A year ago today, Terry Francona announced his retirement from managing when he stepped away from the Cleveland Guardians after 11 seasons amid a myriad of health problems.
Francona's retirement lasted exactly one year as the Cincinnati Reds will name him their new skipper succeeding David Bell who was fired during the last week of the 2024 MLB season.
This will be the fourth MLB club Tito has managed. Aside from the Guardians, Francona has also managed the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox. Tito guided the Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years back in 2004 and replicated that success in 2007 remaining with the club through 2011. Francona took over the reins in Cleveland in 2013 and led the team to an AL pennant in 2016 losing the World Series in seven games to the Chicago Cubs.
Currently, Francona is 13th on MLB's all-time wins list by managers with 1950. All MLB managers with 2,000 or more wins are in Cooperstown save for Dusty Baker and current Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. They will surely have their plaque in the Hall of Fame and so will Tito. But now Francona will focus on getting the Reds their first World Series title since 1990. Francona is not a stranger to the Reds having played for them in 1987 when the late Pete Rose was managing the team.
I do hope that Francona's health problems are behind him or are at least manageable enough that he can take on the rigors involved with the job. Francona is a baseball lifer and probably doesn't know what he would do without the game. I'm sure he's been restless and chomping at the bit to get back into a big-league uniform. I just hope it doesn't end up killing him. Then again, I'm sure he'd rather go out on a baseball field than anywhere else.
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