Blue Jays feeling more confident with their managerial choice as Boston says bye to Cora

Alex Cora's eighth season as the Boston Red Sox manager has been cut short. The 10-17 Red Sox have found themselves off to one of their worst starts in recent memory and the team has decided that they have seen enough from Cora and company as they parted ways with five members of the coaching staff on Saturday.

The timing of the move is a bit strange considering Boston just showed signs of breaking out of their slump with a 17-1 beatdown of the Baltimore Orioles, but the news came out following the game, creating some turmoil for the division rivals of the Toronto Blue Jays. The move should give the Blue Jays and their fans some time to reflect and maybe appreciate what they have behind their own bench.

Blue Jays coaching staff a rare model of longevity and consistency

During the offseason the Blue Jays gave John Schneider a two-year extension after guiding the team to the 2025 World Series. With an AL Championship under his belt, Schneider rightfully earned himself some extra tenure with the club that he has been a part of 25 years. Schneider was a 13th round draft pick of the Blue Jays in 2002. His playing career ended in 2007, but he quickly turned to coaching and was hired as a catching instructor. In 2008 he was the manager of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Blue Jays.

He moved up the ranks to Double-A New Hampshire where he would first be paired with future starts Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. That was a group that won an Eastern League championship and Schneider was named Eastern League Manager of the Year. The next year he was in the big leagues, working with the Blue Jays catchers. He became the teams' bench coach in 2022 and later that season he was named manager when the team fired Charlie Montoyo.

It is incredibly rare for one person to last in a system this long, make it all the way to the top job, have some setbacks (the team was 0-4 in playoff games under Schneider and had a sub-.500 season) mixed with some incredible success and never have anything other than the utmost confidence from his superiors, even when the fan base felt indifferent.

But it's not just Schneider that has been a long-time staple of this organization. Pitching Coach Pete Walker has been a part of the Blue Jays coaching staff since 2012...in the majors! That doesn't include his stint when he was actually pitching on the mound for them between 2002-2006. Nor does that include his stint as a coach in their minor league system. Walker has sat on the Blue Jays major league bench and has watched every pitch every pitcher has thrown for this franchise for 14 years.

You've got some other vets sprinkled in as well. DeMarlo Hale has been the Associate Manager for Schneider since 2023. It' his second stint in Toronto. He was one of four finalists to be the Blue Jays' manager ahead of the 2010 season. That job went to John Farrell, but Hale was brought in two years later as the Blue Jays' bench coach. He left for Atlanta in 2019, before coming back into his current role.

Then there's the relative newcomer David Popkins, who burst onto the scene in Toronto last year, bringing a new approach and philosophy to the Blue Jays' lineup. Popkins came over from the Minnesota Twins organization in the offseason and many credited his work with the Blue Jays' hitters as a major recent for their resurgence in 2025.

Even though the Blue Jays haven't gotten off to the best start in 2026, at 11-15 and only 2.5 games better than the Red Sox going into the Sunday, there's a difference between the Blue Jays slow start being attributed to the absurd amount of injuries they have suffered versus the Red Sox slow start being attributed to just plain bad performances.

The other difference is that Cora's track record suggests he hasn't been the greatest manager during his Red Sox tenure. Yes, he captured that 2018 World Series in his first year, but the Red Sox have made the playoffs just twice under him since that season. Of course the front office traded away some pretty big name players in that time, but when you're managing in a big market like Boston, the expectations are incredibly high. and two Wild Card appearances, mixed in with three last place in the division finishes just doesn't cut it.

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