NEW YORK – Long before he led the Boston Red Sox to a franchise-record 108 victories, before he drubbed the New York Yankees by managing a near-perfect postseason series, before the American League Championship Series beckoned and a World Series berth stood four victories away, Alex Cora needed a favor.

When he called Rick Porcello and Chris Sale in January, they were glad to hear from him. Over the previous two months, as he prepared to drop into the snake pit that is the Red Sox manager’s office, Cora had traversed the country, meeting with players, soliciting their advice, listening to their grievances, cautioning them of his plans. Not long ago, Cora had been a player, which meant he understood the dynamics of the modern clubhouse. He also recognized that every new job comes with blind spots, and he took pains to seek them out and confront them, because the best managers in baseball aren’t considered as such purely out of tactical genius or personal affinity but the quality that bridges the two: trust.

Cora knew that the manager could serve as the fulcrum for a clubhouse of 25 men, with diverse backgrounds and differing personalities, so long as he offered his unwavering support. Now, though, he needed them to be here for him, for his homeland. So he asked Porcello and Sale, two of the Red Sox’s veterans and leaders, to join him on a goodwill trip to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.

“Of course we said yes,” Porcello said late Tuesday night, as the visiting clubhouse staff at Yankee Stadium peeled plastic wrap off the floor and cleared the detritus of the celebration after the Red Sox throttled the Yankees, 4-3, and locked up their American League Division Series with a three-games-to-one victory. “We knew how important it was to him.”

View photos Rookie manager Alex Cora has gained the trust and respect of the Boston Red Sox. (Getty Images) More

When Porcello said he would join Cora on the plane to deliver supplies to his hometown of Caguas, the two had met once. They had continued to speak on and off, Cora asking about the leadership on the Red Sox, the flaws of the team, the areas in which he could help, and the comfort was instantaneous, the rapport natural. So this favor – it didn’t seem like an imposition to Porcello or Sale, who took a separate flight from the one Cora, Porcello and other Red Sox employees rode from Boston on Jan. 30 carrying some of the 10 tons of supplies Cora had procured. They almost felt duty-bound, all for someone who’d never managed them in a single game.

This is what Alex Cora has brought to Boston. The effusiveness with which the Red Sox speak about him is almost cult-like, and yet those around the team swear it’s real, that the 42-year-old’s genuineness invites loyalty without asking for it. That when he’s interviewing for the manager’s job and says a condition of it is the Red Sox helping victims of Hurricane Maria, the authenticity is undeniable. That when 300 families are seeking help and he’s there with a convoy of people to provide, it emanates from the same compass he uses in uniform, one he perpetually hopes points toward good.

“For somebody who’s managing in his first year, it sure doesn’t feel like it,” Porcello said. “He seems like he’s been doing this for a long, long time. What we feel in this clubhouse is how much he really, truly, genuinely cares about us. It kind of sounds like a cliché. ‘Whatever. You guys are professional athletes. Who gives a [expletive]?’ But it means a lot. His job is to put guys in a position to succeed. We may be ballplayers and maybe not the most educated people in the world, but you sense those sort of things, who’s leading the helm, and I can’t say enough good things about him. I’m so grateful to be here, to be playing for him. It’s not bull[expletive]. It’s not anything other than I love the fact that I’m playing for Alex Cora and the Boston Red Sox right now.”