{"id":404920,"date":"2026-01-10T21:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T21:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404920\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T21:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T21:41:07","slug":"alex-cora-chooses-cleanup-hitter-for-red-sox-lineup-but-undecided-on-leadoff-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404920\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Cora chooses cleanup hitter for Red Sox lineup, but undecided on leadoff spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 While fully acknowledging that the Red Sox <\/a>roster isn\u2019t complete for the 2026 season, manager Alex Cora has already identified who he wants batting cleanup for the team\u2019s batting order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Willson (Contreras, acquired last month in a trade with St. Louis)<\/a> will probably hit fourth. I know that one,\u201d said Cora at the Red Sox\u2019 Fenway Fest at Fenway Park.<\/p>\n

Contreras is, to date, the team\u2019s biggest position player acquisition of the offseason and is set to be the everyday first baseman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWillson\u2019s going to bring a lot,\u201d said Cora. \u201cHe hits the ball hard. It\u2019s a good at-bat. He drives the ball to right-center, but last year, he pulled the ball ball a little more than usual, which is awesome for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But on the topic of leadoff hitter, Cora was more circumspect. He used Roman Anthony there soon after Anthony made his debut last season<\/a>. Earlier in the season, before Anthony was promoted from Worcester, the Sox used Jarren Duran, and did so again as Anthony missed time in September.<\/p>\n

Both remain in the mix to hit first.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not there yet, to be honest,\u201d said Cora. \u201cUsually (by this point) I have a pretty good idea what we\u2019re going to do. But honestly, I have no idea. I think we have to wait and see what the roster is going to look like. A few positions, there are going to be battles. That\u2019s something that that\u2019s going to dictate what we\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in years, I don\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cora did acknowledge that he doesn\u2019t see anyone else on the current roster as a leadoff candidate.<\/p>\n

For now, he\u2019s focused on trying to construct a lineup that alternates lefty and righty hitters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe we\u2019re very left-handed,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the same time, we were very lefthanded last year and we (still) scored runs (finishing fifth in the AL in runs scored). We just to have create balance \u2014 by trades, free agency or developing guys. We\u2019ll see where we\u2019re at when we get to Fort Myers.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 While fully acknowledging that the Red Sox roster isn\u2019t complete for the 2026 season, manager Alex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[8475,64,63,4034,591,38796,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-404920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-american-league","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-national-league","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}