Alex Cora's Firing Is the Final Straw. John Henry Should Sell the Red Sox

John Henry is the greatest owner in the history of the Boston Red Sox. He should sell the team.

This would have been impossible to imagine in 2018, or ‘13, or ‘07, or ‘04, but every day he continues to hold an office on Jersey Street, he tarnishes those four World Series trophies. Saturday's Boston Massacre-the team fired manager Alex Cora and five of his coaches-is just the latest instance of someone else paying for Henry's mistakes.

As with the rest of the recent failures, Henry is unlikely to take responsibility for them-or questions about them. He has not addressed the media since 2020. A 10–17 start to the season, No. 27 in baseball, deserved some action. This one, taken hours after the Red Sox beat the Orioles 17–1, bordered on comical. Half the replacement coaching staff woke up Saturday morning in the minor leagues. It's hard to top Theo Epstein's departure from Fenway Park in a gorilla suit when he resigned or the ugly leaks after Terry Francona's firing, but packing the sacked staffers into a bus owned by a company calledCOACHES4HIRE was a good one.

The original sin, of course, is the 2020 Mookie Betts trade. That shows up in the box score as an error by Chaim Bloom, but he was 108 days into his tenure as chief baseball officer. The trade was an ownership decision, and it was obvious even at the time that it was the wrong one. A year earlier, shortly after Betts finished an MVP season, the team offered him a 10-year, $300 million extension. Betts reportedly asked for 12 years and $420 million. Instead of locking up the team's best homegrown player since Carl Yastrzemski, Henry had him shipped to L.A., where he signed for 12 years and $365 million. Six years later, the Dodgers have won three World Series. The Red Sox have a 451–445 record.

After the 2022 season, another homegrown star, shortstop Xander Bogaerts became a free agent after the Red Sox offended him during extension talks. When he left for San Diego, Boston brass panicked and gave their final homegrown stud, third baseman Rafael Devers, $313.5 million over 10 seasons. That's face-of-the-franchise money; they knew, or should have known, he was just a hitter. A year later, Henry fired Bloom.

A year after that, Devers was publicly feuding with Cora and the front office, now helmed by Craig Breslow, about whether Devers should move to first base to accommodate superior defender Alex Bregman, whom they'd added on a one-year contract. Finally the team shipped Devers off to San Francisco for four guys who don't play for the Red Sox now, a deal that was a success mostly because they got out from under Devers's contract.

But they did little with the money, including failing to re-sign Bregman, an elite player and a clubhouse veteran that their newest young star, 21-year-old outfielder Roman Anthony, said had "helped me up until this point more than anyone probably in the big league level." Anthony seems to miss his old friend: He has a .686 OPS. Which brings us to the current team. Cora surely deserves some blame for an underachieving roster, as does Breslow, who selected the underachievers in the first place. Cora has already paid; Breslow surely will too if things do not improve.

You know who isn't paying? Henry, literally. Here are the Red Sox' payroll rankings when they won their titles:

2004: 2nd

2007: 2nd

2013: 4th

2018: 1st

And here they are over the past four years:

2023: 12th

2024: 12th

2025: 11th

2026: 12th

Meanwhile, Forbes estimates that the franchise is worth $5.25 billion, and CNBC values Henry's Fenway Sports Group-which also owns Liverpool Football Club and the Pittsburgh Penguins, among other properties-at $14.58 billion. Two years ago, as the Dodgers were signing two-way star Shohei Ohtani, Henry was in negotiations for his new venture, the Strategic Sports Group, to invest $3 billion into the PGA Tour.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox raise ticket prices every year. Fenway Park is now the most expensive venue in the sport. Boston fans, who used to greet Henry with tearful "thank yous", now chant, "Sell the team" at games.

Henry disdains them. "Because fans expect championships almost annually," hetold the Financial Times in 2024, "they easily become frustrated and are not going to buy into what the odds actually are: one in 20 or one in 30."

One in 30? You're the Red Sox!

Henry used to understand that. Again and again, he did the right thing early in his tenure. "It's the people of New England who own the Red Sox," he said in 2002. And he seemed to mean that: When he took over the team that year, he cancelled the Yawkey group's plans to raze Fenway Park and instead poured $285 million into renovating it. His staff took the '04 trophy to each of the 351 towns in Massachusetts. They had Bill Buckner throw out the first pitch before the home opener in '08.

Yes, Henry has always had great respect for the Red Sox' past. Now it's time to let someone else be their future.

More MLB from Sports Illustrated

• Red Sox' Season Was Doomed From the Start-and Firing Alex Cora Won't Change That
• Red Sox Fire Alex Cora, Jason Varitek and Most of Coaching Staff After Brutal Start to Season
• Mason Miller Sets Franchise Record as Padres Top Diamondbacks in Mexico City
• MLB Mexico City Series: How to Watch Padres-Diamondbacks Game
• Red Sox' Offensive Blackout Reaches New Depths During Yankees Sweep

This article was originally published on www.si.com as Alex Cora's Firing Is the Final Straw. John Henry Should Sell the Red Sox.

Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 7:55 PM.