Craig Counsell's record-setting Cubs contract just helped Alex Cora secure the bag

Re-setting the market in terms of managerial salaries was Craig Counsell's top priority last fall when his contract with the Milwaukee Brewers expired. The Chicago Cubs obliged, making him baseball's highest-paid skipper by a wide margin via a five-year, $40 million deal.

Less than a year later, the impact of that deal is already reverberating throughout the league, with the Boston Red Sox and manager Alex Cora agreeing to terms on a new deal that places him just behind Counsell in terms of average salary, paying him $21.75 million over three years.

Cora was set to hit the open market at the end of the year and was widely expected to be heavily pursued given his track record both as a bench coach in Houston and as manager in Boston. Of course, detractors point to his role in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal, but that clearly hasn't overshadowed what he does on a daily basis as the Red Sox manager.

Cubs have learned that a high-paid manager doesn't fix everything

During his time in Boston, Cora has a 494-416 record entering action Wednesday but is coming off back-to-back sub-.500 seasons. The Sox have emerged as a surprise contender in the American League this year, just six games back in the division and one game out in the wild-card hunt.

Of course, he got off on the right foot (to say the least) in his first year as their manager, guiding the team to 108 regular-season wins and a World Series championship. Since 2018, though, the Red Sox have not won the AL East and have made the postseason only once, advancing to the ALCS in 2021 before falling to the Astros.

The Cubs are learning the hard way that having one of the game's best managerial minds isn't a fix-all for a flawed roster. Chicago is set to sell after a first-half performance that left much to be desired and will look to re-tool and gear up for a run in 2025 at the deadline, despite having the game's highest-paid manager calling the shots from the top step of the dugout.

Boston seems to know what they have in Cora and, with former Cubs executive Craig Breslow running the front office, is hoping to be setting the table for another era of success at Fenway.