At a press conference held Wednesday at Fenway Park, a somber looking group of the Red Sox leadership, including principal owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner, president and CEO Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom faced the press for the first time since the announcement that team manager Alex Cora would no longer be a member of organizational leadership.

"Since joining the Red Sox, Alex Cora has been one of the many people we work with who has consistently put the organization ahead of their own interests," Henry said in his opening statement at the conference. "He did that yesterday as we discussed how to move forward."

He called it a "tough decision" to part ways with Cora and the team's leadership stressed that it was a mutual decision from both sides for the manager to depart.

The team consistently stressed that they could not speak on the current investigation into the Red Sox alleged wrongdoing in 2018 and asked everyone to reserve judgment until that inquiry is complete.

"I want to make it clear that we take very, very seriously any allegations made against members of our organization and we investigate them fully," Henry said. "In the ongoing case I can tell you that we are working with baseball to fullest extent possible."

After two seasons as manager of the Boston Red Sox, including a championship season in 2018, Cora and the organization "mutually agreed to part ways" according to a statement released by the team Tuesday night for his role in a sign stealing scandal that has rocked Major League Baseball came to light.

“This is a sad day for us. Alex is a special person and a beloved member of the Red Sox," owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner and CEO Sam Kennedy said in the joint statement. "We are grateful for his impact on our franchise. We will miss his passion, his energy and his significant contributions to the communities of New England and Puerto Rico.”

"We agreed today that parting ways was the best thing for the organization," Cora wrote in the statement. "I do not want to be a distraction to the Red Sox as they move forward."

MLB implicated Cora in an investigation begun in 2019 into the Houston Astros use of cameras to steal the signs that opposing pitchers and catcher exchange to relay which pitches they would use during their 2017 season. Cora was a member of the Astros coaching staff at the time as their bench coach.

While stealing signs is a part of the game, using technology to do is something MLB has been trying to crack down of for the past few years.

The results of MLB's investigation, which were released on Monday, mentioned Cora multiple times and found he helped to develop Houston's sign stealing methods and actively participated in them.

Astros manager A.J. Hinch and General Manager Jeff Lunhow were both suspended for one year by MLB and were later fired by Houston.

Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred declined to issue any punishment for Cora until the results of a separate investigation into the Red Sox improperly using their video replay room to steal signs in 2018 concluded. However, the smart money was that Cora would face a similar punishment once that case wrapped up.

The announcement of Cora’s departure comes just about a month before spring training is set to start, which could make the start of the season and the search for a new manager more difficult than under less tumultuous circumstances.

“It's not what we would like to be doing at this point,” Henry said. “But, we were all surprised to read this report on Monday. But this is, I don't know if you would call it a logical conclusion, but this is where we are as a result of that."

Still, Sox leadership was adamant that the team has high expectations for the upcoming season.

“We have high expectations in 2020,” said team president and CEO Sam Kennedy. “We fell short last year. We talked with Chaim [Bloom] about the fact that, when he came in, that we’re better than an 84-win club. We think we have a team that’s built to compete in the American League East…We come into 2020 excited and enthusiastic about a very talented team, veteran players, younger players and excited about getting to spring training.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with more details.