Boston Red Sox fans everywhere were shocked when news of an Alex Cora contract extension broke on a Wednesday in July. The option that kept the skipper in Boston for the 2023-24 campaign expired at the end of the season. Had the Red Sox not extended Cora, they would’ve had to add a managerial search to their offseason plans. Or, they could’ve bet on him when he reached the recently invented concept of managerial free agency, where Craig Counsell fetched a five-year, $40 million deal from the Cubs in 2023.