Alex Cora Reveals Most Exciting Part Of Red Sox’s Bright Future

After getting eliminated from the playoffs by the New York Yankees last week, the Boston Red Sox held their end-of-season press conference on Monday.

Sam Kennedy, Craig Breslow and Alex Cora fielded questions from reporters about the season, the state of the team, the upcoming offseason and more..

Cora noted that he saw significant improvement on the field compared to the last few seasons, as the Red Sox made the playoffs for the first time since 2021. With young stars like Roman Anthony, Garrett Crochet and Marcelo Mayer leading the way, the future appears bright for Boston.

Cora also revealed what part of the team he’s most excited about going forward.

“The thing that excites me is the pitching,” Cora said. “What we have in player development is real…Now we’re talking about a deeper pitching staff, which is very important…The bullpen is in a much better place going into the offseason than last year.”

In Crochet and Aroldis Chapman, the Red Sox have arguably the best starting pitcher and closer in baseball.

Their pitching pipeline has also improved dramatically since Breslow took over as chief baseball officer two years ago. He and pitching coach Andrew Bailey have helped build Boston’s best collection of homegrown pitching talent in two decades.

The Red Sox’s improvement on the mound was evident this year, especially during the second half. Boston finished with the fifth-best ERA (3.72) in baseball, propelling the team to its best record since 2021.

The club’s pitching depth and young talent were also on display as the season progressed. The Red Sox continued to pitch well despite losing Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Hunter Dobbins and Richard Fitts to injury, getting key late-season contributions from rookies Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.

Tolle and Early could both compete for a rotation spot next year. Boston still has several impressive arms in the Minor Leagues, too, including Luis Perales and 2025 first-round draft pick Kyson Witherspoon.

Much of the recent hype around the Red Sox’s prospects has focused on position players like Anthony, Mayer, Kristian Campbell and Jhostynxon Garcia. However, Boston’s pitching staff has made major strides as well and appears poised for more improvement.