Also worth pointing out on the other end of the spectrum that Dombrowski inherited Farrell and didn't fire him for another two years (which included two division titles). I don't think having to keep Cora is necessarily any kind of dealbreaker for the incoming guy. He or she will get their chance to put their stamp on the team regardless of who's sitting in the manager's office.
Yeaaaaah. . .I think that reduces the scope of the hire to making trades to get the team Cora wants/can coach/can play. And even there, I'd be hesitant to bring in pitching this year with the Sox's recent track record. I mean, do you just get good pitchers, or do you have to get pitchers with a specific skill-set that is Cora-friendly?
I realize the following is totally back-of-the-envelope (ERA), but here's a basic question: Did Cora+Staff make their pitchers better or worse from 2022 to 2023?
Winckowski - huge improvement from 22 to 23. Fueled by his revamping everything with the Sox development staff, not the field staff.
Crawford - significant improvement.
Also,
Bello - ERA goes from 4.71 to 4.11. Improved for most of the season, but lit up recently. The final numbers are what they are.
Martin - 3.05 to 1.05. But note: 1.46 with the Dodgers for the second half of 2022.
Jansen - 3.38 to 3.63
Also, unfortunately,
Pivetta - 4.56 to 4.25. But very up and down (to say the least) so we'll put this in the "unfortunately" category.
Sale - 3.18 to 4.42
Whitlock - 3.45 to 5.30
Houck - 3.15 to 5.31
Kluber - 4.34 to 7.04
Schreiber - 2.22 to 4.03
Brasier - 7.29. Released and turned into an elite reliever by the Dodgers.
Bleier - 3.55 to 5.28
Ort - 6.35 to 6.26
Murphy - fell off drastically in recent outings.
Llovera - 4.41 to 4.88
Garza - 4.71 (CLE, 2021) to 7.36
So that's 5 plusses or holds, and more or less everyone else is a minus (where we can track such.) Most troubling is the failure with the starter-cadre.
Not all of that can be injuries and defense and park-effects.
And given that it's fair to wonder if Paxton's 4.50 ERA would have been better with different prep, usage, pitch strategy, etc.