As a 1B, yes. Because he had a pretty long leash in April and May as a LF and couldn't hit well enough to stick then. His relatively brief stint at a 1B did coincide with Dalbec starting to hit. Between 7/22 and 8/16 (when Franchy was called up and when he was sent back down), Dalbec hit .297/.371/.600/.971 in 20 games. Cordero got eight starts in that span, hitting .219/.265/.219/.483.
I think it was just a very short leash. When Cordero was sent down on May 24, he had had all of 102 PA over the team’s first 50 games. Granted he was hitting poorly (though improved in May), but Cora gave other struggling players a lot more time to figure it out. By the time they had 102 PAs, Renfroe was hitting .221/.262/.379; Marwin was hitting .207/.320/.299; and Dalbec was hitting .191/.248/.319. (Dalbec got another 183 PA of bad offense and worst-in-the-league defense, striking out 40.3% of the time, before his bat started to pick up on 8/29).
Obviously, their defensive abilities played a role. You can’t exactly plug Franchy in for Marwin’s at-bats, and somebody had to get squeezed out of an outfield that already included Kiké and Verdugo. I’m not even saying it was the wrong move—Renfroe’s breakout is extremely fortuitous for the organization, and if Dalbec has truly arrived, doubly so. But I don’t think it’s accurate to say Cordero was given ample time to figure it out, especially after he missed most of spring training with injury/Covid.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Cordero this winter. He’s back to mashing again in Worcester (a 1.564 OPS in his last 9 games), and riding the shuttle this year means the Sox gained another year of control before he hits FA (in ‘25). I’m still excited by his upside, but I can’t immediately see how he fits in next year’s plans, and I don’t get the impression Cora’s a big fan.