Jim Tracy wasn’t ready to get off the phone. He is as voluble at 70 as he was during his 11 seasons as a major-league manager. And he had one more thing he wanted to say.
“This wasn’t the most comfortable situation when it first evolved for my son,” Jim Tracy said, referring to Chad Tracy, interim manager of the Boston Red Sox. “And I say that because of what the man he replaced means to the Tracy family.”
The man Chad Tracy replaced is Alex Cora, who played for his father with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 to 2004. Jim Tracy later managed the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies as well, but his four most successful seasons were with Cora on his roster.
“Alex Cora was extremely influential on a couple of real good Dodger teams that I managed,” Jim Tracy said. “And prior to Chad’s situation developing there in Boston, I have to tell you this: Alex Cora treated my son like royalty.
“I am forever grateful for that. And you know the other thing? If Chad needs another opinion besides dad’s, he wouldn’t be the least bit shy about calling Alex Cora because that’s the kind of relationship that they maintain with one another. I think it’s so special.”
Special enough that it continues even after the shocking events of April 25, when the Red Sox fired Cora and six coaches and elevated Chad Tracy from Triple-A Worcester to take over a team that was 10-17.
Chad Tracy, 40, had managed Worcester since 2022, the year after Cora, 50, returned to the Red Sox following his one-year suspension for playing a key role in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.
“Alex has been incredible to me,” Chad Tracy said. “The details of it, I’ll leave out. But we’ve talked a handful of times and he has expressed nothing but support for me. It doesn’t surprise me. He’s an amazing human being.”
Wait, he has spoken to Cora since the change?
“We’ve talked,” Chad Tracy said. “And that was comforting. Being able to still talk to him, it meant a lot to me that first couple of weeks.”
Cora, offering expanded comments for the first time since his firing, said his support for Chad Tracy stemmed in part from his respect for baseball culture.
“It’s what we do,” Cora said in a text. “We are a fraternity, I learned that at a young age, and you have to pay it forward. You don’t forget that no matter your role in baseball.”
He also feels indebted to both Jim and Chad Tracy.
“Jim was the manager that really gave me the opportunity to grow as a player,” said Cora, whose career spanned from 1998 to 2011. “He accepted me as a thinking player, not as the most talented player. Without him, probably I don’t become a manager.
“Chad has always been there for me. From the moment he joined the organization, I felt like I had a teammate who saw things the way I did and who was always willing to listen when I needed someone to talk to about team matters.”
The Red Sox have not exactly ignited since the change. After losing to the New York Yankees on Sunday, 6-1, they are 17-19 under Chad Tracy, but just 3 1/2 games out in the American League wild-card race.
Few would suggest the manager is the problem.
“He knows what he’s doing. I mean, it’s not like … he waited and somebody made an announcement in a meeting room somewhere and he put his hand up in the back of the room and said, ‘Hey, I’d like to do that,’” Jim Tracy said.
“He was prepared to do it. He was absolutely prepared to do it.”
Chad Tracy ascended to his position the old-fashioned way, managing 1,037 games in the minors, including three seasons with two different Class-A affiliates of the Los Angeles Angels from 2015 to 2017.
His experience served him well once he joined the Red Sox. The game didn’t speed up on him the way it might for other first-time major-league managers. Still, he was dealing with a lot.
He had no idea he was about to replace Cora when, during the bottom of the fourth inning of a game at Worcester, he got word in the dugout to call Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
Handing the lineup card to Iggy Suarez, his defensive coach, Chad Tracy said he would be right back. He went to his office and called Breslow. He recalled he was standing up, thinking he would go right back to the field.
When Breslow informed him of what was happening, he sat down and remained in his chair for about 45 minutes, trying to process what he had just been told.
The new interim Red Sox manager knew he was getting a huge opportunity. It excited him. But he also knew Cora and six coaches had just lost their jobs.
Jim Tracy argues a call as Dodgers manager in 2003 while infielder Alex Cora stands by. (Danny Moloshok / Getty Images)
“There are seven people you know, people I cared about,” Chad Tracy said. “You’re weighing happiness with sadness at the same time.”
Part of his sadness, an almost overwhelming part, stemmed from the longstanding relationships both he and his father had with Cora.
“Not just who he was, but who he is to our family,” said Chad Tracy, who first met Cora when he was a catcher at Pepperdine and Cora was with the Dodgers. “But also who he was and is to Boston, and what he’s done here. This guy’s got a world championship ring.
“That whole first handful of days, there were mixed emotions. The joy and excitement of getting the opportunity to do this, but also knowing that’s somebody I’m very close with, I’ve known for 20 years, running around the field as a college player and he’s playing for my father.
“I’ve known him for a really long time. And I know what he meant to a lot of people here. That was difficult.”
Chad Tracy could not have anticipated the Red Sox would make a change. Cora had just started the second year of a three-year contract that is paying him an average of more than $7 million per season. The Sox were coming off their first postseason appearance since 2021.
Naturally, he leaned on his father.
“The biggest piece of advice that I’ve given him is to basically take things a day at a time,” Jim Tracy said. “That’s not the easiest situation in the world to begin a venture like he’s on right now. So, you have to embrace the situation that’s in front of you and do the very, very best you can with it. Quite frankly, from what I’ve observed, I think he’s passing the test thus far.”
Father and son do not talk every day — “he doesn’t need me every day,” Jim Tracy said. But they stay in regular contact about “anything and everything,” Chad Tracy said, even if only by text.
The elder Tracy occasionally will message his son to say, “You managed a good ballgame. Keep your head up. Keep going.” He will also offer criticism when he believes it is warranted.
“I may be a doting father, but I don’t think so because I’ll also tell him, ‘Hey, I didn’t like this or I didn’t like that.’ And it’s up to him from there to deal with it,” Jim Tracy said.
Chad Tracy said he will ask his father for advice not only on game situations, but also on certain things that pop up in the media. Managing in Los Angeles, Jim Tracy dealt with the different pressures that exist in a large market. Chad Tracy understands the scrutiny in Boston is particularly intense. He believes that winning makes most issues disappear.
If anything, his promotion has drawn him even closer to his father.
“He’s watched more baseball in the last month than he has in a while,” Chad Tracy said. “I know he’s tuned in. He means it: He’s literally there whenever I need him.”
Yet, more than a month later, Jim Tracy remains troubled by how his son was promoted at the expense of his former player, how it all went down.
“That part of it was tough, when you think about the respect I have for that guy,” Jim Tracy said, referring to Cora.
From the timing to the execution, the Red Sox’s change was one of the more bizarre in recent memory. The announcement came after a 17-1 road victory against the Baltimore Orioles. The van that transported Cora and his coaches from the team hotel to the airport was from the company, “COACHES4HIRE.”
The day-to-day grind of a major-league season, however, left little time for anyone to dwell on their emotions.
Chad Tracy immersed himself in the Red Sox. Cora offered support from afar.
The fraternity goes on.
