Red Sox Part Ways With Alex Cora in Latest Fallout of MLB Cheating Investigation

The fallout from the Houston Astros' sign-stealing escapades has claimed the job of another World Series-winning manager. Red Sox skipper and former Astros assistant coach Alex Cora is out of a job in Boston.

Per an official announcement, Cora and the Red Sox mutually agreed to part ways as the dark cloud of a potentially long suspension looms overhead.

Cora won 59% of his games as manager of the Red Sox. He led Boston to a 108-54 record and a championship in his first season on the job, but he missed the playoffs after regressing to 84-78 in 2019.

Cora was hired away from Houston, where he helped orchestrate their infamous system of sign-stealing. The Astros used cameras to decipher opponent's pitching signs, and an Astros employee would then bang on a trash can (among other methods) to signal hitters about which type of pitch was coming.

Cora, who was expected to get slammed with serious penalties after AJ Hinch was suspended for a year and later fired by the Astros along with general manager Jeff Luhnow, seems to have left before the punishment.

Cora looked like the next great manager on the block after winning 108 games and a title in Year One, but cracks in his managerial style started to show when he missed the playoffs in Year Two. Cora won't get a Year Three, and it's hard to argue against one of the masterminds of Houston's massive cheating scandal getting canned.

But that doesn't make this latest development any less stunning.