Red Sox Manager Alex Cora FINALLY BREAKS SILENCE on Boston’s Failed Trade in the Hunt for Shohei Ohtani — “We were closer, maybe it was a…” His Shocking Confession Has Rocked the Entire MLB World, Sparking a Major Debate About the Truth Behind the Deal of the Century!
In the high-stakes world of Major League Baseball, few stories capture the imagination quite like the endless pursuit of Shohei Ohtani, the two-way phenom who has redefined what’s possible on a diamond.
For years, teams have salivated over the idea of landing him, dreaming of the offensive fireworks and pitching dominance he brings. None, perhaps, felt the sting of missing out more acutely than the Boston Red Sox.
But on a crisp autumn afternoon in November 2025, as the echoes of another playoff-less season faded, Red Sox manager Alex Cora shattered the silence surrounding one of the franchise’s most tantalizing “what ifs.” In an exclusive interview with MLB Network, Cora dropped a bombshell: “We were closer than anyone knew—maybe it was a done deal, or at least it felt that way in those final hours.” The admission, raw and unfiltered, has sent shockwaves through the league, igniting a firestorm of debate about what really derailed Boston’s bid for the deal of the century.
To understand the gravity of Cora’s confession, one must rewind to the winter of 2023, a period when Ohtani’s free agency wasn’t just news—it was a global event.
The Japanese superstar, fresh off a season where he slashed .304/.412/.654 with 44 home runs and a 3.14 ERA in 23 starts, was the undisputed prize. Teams from coast to coast lined up, but whispers in baseball circles suggested the Red Sox were in the thick of it.
Boston, still smarting from a 78-win debacle in 2022, saw Ohtani as the missing piece to reclaim their throne in the AL East.
Under the guidance of chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and a front office hungry for redemption, the Red Sox reportedly assembled a pitch that blended Fenway’s historic charm with promises of a flexible role—hitting in the heart of the order while easing back into pitching post-elbow surgery.
Cora, ever the tactician with a World Series ring from 2018 still gleaming on his finger, was at the forefront.
In private meetings leaked years later through anonymous sources, he reportedly sketched out lineups where Ohtani slotted seamlessly between Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts, creating a juggernaut capable of overwhelming the Yankees and Astros alike. “We talked about everything,” Cora revealed in his recent sit-down.
“The marketing, the fanbase, even how we’d handle the media frenzy. Shohei isn’t just a player; he’s a cultural shift.
We were ready to make him the face of a new era in Boston.” The quote hangs heavy, a far cry from Cora’s more guarded comments back in 2018, when he downplayed the team’s chances after Ohtani chose the Angels: “I don’t think we were close—maybe finalists or whatever.” That humility masked deeper frustrations, ones now bubbling to the surface.
What makes Cora’s revelation so seismic is the “maybe it was a…” fragment—a tease that hints at sabotage, miscommunication, or something more sinister. Speculation exploded immediately on social media and sports talk shows.
Was it owner John Henry’s infamous thriftiness? Reports from that era pegged Boston’s initial offer at around $500 million, a figure dwarfed by the Dodgers’ eventual $700 million megadeal, but insiders now claim the Red Sox were prepared to match or exceed if push came to shove.
“We had the checks ready,” Cora hinted, his voice trailing off in a way that left reporters—and fans—gripping their seats. Or perhaps it was the Angels’ desperation play, dangling trade assets like a young Mike Trout extension to sweeten the pot before Ohtani hit free agency outright.
Boston, after all, had scouted aggressively, even flying in Japanese scouts to debrief on Ohtani’s Nippon Professional Baseball days.
The confession’s timing couldn’t be more poignant. Just weeks earlier, the Red Sox had stunned the baseball world by trading third baseman Rafael Devers—a homegrown cornerstone—to the San Francisco Giants in a salary-dump move that netted prospects but alienated a fanbase already weary of rebuilds.
Cora, in a separate presser, defended the deal with a stoic “no regrets,” but his Ohtani remarks paint a broader picture of regret festering within the organization.
“If we’d landed Shohei back then, Rafy might still be here, and we’d be talking rings, not rebuilds,” Cora mused, his words slicing through the post-trade gloom at Fenway Park.
Attendance dipped to its lowest since the early 2000s this past season, and ticket prices for 2026 remain stagnant amid whispers of another fire sale.
Across MLB, the debate rages like a seventh-inning stretch gone wild. On ESPN’s “First Take,” Stephen A. Smith thundered that Cora’s words expose a “cowardly front office” too scared to spend, drawing parallels to the Cubs’ Theo Epstein era when Boston finally broke the curse.
Analysts like Jeff Passan of ESPN countered that the Red Sox were never truly in the running, citing Ohtani’s West Coast preference and the Angels’ insider edge. “Closeness is subjective,” Passan tweeted.
“But Cora’s nostalgia is rewriting history to mask current failures.” Fan forums, from Reddit’s r/redsox to X (formerly Twitter), erupted in memes and hot takes.
One viral post quipped, “Cora says we were close to Ohtani? Yeah, like how we’re close to relevance—eternally.” Others rallied, pointing to Cora’s recent three-year, $21.75 million extension as proof of faith in his vision, second only to Craig Counsell’s Cubs pact.
Yet beneath the bluster lies a deeper truth about Ohtani’s gravitational pull. Since defecting to the Dodgers in 2023, he’s elevated them to dynasty status, posting a 50-50 season in 2024 en route to an NL pennant and flirting with a 60-homer campaign in 2025 despite a minor hamstring tweak.
The “deal of the century” Cora invokes isn’t hyperbole; Ohtani’s deferred $680 million contract has reshaped economics, forcing owners like Henry to confront a new reality where superstars command supermajority stakes.
For Boston, missing him feels like the original sin of their post-2018 slide—a butterfly effect rippling through five straight losing seasons. Cora’s silence on the matter for two years only amplified the myth, turning it into locker room lore whispered during rain delays.
As the offseason churns toward spring training, Cora’s candor could be a catalyst. Rumors swirl of aggressive pursuits for Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki or a reunion with free agent ace Garrett Crochet. “We’re not done chasing unicorns,” Cora pledged, a sly nod to Ohtani’s elusiveness.
But the debate he sparked endures: Was Boston’s failure a near-miss born of bold ambition, or a symptom of systemic hesitation? In a league where timing is everything—from bidding wars to bullpen meltdowns—the truth behind that almost-deal remains tantalizingly out of reach.
One thing’s certain: Alex Cora’s words have reignited the fire in Red Sox Nation, reminding them that in baseball, the greatest stories are often the ones that got away. And perhaps, just perhaps, the next chapter starts with a confession like this—raw, revealing, and ready to rewrite the narrative.
