“Skubal talked that? He talked about us?” Alex Cora said as he found it hard to believe what Tarik Skubal had to say about the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were riding high in July, edging past their arch rivals—the New York Yankees in the division race. They gathered plenty of headlines as they climbed their way to the American League wild card spot. That one storyline that dominated the coverage was the accusations against them for unethical practices during regular season games.

The the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers, was recently asked in the Foul Territory podcast his thoughts on players relaying signs. As far as looking for signs and pitch tipping is concerned, Skubal believes it’s just a part of baseball. According to him, it’s mostly the pitchers’ call to tip or not. However, he ended up criticizing the Red Sox for other reasons. He also pointed out some unnamed organizations for their coaches standing outside of their allotted boxes on the baselines. Reason?

Simply to give them an unfair edge by spotting plays and signals that they otherwise cannot see if they were standing in their designated boxes. Like every week, Cora appeared for his weekly scheduled interview with WEEI on Wednesday.

The interviewer asked him for his reaction to Skubal’s accusations. “We haven’t played them in a while. Well, their third base coach doesn’t stand in the box either; he’s my brother. You prepare and that’s the way it works in the big leagues. Everybody is working. Everybody is trying to gain an edge.”  

Although it’s true that Boston’s first base coach Jose Flores and third base coach Kyle Hudson were indeed spotted standing outside of their designated boxes. However, as it seems, Skubal paid extra attention to Flores. He appeared to not acknowledge the fact that Cora’s brother—Joey Cora, who happens to be the third base coach for the Tigers was also spotted standing outside the box during games.

Apparently many clubs don’t follow this MLB rule that the base coaches are supposed to stand in the boxes painted on the baselines until the ball is in play. Further, during the WEEI episode, while responding to Skubal’s allegation, Cora said, “This is not the 2017 Houston Astros. We did what we did. One thing for sure, I’m going to have that dark cloud over me my whole life.” Cora was the bench coach for the Houston Astros during the infamous cheating scandal. For his contributions in the same, he was suspended without pay for the rest of the 2020 season. Moreover, he is also time and again reminded of that unfortunate incident.

Did the ‘Dark Cloud’ Follow Cora From the Houston Astros to the Boston Red Sox?

The Astros had stolen signs; they knew what pitches were coming, making it easier for them to get to base. Alex Cora was long criticized for this incident and it probably made many wonder if he had brought those tactics from Houston to Boston.

It’s been pretty long since that time. However, just a while after Cora arrived in Boston for his managerial role for the Red Sox, a player had made a major revelation. Someone on the Boston Red Sox’s roster, who’d like to stay anonymous, had said that Cora used to brag about stealing signs for his team.

According to the player, Cora used to time and again talk about the Astros’ 2017 scandal. He also used to brag about it during a late-night setting with alcohol. Cora’s bragging is also mentioned in Evan Drellich’s book—“Winning Fixes Everything”.

That book doesn’t say a lot of good things about Cora. It also featured his issues with former Astros skipper A.J. Hinch. That was mostly about Cora almost getting fired as the Astros’ bench coach before he joined the Boston Red Sox.

The 2018 Red Sox were solid, though. In the World Series, Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez played a significant role. The 2025 Red Sox are also on a tear and the fanbase will hope the dark cloud hanging over Cora will not affect the team as they are currently looking good to advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2021.