Alex Cora on future with Red Sox: 'I'll be here next year'

BOSTON -- Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora said definitively on Wednesday he will be back with the team next year but didn't say in what position or even how he could be so sure.

Asked before the home finale against Tampa Bay if he was confident his job was secure, Cora said, "I'm good. I'll be here." Asked if he had been given a guarantee from ownership that he was safe, Cora twice repeated: "I'll be here next year."

The Red Sox fired Chaim Bloom as chief baseball officer this month with the team headed for their third last-place finish in his four seasons. A new baseball boss presumably would want some say in whom the manager will be.

Cora, who has a year left on his contract, also has…