In the final stretch of his 11-year tenure in Cleveland, Terry Francona suffered an eclectic array of medical maladies. He managed just 14 games in the 2020 season before a gastrointestinal issue landed him in the Cleveland Clinic for weeks. When he stepped away from the team midseason again the following year, to have hip surgery, he was wearing a boot on his foot from an offseason staph-related toe surgery and also getting over a head cold that had forced him to miss two games. Weeks before his final game with Guardians in 2023, the motorized scooter he used to get around was stolen, for the second time. The use of a replacement scooter did not go so well: Francona steered it to avoid pedestrians, hit a pothole and flipped over the handlebars. (“It’s amazing how much you can see of your life in that moment,” he told the AP.)
“I don’t foresee managing again,” Francona said last October, musing about his future at a season-end press conference where he announced he was stepping down as manager of the Cleveland Guardians. “Because if I was gonna manage, I like doing it here.” On Thursday night, ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke some surprising news: The 65-year-old Francona will manage again, in Ohio but not with the Guardians. The Cincinnati Reds announced Friday that he is replacing David Bell, who was fired in the final days of the team's underwhelming season.
In March, Zach Buchanan reported here that Francona had become a University of Arizona men’s basketball obsessive in retirement. “I’m a fan, man,” he told Buchanan at the Wildcats’ practice in Tucson. “It’s different, and it’s OK. Fuck, I love watching them play.” Maybe it was the K.J. Lewis-Caleb Love backcourt that restored Francona to health, or maybe he was on to something with his reasoning for once eating 17 popsicles in one night: “They’re healthy, so if one’s good, 17’s gotta be real good.”
Guardians fans probably don’t mind this in-state betrayal too much, especially now that new manager Stephen Vogt has guided their young team and dubious rotation to an AL Central title. In Francona, the Reds get one of MLB’s winningest, most experienced managers, one who's made the most of low payrolls and nascent talent. Whether it is really wise for a man with a history of heart problems to endure a regular diet of Alexis Díaz innings is between Tito and his cardiologist.
