Alex Cora turns down Phillies manager job again, leaving Dave Dombrowski to look elsewhere

Cora, fired by the Red Sox early in 2026, turned down the Phillies in April and again this week

Oct 7, 2026 at 8:54 am ET • 2 min read

Alex Cora will not be the Philadelphia Phillies' next manager, a source confirmed to CBS Sports early Wednesday morning. Cora was the frontrunner for the job, and he has a strong relationship with Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, whom he considers one of his closest mentors in the game. But he has now turned down the Phillies job twice, once back in April and again in recent days.

According to a source, Cora's decision not to take the Phillies job is rooted in family considerations and has nothing to do with baseball. Cora, one of the most highly coveted managerial candidates in the majors, declined the Phillies' offer for those same family reasons back in April. 

The Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson in April days after Cora was let go by the Red Sox. After Cora turned down the job the first time, the club elevated bench coach Don Mattingly to interim manager for the remainder of the 2026 season. Mattingly turned things around, going 79-55 (a .590 winning percentage that translates into a 96-win pace over 162 games) while guiding the Phillies to the playoffs. But Mattingly always kept the interim tag, and the Philies were eliminated by the Braves in the Wild Card Series last week.

The Phillies could stick with Mattingly, per The Athletic, or they could conduct a wider search for a managerial replacement. Mattingly is under contract for the 2027 season as the team's bench coach and is reportedly expected to remain in the organization in some capacity. Mattingly's son, Preston, is the Phillies' general manager.

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Whatever happens, Dombrowski will not have his first managerial choice. Dombrowski and Cora won a World Series together in 2018, and the executive spoke glowingly about him in April after he was let go by the Red Sox.

"I think Alex Cora is one of the finest managers in the game of baseball," Dombrowski said. "I've been fortunate enough to work with Hall of Fame managers like Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland; I've been very fortunate in my career. I think if Alex Cora decides to keep managing, he has a chance to be in that same category. That's how good he is."

The Phillies, who face plenty of other key decisions this winter as they try to get an aging core another shot at a championship, have made the playoffs in each of the last five seasons -- four times with Thomson as the manager before Mattingly took them to the postseason this year. They won the National League pennant in 2022 but have not won a playoff series since 2023. They are 4-12 in their last 16 postseason games.