“You don’t replace Mookie Betts, who is one of the best players in the game,” Roenicke said, before adding: “This team, they’re focused on what they can do and showing people wrong.”
“This is a really good ball club,” Roenicke added. “There are some tremendous athletes on this team. And you hope that the guys you replace them with become great players. And whether it’s this year, whether it’s a few years. You just keep moving on.”
After winning a franchise-record 108 regular-season games and the World Series in 2018, Cora’s first year, the Red Sox followed that up last season by missing the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
“We’re very disappointed — as all these players are — in what happened last year,” Roenicke said. “And our focus is to try to get back in the playoffs, and seeing what happens after that.”
Roenicke spent five years as the Brewers manager from 2010-15, winning 96 games and the National League Central title in his first season and finishing as runner-up for N.L. manager of the year. In all, he led Milwaukee to a 342-331 record in five seasons.
“Right away, I thought I would” get another chance, Roenicke said. “But then as years go by, you kind of wonder about it.”
Roenicke batted .238 with 17 homers and 113 runs batted in as an outfielder and pinch-hitter with six teams from 1981-88. The younger brother of the major leaguer Gary Roenicke, he went on to coach in the Dodgers and Angels systems before taking over the Brewers in the 2011 season.
“Whether it’s a good season, which I had my first year, or whether it’s a poor season, which we had my last year there, you’re still learning things. And all the time I’m thinking about, ‘What could I have done better?’” he said. ”“I want to do this job better.”