Red Sox’s firing of Alex Cora was flawed and clumsy. Chad Tracy has brought calm to chaos

BOSTON — Sounding more like a manager for Tripadvisor than manager of the Boston Red Sox, Chad Tracy was talking about lodging during his Sunday morning media session at Fenway Park.

“Still in a hotel right now,” Tracy said. “A nice hotel, which is helpful, especially with the kids here. We’re well taken care of for now. Eventually, we’ll move into an apartment or something a little bit more permanent and get some of the stuff out of the office.”

“Permanent” is a relative term in any discussion of big-league managers, particularly in Tracy’s case. When I checked the game notes before Boston’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Tracy was still listed as “interim” manager. That’s the front office’s way of saying that, for now, Tracy is merely the placeholder for the unceremoniously sacked Alex Cora. After that, who knows? Maybe the Sox will go on a run the way they did under Joe Morgan in 1988 (12 straight wins after John McNamara was fired) and Tracy will get a chance to continue as manager, only with the interim tag scrubbed. Or, the Sox could wind up with a new manager, perhaps someone with prior big-league experience. Then again, don’t discount the possibility of Craig Breslow, chief baseball officer/systems analyst of the Red Sox, sticking a robot in the dugout and having it make all the in-game decisions. (Ever tethered to nostalgia as I am, the robot from the original “Lost in Space” would look kinda cool.)

Breslow’s decision to fire Cora and several of his coaches was flawed, and the way it was handled was clumsy. Take Jason Varitek — longtime Red Sox catcher who played on two World Series-winning teams — being “reassigned” from his job as game-planning and run prevention coach? Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez was still chirping about it when he visited Fenway last week to take part in a 125th anniversary celebration of the first home game in franchise history.

Despite that, the all but unknown Tracy has brought calm to the chaos. So relaxed is Tracy’s demeanor, so confident and clear are his answers to nonstop questions about the starting rotation, batting orders and the status of injured Sox stars Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony, that you’d think he’s been running the big club for years.

That’s not the case, of course. So quickly was Tracy summoned to Baltimore to take over for Cora that a lot of his stuff is still lying about at his old apartment in Worcester from his time managing the Triple-A WooSox. His old Worcester roommate, WooSox pitching coach Dan DeLucia, now has the place to himself. Those couple of Coors Lights that Tracy left in the refrigerator? “Dan likes to have a Coors Light every once in a while, so I bet he drank those,” he said.

That Tracy can bring some light banter to his daily tasks doesn’t mean he’s the right choice to run the shop for the next five years; it does suggest he’s not overwhelmed by all this. As such, it makes this promotion to manager, be it interim or otherwise, a case in which a modern-day baseball executive — that is, Breslow — availed himself of a practice that’s been going on in front offices for more than a century. He gave a big-league manager’s job to a minor-league lifer. 

Tracy, who turns 41 on the Fourth of July, logged parts of nine seasons as a minor-league player, including some time in indy ball. And like all minor-leaguers who’ll do whatever it takes to survive, he played just about everywhere. Catcher. First base. Outfield. He managed minor-league teams for the Angels for three seasons, and then, after serving three seasons as a minor-league field coordinator with the Angels, was hired by the Red Sox to manage the WooSox. This was his fifth season in Worcester.

In 1984, when I was covering the Triple-A Maine Guides, four managers from the International League wound up running big-league clubs. Doc Edwards, the Guides’ manager, went on to manage the Cleveland Indians for parts of three seasons. Stump Merrill of the Columbus Clippers managed the Yankees for a couple of seasons. Eddie Haas of the Richmond Braves managed the Atlanta Braves for a year. Bob Schaefer of the Tidewater Tides had a couple of stints as interim manager of the Kansas City Royals.

Before managing, Edwards gutted out parts of five seasons in the big leagues as a backup catcher. Haas was an outfielder who logged a total of 79 plate appearances over parts of three seasons with the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Braves. Merrill was a catcher who played six seasons in the minors but not one game in the big leagues. Schaefer’s pro playing career consisted of three minor-league seasons as an infielder in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. 

The point here is that while their playing careers were unremarkable, these men morphed into crusty, weather-beaten, minor-league managers who rode the buses and bedded down in the cheap hotels, hoping for a chance to manage in the big leagues.

Edwards, Haas, Merrill and Schaefer didn’t have much success as big-league managers. Still, they were giving it a go with troubled clubs, as Tracy is now. Not one of them turned down the job to wait for a better opportunity. They were in the right place at the right time, and they knew it. If these examples don’t do it for you, Earl Weaver and Jim Leyland never played in the big leagues but managed themselves right into the Hall of Fame. And the aforementioned Morgan, who played parts of four seasons in the big leagues and then managed in the minor leagues for 20 seasons, finally got to manage in the big leagues at age 57 and guided the Red Sox to two division titles.

All of these guys mentioned looked like they’d just stepped off an oil rig. Bus rides will do that. Late-night diners will do that. Somehow, Tracy has avoided the perils of life in the minors. The guy looks like he does Pilates and trims the fat off the meat. Good for him. Being a minor-league lifer shouldn’t mean sacrificing your life.

I do wish Tracy had a couple of former big-leaguers on his coaching staff. Aside from pitching coach Andrew Bailey, nobody else on Tracy’s staff has played in the bigs. Consider that Cora, upon being named manager of the Red Sox for 2018, had the wherewithal to recruit Ron Roenicke, a former big-league manager, to be his bench coach. Cora played 14 seasons in the big leagues, and yet as a newly minted manager, he sought somebody who had been there, done that.

This isn’t a knock on Tracy, what with Boston’s post-Cora coaching staff being assembled on the fly, but when Tracy gets his first permanent managerial job, it’ll serve him well to hire a couple of seasoned lieutenants.

And if the early vibes offer any clues, there absolutely will be a permanent managerial job for Tracy. If not with the Red Sox, then somebody else.