Red Sox name Vázquez as new bench coach

BOSTON -- Ramón Vázquez’s steady ascension on Red Sox manager Alex Cora’s staff continued on Tuesday when he was elevated to the role of bench coach.

Will Venable, Cora’s bench coach for the last two seasons, recently vacated that role to become associate manager for Bruce Bochy and the Rangers.

As much as Vázquez was enjoying managing Caguas in the Puerto Rican Winter League, he resigned from that post a couple of days ago so he could focus on his new role for Boston.

Vázquez’s first responsibility will be to set a schedule for the entirety of Spring Training, which comes with the added wrinkle of the World Baseball Classic, the international showcase tournament that begins on March 8 and will likely lead to several Red Sox players missing multiple weeks of camp.

Cora and Vázquez, who are both from Puerto Rico, have known each other for years, having played against each other during their big league careers.

In fact, they were traded for each other in July 2005, with the former going to Boston and the latter getting sent to Cleveland. After the trade, Cora and Vázquez exchanged homes for the rest of the ’05 season.

In recent years, Cora joked that Vázquez got to live in his spacious home in the Cleveland area, while Cora was left with a small apartment Vázquez was inhabiting in Boston.

The 46-year-old Vázquez is entering his sixth season on Boston’s Major League staff. In 2022, he served as first-base coach while also coordinating the club’s baserunning instruction. Previously, he held the positions of coach/interpreter (2018-20) and quality control coach/interpreter (2021).

From 2018-21, Vázquez worked as a liaison between the club’s advance scouting and statistical analysis efforts for the purpose of presenting information to players and coaches. Vázquez, who split his time between shortstop, third base and second in his MLB career, has also worked extensively with the Red Sox’s infielders.