Alex Cora has spent most of 2026 away from a dugout, and on his fiancée’s birthday, he made clear where he thinks the credit belongs. The former Boston Red Sox manager shared a message to Angelica Feliciano on Instagram, casting her as the person who kept the family steady through a difficult year.
“Today you are plus one. Of all those we’ve celebrated, for me, the most important,” Alex Cora wrote. “In a year of many trials, you remained calm, you gave us peace of mind.”
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“You canceled the noise and kept us focused on what really matters, our family. I thank God for being part of your life Angelica Feliciano because you are the one who runs us. 🥂 to more days together living for ours. We love you. Te amo. #HappyBirthday”
The reference to trials is not abstract. Boston Red Sox fired Alex Cora on April 25 after a 10-17 start, cutting ties with him and five members of his coaching staff less than a month into the season. Since then, he has been largely based in Puerto Rico.
In October, he turned down the Philadelphia Phillies for the second time in six months. He told the president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, that he planned to sit out the 2027 season.
Alex Cora to Step Away From Baseball in 2027 to Focus on Family and Upcoming Wedding
Alex Cora and Angelica Feliciano have been together since 2016, though the two families were connected long before that. Both are from Puerto Rico.
Cora spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization while Feliciano’s brother, Jesús Feliciano, came up through the minors. The two were New York Mets teammates in 2009 and 2010, and the second of those seasons brought Jesús’s big league debut at 31.
Her father was a pitcher who carried Puerto Rico’s flag at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and Cora has spoken about him with evident respect. “He’s a legend back home,” Alex Cora told The Boston Globe.
The couple’s twin sons, Xander Gabriel and Isander Manuel, were born in July 2017 and turned 9 this summer. Cora also has a daughter from his previous marriage, and he has described the twins’ childhood as the reason the family guards its time away from the game.
Angelica Feliciano has kept a low public profile, which made her comments in a 2024 Globe interview stand out. “I’m very proud of what they’ve accomplished on the field, but for people to recognize what they’ve accomplished off the field means more,” she said.
Cora proposed in November 2025, announcing it with a photo of the ring going onto her finger and the caption “To be continued.” Feliciano replied in the comments, “I love you, together until we’re old.” Reports in October put the wedding in November.
He is still owed roughly $7.25 million by the Boston Red Sox in 2027, the final year of the three-year, $21.75 million extension he signed in July 2024. In late October, Alex Cora said on the “Baseball isn’t Boring” podcast that he is “not 100 percent sure” he wants to manage again.
For now, the calendar belongs to the wedding and to two 9-year-olds in Puerto Rico. Cora’s birthday post framed the past year as something the family absorbed together, and he gave the credit to her.
Edited by Kaushani Chatterjee
