Terry Francona enters a second decade as Cleveland Guardians manager
By Terry Pluto
Jan. 22, 2023, 4:37 a.m.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – “Now I’m going into my 11th year … “
Those words were spoken by Terry Francona at Saturday’s Guards Fest.
A small media group was talking to the Guardians manager, and even Francona seemed a bit surprised when those words came from his mouth. He is the longest current tenured MLB manager with the same team.
Francona is coming off a 92-70 season where the Guardians won the Central Division and the first round of the playoffs. He was named American League Manager of the Year for the third time, the others being 2013 and 2016 with Cleveland.
“I get too much credit for some things that happen here,” he said. “There are so many people in place that make me better.”
When some managers say that, it comes across as a lame cliche’.
Not Francona. There doesn’t seem to be a drop of phony blood running through his body. It’s one of the reasons he is heading into his 11th season with the same team.
“I came here for the right reasons – the people,” said Francona. “Now I’m going into my 11th year, and those relationships have grown. That’s not always the case.”
He was talking about owner Paul Dolan, president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff. Working with the same ownership and key front office people rarely survives a decade. Frustrations bubble up. Fingers of blame are pointed. Not every baseball summer will be glorious over the course of a decade.
In modern pro sports, managing 11 years in the same city is about as common as seeing a moose grazing in Public Square. MLB ownerships and front offices rarely have the patience to stick that long with a manager, regardless of his success.
A LITTLE HISTORY
Francona won a pair of World Series titles in Boston (2004 and 2007). He never had a losing record in eight years with the Red Sox. He still was fired after the 2011 season despite winning 90 games. That’s because Boston had missed the playoffs the previous two seasons.
Let’s thank Boston for that decision, otherwise the best manager in franchise history probably never would have come to Cleveland.
The turmoil and pressure Francona endured in Boston beat up his body and exhausted his emotions. He took the 2012 season off, at least from managing. He worked for ESPN. He rested and healed. Then, he longed to return to the dugout.
When he saw Cleveland had fired manager Manny Acta near the end of the 2012 season, he called former team president Mark Shapiro. He was interested in the job. Francona had spent 2001 with the Tribe as a special assistant to the team. That job came after he was fired as Philadelphia’s manager.
He appreciated the relationships in Cleveland. He wanted to work for Shapiro and Antonetti. It didn’t take long for Cleveland to hire Francona to take over the team in 2013.
COMING TO CLEVELAND
When Francona was hired by Cleveland, the team had lost at least 90 games in three of the previous four years. He went from big budget Boston to low payroll Cleveland.
Yet, they were 92-70 in Francona’s first season, making the playoffs as a wild card team.
Now, no Cleveland manager has been in the dugout longer and won more games than Francona. He’s had nine winning seasons in 10 years. That includes six trips to the playoffs, four Central Division titles. They went to the 2016 World Series.
The only losing record was 80-82 in 2021.
It’s why Antonetti has said, “Tito shouldn’t be manager of the year. He should be manager of the decade.”
HE’S ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
Francona seems healthier than he’s been in years. The 2020 and 2021 seasons were difficult for him. Due to various health problems and surgeries, he didn’t finish the season on the field in either season.
“A year and a half ago, I told them that if they felt they needed to move on – you gotta tell me,” said Francona. “You’ll never hear a peep out of me.”
Antonetti and Chernoff insisted Francona do what was necessary to heal. They wanted him as their manager, period. Francona knows not every team would be that patient, even with a successful manager. Not after failing to make it through two consecutive seasons.
“I don’t want to let people down,” Francona said.
He worries about putting too much burden on his coaches because of some health limitations. The Guardians don’t need Francona doing the grunt work of baseball. They treasure his leadership, his ability to keep things from falling apart.
Meanwhile, Francona has a contract with the team. It’s unclear for how long. Antonetti and Chernoff have said the 63-year-old Francona can manage as long as he likes.
“We have a contract, but if I have to call it quits, that’s it,” he said.
Francona doesn’t have a high-powered agent. He does his own contract with the team. He’s paid well, but money isn’t a driving force. He has said at different times the only reason he’s still managing is because he’s in Cleveland.
First, it’s the people. But he also knows he can win here – even with a smaller payroll. The stability and the trust he has that the organization “will figure it out,” as he likes to say.
“We have to be careful with our decisions,” said Francona. “We may hang on to guys longer than fans or you guys (the media) would like us to. But we have to be sure. We can’t out-spend our mistakes, so we try not to make them. It’s not the easiest thing to do.”
But they keep doing it, year after year. Now, the Guardians are a team on the rise with playoff experience. That’s remarkable for a club that was the youngest in the majors with 16 different players making their big league debuts in 2022.
“I’m glad people are excited,” Francona said. “What I want to do now, from last year, is to take what we can learn and springboard into this year. Not to just be that feel-good story. We need to win this year. So we take whatever happened last year and learn from it and move on … Our team has energized everyone.”
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