A managerial firing, a team on a historic pace, and a contender that looks like it is coming apart in April.
The 2026 MLB season is delivering early and often. This week had everything: a shocking managerial firing, historic home run pace out of Los Angeles, a couple of teams in genuine crisis mode, and Shohei Ohtani reminding everyone he might still be the best pitcher on the planet.
Let us get into it.
The Biggest Story: Alex Cora Out in Boston
The Red Sox made it official on Saturday night: Alex Cora is out.
Hitting coach Peter Fatse, bench coach Ramon Vazquez, and third base coach Kyle Hudson were also dismissed. Jason Varitek was reassigned, not fired, as Boston tried to reshape the entire feel of the staff in one move.
What makes this story even stranger is the timing. Just hours before the announcement, Boston beat Baltimore 17-1. Ten runs in the ninth inning. Andruw Monasterio, Caleb Durbin, and Willson Contreras all went deep. It was the kind of win that usually buys a manager at least another week.
It did not matter. The Red Sox were 10-17 and the front office had seen enough. After eight years, two Manager of the Year awards, and a 2018 World Series title, Cora's run in Boston is over. Worcester manager Chad Tracy takes over on an interim basis.
Getting fired after a 17-1 win is the kind of baseball irony people will remember. But the bigger picture is simple: Boston believed the season was sliding, and it decided one huge win did not change what the first month already said.
Team of the Week: Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers are doing Dodgers things, but this version has a little extra violence in it.
Los Angeles went 17-8 through the first stretch of the season, and the lineup is already threatening franchise history. The Dodgers hit 42 home runs in their first 22 games, the most they have ever hit through that span.
On the individual side, Dalton Rushing has been absurd, launching seven home runs in his first eight games of the season. That is the kind of opening burst that forces the whole league to pay attention.
And then there is Roki Sasaki, who picked up his first win of 2026 in a 12-4 rout of the Cubs. If the lineup is mashing and the rotation depth looks like this, the rest of the National League is going to spend the summer trying to keep up.
Shohei Ohtani Is Still a Joke on the Mound
Speaking of the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani the pitcher deserves his own section.
Ohtani made his fourth start of the season this week and still has allowed only one earned run in 24 innings. One. The velocity is there, the command looks sharp, and the pitching side of his game already feels terrifying again.
The rest of the NL is going to be dealing with this all year. That is an outrageous luxury if you are the Dodgers.
Yordan Alvarez Is Carrying Houston's Offense
Houston has stumbled to a 10-16 start, but Yordan Alvarez is still swinging like an MVP candidate.
He hit his 11th home run of the season this week against Cleveland, putting him on top of the early MLB home run leaderboard. The Astros have problems all over the place, but Alvarez is at least giving them one nightly reason to keep watching.
The Mets and Phillies Are Both in Trouble
Last week the Mets had lost 10 straight. This week that skid reached 12 games after a sweep at Wrigley. At some point you stop calling it a slump and start calling it what it is: a real team problem.
And somehow, the Phillies may look even worse.
Philadelphia is 8-17, dead last in the NL East, and spent part of the week buried under an 11-game losing streak before Zack Wheeler returned on Saturday and stopped the bleeding. If your ace has to rescue your season in April, things are already off the rails.
Meanwhile, the contrast at the top of the division is brutal. Atlanta is 18-8, and the Braves look like the class of the National League right now after sweeping Philadelphia earlier in the week.
The Mets are spiraling. The Phillies are unraveling. The Braves are thriving. That is the current state of the NL East.
Around the League
The NL Central Is a Real Race
No division in baseball is tighter right now than the NL Central. The Cubs and Reds are both 16-9, the Cardinals are 14-10, and the Pirates and Brewers are close enough to keep this thing messy for a while. That division is going to stay interesting.
Cole Ragans Is the Real Deal
Kansas City's Cole Ragans struck out 11 in six innings in a 12-1 blowout of the Angels on Saturday. The Royals are only 8-17, but Ragans keeps looking like a legitimate ace stuck in a bad situation.
The Yankees Have the Best Record in the AL
The Yankees are 16-9, which is currently the best mark in the American League. Tampa Bay is hanging around, but New York looks like the most stable team in the division right now.
Looking Ahead
Boston's chaos is just beginning. The Red Sox have a new interim manager, a roster with major questions, and no obvious shortcut back to relevance.
The Mets need to find a win before the noise gets even louder. The Phillies need to prove Saturday was a turning point and not just a temporary pause in the collapse.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers are going to keep hitting, Ohtani is going to keep making hitters miserable, and the NL Central is going to keep giving us one of the best early division races in baseball.
May starts next week. Time to get serious.
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