same sun shines through a window. However, the mood cast is much different. It comes to represent the oncoming train of the 2018 baseball season and all the expectations that go with it.

Red Sox owner John Henry, President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski and new manager Alex Cora sit at a round table in the office: Henry on one side, Dombrowski, and Cora on the other.

For Henry, he’s been here before. New manager, new year, he’s done it. In 2004, with Terry Francona in his first year at the helm, the Red Sox won their first World Series championship in 86 years. Henry hopes to have the same good fortune this season.

For Dombrowski, it’s a unique experience. He’s been wheeling and dealing with this team since the late summer days of 2015. But for the first time, he has his manager rather than the inheritance of the previous administration.