FORT MYERS, Fla. — Rumors began swirling Monday morning that conversations between the Red Sox and free agent starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery have been heating up, including one report by ESPN’s Buster Olney that manager Alex Cora and Montgomery had recently held a meeting over Zoom.

Speaking to reporters, Cora confirmed that meeting did indeed take place, saying the two spoke about two weeks ago while Cora was in Miami visiting his alma mater.

“Buster is right, we zoomed with him, but we’ve been zooming with a lot of people throughout the offseason. I’m not going to get into specifics but it’s part of the process,” Cora said. “And it was a while ago too, I was in South Beach for that one. That was in Miami like two weeks ago.”

Since the offseason began Montgomery has been regarded as an obvious fit for the Red Sox. The 31-year-old has made 30 or more starts in each of the last three seasons and is coming off a strong season in which he posted a 3.20 ERA over 188.2 innings while leading the Texas Rangers to their first World Series championship in franchise history.

The Red Sox starting rotation badly needs that kind of consistency and stability, and as the offseason has dragged on club legends and even current star Rafael Devers have grown increasingly outspoken about the club’s failure to bring in sufficient reinforcements.

While Montgomery and the Red Sox may be a perfect fit on paper, a source told the Herald that a big factor in Montgomery’s dragging free agency is he wants to return to the Rangers. Montgomery had a career-defining experience with the organization following his midseason trade, but Texas is experiencing significant financial uncertainty related to the ongoing bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, it’s local broadcasting partner, and has taken a much more cautious approach this offseason.

Still, Montgomery and his representation have kept in touch with other suitors. Cora’s confirmation came shortly after veteran sportswriter Peter Gammons also relayed that a National League executive told him, “we hear the Red Sox and Scott Boras had a good meeting recently and may get some deal eventually done on Jordan Montgomery.”

Though Cora wouldn’t comment on the specifics of any ongoing negotiations, he said the club is still in active discussions with numerous free agents, including both pitchers and position players.

“We’ve been working hard the whole offseason and it’s not a lack of trying, I’m telling you,” Cora said. “It’s been a lot of meetings, a lot of conversations, obviously Craig has had a lot of conversations with agents, it’s where we’re at right now. We’re still engaged with position players, with pitchers, we’re trying to improve, and if there’s an opportunity to do that we’ll jump on it, but right now it hasn’t worked out or we haven’t found a match.”