CLEVELAND — Just a year after stepping away from the game he loves, Terry Francona is back in baseball, heading down I-71 South to take over Ohio's "other" team.
The future Hall of Famer and winningest manager in Cleveland history has been hired as the new skipper of the Cincinnati Reds. MLB.com's Mike Feinsand was the first to break the news, with the official announcement coming Friday morning.
It marks a dramatic turn of events for Francona, who last October resigned as manager of the Guardians citing health concerns and burnout. It also marks the return of one of MLB's greatest dugout leaders of the 21st century.
In 23 total seasons, "Tito" has amassed 1,950 wins, good for 13th-most in the history of the game. After a mediocre run with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997-2000, he was brought in to pilot the snake-bitten Boston Red Sox in 2004, and in his first year helped end the franchise's long title drought with an incredible comeback over the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series followed by a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
Francona stayed in Boston for eight years and won another championship in 2007, but following a late-season collapse in 2011 was essentially fired under acrimonious circumstances. He took a year off in the broadcast booth before returning to manage in 2013, this time leading the long-suffering Cleveland Indians.
Francona's father — the original "Tito" — was an All-Star for the Tribe in the late 1950s and early '60s, and the younger Francona spent time with the team as a player in 1988. Those fond memories were top of mind when he took the job, but he was also taking over a club that had fallen to the bottom of the AL Central standings and was dealing with its own championship dry spell.
Almost instantly, however, Francona was able to change the culture at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, leading the Indians to a surprise playoff berth in 2013 and never looking back. During his 11 years as skipper, he piled up a total of six postseason appearances along with four division titles and 921 victories, breaking Lou Boudreau's franchise record. The crowning achievement was an AL pennant in 2016, but the Tribe fell to the Chicago Cubs in a seven-game World Series, and Cleveland's wait for a championship has since extended to 76 years since 1948.
With players and even the name of the team changing, Francona remained the steady hand that was key to the Guardians' success. Nevertheless, late in the 2023 season, he began to hint that his time might be short, alluding to a number of medical issues such as hip and shoulder replacements along with two hernia surgeries.
"It's time," Francona told Sirius XM's MLB Network Radio in September of 2023, "and my body's telling me that, my head's telling me that, and I don't want to stay on for the wrong reasons."
The Guards slipped to 76-86 during Tito's last year (the worst record of his tenure) but sent him out with a win over (ironically) the Reds in his final home game. Having managed for longer than anyone else in Cleveland lore, he was reluctant to use the term "retirement," but expressed doubts about ever returning to the dugout.
"I don't foresee managing again," he said after officially stepping down. "If I was going to manage, I like doing it here. But I also don't want to just turn away from the game."
Fast-forward exactly one year later, and it appears the 65-year-old Francona will, indeed, be managing again. While the ties in Cincy aren't as deep as they were in Cleveland, he also spent time with the Reds as a player in 1987, playing under the late Pete Rose.
Like the Indians of 2013, Francona will also take over a club down on its luck but loaded with potential. The Reds boast young stars like ace pitcher Hunter Greene and dynamic shortstop Elly De La Cruz, but haven't won a World Series since 1990 and have failed to get to the division series since 2012. Cincinnati finished 2024 fourth in the National League Central at 77-85 and fired manager David Bell — another former Cleveland player — with five games left after less than six seasons.
Meanwhile, despite being without their stoic leader, the Guardians have maintained Tito's high standards, winning 92 games and an AL Central title this year as they prepare to begin the ALDS this Saturday against the Detroit Tigers. Stephen Vogt now leads the upstart bunch, but from the beginning has profusely praised the efforts of his predecessor.
"A lot of times, first-year managers, they're coming in and they're having to do 180(-degree) changes, they're having to make these huge adjustments," Vogt told 3News' Dave Chudowsky back in January. "But Tito, obviously, left this place in such good hands. And so I don't feel any pressure; I'm excited, and that's the way I'm choosing to look at it."
For those wondering, Francona is scheduled to make his return to Progressive Field on June 9, 2025, when Cincinnati comes to Cleveland as part of the annual Ohio Cup interleague series. Tito also won't have to change his spring training plans much, with the Reds and Guards both sharing the same facility in Goodyear, Arizona.