El Profe: How the Winter Leagues helped prepare Álex Cora for October

Álex Cora and the Red Sox are transporting a very different kind of cargo than the last time they flew to Puerto Rico together.

Ten months ago, Cora brought a plane full of relief supplies to the island with team executives and some Red Sox players.

This weekend he returns with the World Series trophy.

A triumphant return of this stature was not predicted by many when the group departed Puerto Rico prior to the 2018 campaign.

Since pitchers and catchers reported in mid-February, Cora has clearly demonstrated that he was indeed ready for the job of managing the Boston Red Sox. He has met and exceeded the expectations of Boston’s front office and fans, directing the team to a franchise record of a 108-win regular season and defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers to claim the World Series title.

Ready for the World

When Cora was named the new manager in Boston after serving as the bench coach of the Houston Astros through their own World Series victory last year, some in the media – in Boston and nationally – were not convinced he was ready for the job.

After all, Boston isn’t an easy place to manage. The fans have high expectations for the team and ownership’s definition of success is a championship. Throughout spring training some members of the media questioned whether he was ready for the media scrutiny that comes with being in Boston and handling the diverse personalities he was inheriting on the team’s star-studded roster.

But those who raised concerns about Cora’s lack of managerial experience and worried about his ability to deal with pressure discounted the value of his work in the Puerto Rican Winter League, the Caribbean World Series, and the World Baseball Classic.

The majority of the U.S. sports media pays little attention to the action in these three competitions. However, those familiar with Latin American baseball know that these jobs are pressure-filled and the competition is intense. For the professionals like Cora who have taken on the role of manager or general manager, it’s not a Caribbean vacation in the middle of winter.

Not everyone is surprised by Cora’s success. Cora supporters—dare I say believers—quickly pointed to his experience in the Puerto Rican Winter League as a manager and general manager of the Caguas Criollos team. In addition, he also served as the general manager of the Puerto Rican national team that competed in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

The reality is that many observers of Major League Baseball discount the experience gained from leagues outside of the majors or minors.

This minimizing of the value of Winter League experience isn’t new. Hall of Famer Frank Robinson learned this in the early 1970s when he was seeking to become the first African-American manager in MLB.

Robinson recounted an exchange with Gabe Paul, the Yankees general manager in 1974. Paul was in the midst of a visit to Puerto Rico where Robinson was managing during the winter league season. The two talked about the possibility of the Yankees hiring Robinson to fill their managerial vacancy.

“You know, if you just had a little bit of experience, I would hire you as the manager of the Yankees,” Robinson recalled Paul saying in an oral history interview with former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent for his 2008 book We Would Have Played for Nothing.

“What is this?” Robinson replied, referring to his managerial job in the Puerto Rican league, where he had been managing since 1968.

“This doesn’t count,” was what Robinson said the Yankees general manager told him.

Experience Where it Counts

On the contrary, there’s no better experience for a major league manager than the winter leagues. The short winter league season is pressure packed. Managers are not only dealing with a new group of players every winter, but trying to win championships at the specific directive of the team owners. In recent years, some winter league owners have fired and replaced managers in the middle of their postseason.

In the midst of this hectic short season and frequently evolving demands from ownership is the other reality: player egos. Managers in the winter leagues need to be creative, utilizing players in ways that maximize the team’s ability to win games while navigating the pride of professional athletes.

Doing this effectively requires communication between the manager and players, setting expectations and also making clear to the players what their role will be on any given day.

These are elements of the work that Cora learned and perfected during his seasons in Caguas; the Criollos team won the Puerto Rican Winter League with Cora as its manager in 2016 and then with him in the GM role, the team won consecutive Caribbean World Series in 2017 and 2018.

Sound familiar?

That is why Cora will board a plane destined for Puerto Rico this weekend for a celebration the island has never seen before—a celebration of the first Puerto Rican to manage a World Series champion.

Featured Image: Billie Weiss / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images Sport