Red Sox's Alex Cora apologizes for role in sign-stealing, says return to baseball came sooner than expected

Cora was reintroduced as Boston's manager on Tuesday

Alex Cora returned as manager for the Boston Red Sox in a press conference at Fenway Park on Tuesday afternoon. The Red Sox completed this winter's managerial swap by rehiring Cora, just a week after his season-long suspension ended.

Cora was suspended by Major League Baseball last offseason for his involvement in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal and the Red Sox let Cora go shortly after. Cora was also managing the Red Sox during the club's 2018 championship season, when they were also found guilty of illegal electronic sign-stealing.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred found that Cora was likely not privy to the Red Sox's sign-stealing, which was undertaken by a team replay official. But Cora was disciplined for his role in the Astros' sign-stealing during the 2017 season. The wrongdoing in Houston was found to be more extensive and serious than in Boston. Cora at the time was Houston's bench coach, and the league investigation found him to be central to the club's cheating scheme.

During Tuesday's press conference, Cora apologized and expressed that he was surprised about being back in baseball so soon.

"I was spending time at home for the wrong reasons. And for that, I want to apologize," Cora said Tuesday. "I deserve what happened this year. It's something that I'm not proud of it but we went through the whole process with the commissioner's office, the department of investigations and at the end I got my penalty and I served it. I want to apologize to the organization for putting them in such a tough spot coming into the season. I never thought that's what was going to happen. I never thought I was going to be in that situation, but I was."

Cora said that he expected it would be two or three years before he would have an opportunity to return to baseball.

"I knew I wanted to come back to the game, but I didn't know how fast," he said. "There was a lot of talk within the family, and you put them first. This is not, like I always said this is not an easy place here in Boston, there's some other places too that it was going to be tough. But talking to them, we were very open-minded. Little by little, they understood that probably not this year but probably in two or three years that something was going to open up and there was a chance to get back to the game. But, honestly, like I said before, so soon you know, I never saw it."

Cora will have his hands full when it comes to righting the ship. The Red Sox are coming off an abysmal 2020 that saw them finish last in the American League East and post their worst winning percentage since the 1930s. It seemed like the club had made a commitment to rebuilding after trading away franchise superstar Mookie Betts in order to stay under the luxury tax. Our own R.J. Anderson explored three offseason steps that can put Cora and Boston back in the postseason hunt in 2021.