Dave Dombrowski admits Phillies tried to hire Alex Cora shortly after Red Sox firing

"I had told him I had really come to the conclusion that if he took it, I was going to make a change."

Alex Cora and Dave Dombrowski worked together in Boston for parts of two seasons. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

April 28, 2026 | 6:26 PM

2 minutes to read

It didn’t take long for several MLB writers and insiders to connect the dots between Alex Cora and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Shortly after the Red Sox fired Cora and several of his coaches on Saturday, the Phillies were deemed as a potential landing spot for Boston’s former manager.

Not only was a slumping Philly team in need of a spark amid a sluggish start to the season, but Cora already had a strong relationship with Dave Dombrowski — Philadelphia’s president of baseball operations — from their time together in Boston.

The Phillies fired their manager, Rob Thomson, on Tuesday after the club dropped 11 of its last 12 games. They opted to replace him internally with bench coach Don Mattingly, who will serve as interim manager through the rest of the 2026 season.

But, Dombrowski noted on Tuesday that he was immediately interested in adding Cora as soon as Boston cut him loose. However, Cora turned down the offer.

“I talked to him on Sunday morning,” Dombrowski said Tuesday at a press conference in Philadelphia. “We talked about potentially taking the job. I had told him I had really come to the conclusion that if he took it, I was going to make a change. I thought he might take it.

“As time went on over the next day into Monday morning, it was apparent from his perspective that he wanted to take time with his family.”

Cora’s hesitation had nothing to do with pay, Dombrowski said. The Red Sox signed Cora to a three-year contract extension in July 2024, worth more than $7 million per year, which runs through the end of the 2027 season.

“He just felt that he wanted, at this point, to be a father first and foremost. That’s what he had decided,” Dombrowski said.

Cora, 50, is expected to be a coveted manager for several MLB clubs whenever he does express an interest in returning to the dugout. Dombrowski has plenty of familiarity with Cora, as the two worked together for parts of two seasons in Boston from 2018-19 when Dombrowski was the Red Sox’ president of baseball operations.

The pair won a World Series together with the Red Sox in 2018 before Dombrowski was fired by Boston in the closing weeks of the 2019 season.

“I think Alex Cora’s one of the finest managers in the game of baseball,” Dombrowski said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Hall of Fame managers like Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland and have been very fortunate in my career. I think if Alex Cora decides to keep managing again, he has a chance to be in that same category. That’s how good he is. ”