CINCINNATI — Sitting in seat 27 C, Cincinnati Reds general manager Brad Meador had his notes strewn across the small seatback table on his flight to Tucson, Ariz. last Tuesday night.
Nick Krall, the team’s president of baseball operations, paced up and down the aisle of the plane the two had booked that day to meet with Terry Francona about the team’s open managerial position.
Krall looked at Meador and his notes and continued to walk up and down the aisle.
Yes, this was an interview of the team’s dream candidate for the job. But the decision wasn’t going to be made in Meador’s copious notes, it was going to be made in Francona’s living room on a beat-up, decades-old brown couch.
The next day, Krall fell into the deep indention in that couch and the conversation with Francona felt as comfortable and familiar as the well-worn spot. Francona edged closer and closer to the edge of his seat as the trio talked about baseball, the Reds’ roster and Cincinnati. About 45 minutes in, Krall gave Meador a look that said they had heard all they needed. About an hour in, when Francona started using the word “we” to describe the team, the pair knew the future Hall of Fame manager wanted the job.
“It just felt right,” Francona said Monday as he was introduced as the Reds’ manager. “It felt right kind of from the beginning of the meeting. We probably talked for about five hours and my palms were sweating and I wanted to put my uniform on.”
Francona didn’t need to polish his resume, nor did the Reds’ brass need much more than to see Francona in person, and have answers about his health and interest. The 65-year-old manager has two World Series titles, another World Series appearance, was named Manager of the Year three times and is one of the most respected skippers — and people — in the game.
Francona managed just 14 of 60 games in the 2020 season due to a blood clot issue and he missed the final two months of the 2021 season after dealing with a staph infection following a toe surgery and a hip issue. Last October, he announced he would step down as the Guardians’ manager after 11 seasons in Cleveland. Francona was given a hero’s sendoff in his final home game, a victory over the Reds at Progressive Field.
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That, most — and even Francona himself — believed, would be his final day as a manager after 3,622 games on the bench (and 1,950 wins).
“I honestly didn’t see myself managing again,” Francona said. “I had a really good year away from the game. I needed to step away. I didn’t step away because I didn’t love the game. I stepped away because I didn’t think I was doing the job up to the caliber that I thought was necessary. Part of it was health — a lot of that was health — and it was getting in the way.”
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Before joining the Reds, Terry Francona spent a decade as manager in Cleveland. (Rick Osentoski / USA Today)
Francona’s longtime friend and former Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman visited him in Tucson in February. Brennaman and his wife Amanda stayed at Francona’s house and the group talked, played golf and enjoyed dinners together.
As the Brennamans drove from Tucson to the Reds’ spring training complex in Goodyear, Marty said he told his wife, “There’s no chance on God’s green earth that he’s ever going to manage again.”
What Brennaman saw in his time with Francona was a man who was content with where he was and on a journey to getting healthy. Baseball is a grind with 162 games — and the headaches that surround each one — plus the six weeks of spring training. Francona was now spending his time enjoying watching the University of Arizona’s basketball team and playing golf.
As the year went on, Francona found himself watching baseball every night. He’d watch the Guardians, a team that still employed him with a title he couldn’t remember (that would be “special advisor to baseball operations”), and then he’d flip to MLB Network, see a close game and watch the end of that.
When watching the ninth inning of a game, he didn’t play manager — he knew enough to know what he didn’t know about each situation. Instead, it was just his sheer love of the game.
The Reds surprised many last month when Krall fired David Bell with just five games remaining in the season. Krall and Meador didn’t want Bell to be a lame-duck manager, so they handed the reigns over to Bell’s bench coach, Freddie Benavides.
Over the final week of the season, the two more or less used their time as a listening tour. They talked to every player and every staff member individually. The team’s penultimate stop on the season was in Cleveland, where Meador had a long talk with Guardians broadcaster Tom Hamilton about Francona.
Like so many others, Krall and Meador had believed Francona might not be interested in returning to the bench, but they at least had to talk to him. Of all the people available, nobody could match Francona’s accomplishments. Krall reached out to Brennaman and then got in touch with Francona.
Francona offered to come to Cincinnati, but Krall told him they’d come to him. After their meeting last Wednesday, Reds CEO Bob Castellini flew in for a meeting with Francona on Thursday. The deal was agreed upon and word spread that night that Francona would manage the Reds.
“I honestly didn’t see myself managing again, I had a really good year away from the game… [the @Reds] came out to visit and it just felt right.” – Terry Francona on his decision to return to the dugout pic.twitter.com/Jri0PhoYZX
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 7, 2024
It’s not the first time Francona will don a Reds uniform. He played for the team in 1987 under manager Pete Rose.
That team also factored into his decision to return. The ’87 Reds went 84-78 and finished second to the Giants in the National League West, but featured young players like Barry Larkin, Eric Davis, Kurt Stillwell, Kal Daniels and Paul O’Neill. It also had veterans like Ron Oester, Buddy Bell, Dave Parker and Dave Concepcion. While the older players would move on, that younger group made up the core of the 1990 World Series champions.
“That group reminds me a lot of the group we have here now — talented and athletic,” Francona said Monday. As of Monday, he said he’s talked to every player on the roster.
The Reds still have work to do this offseason. The team needs reinforcements in the starting rotation and the bullpen and could use more offensive weapons. That, Francona said, is up to the GM.
“I hope you never hear me talk about payroll or things like that,” Francona said. “What I care about is the players that we have and trying to get them to be the best baseball team they can be, whether they’re 20, whether they’re 30 or whether they’re 40. There will never be an excuse when we play a game or lose a game on our youth or our payroll. Once the game starts, it doesn’t matter. I know my job. I don’t need to be the general manager. I don’t need to be the president. I just want to try to be the best manager I can be.”
Francona didn’t watch the Reds more intently this year than any other non-Guardians team but was aware of what was on the field. He also managed against the Reds in 2023, and while his last home series with Cleveland was against Cincinnati, there was so much going on that he hardly remembers any of it — except Elly De La Cruz’s 467-foot home run. “I don’t know if it’s landed yet,” he said Monday.
Francona said he likes the talent and makeup of the team as well as the people who surround it. But there was part of him that just felt like Cincinnati, a place he’d always liked, was the right fit for another chapter in his career — and maybe the only place he’d consider coming.
“My guess is it would be few and far between,” Francona said. “I didn’t have to do this. … I don’t have a real expensive lifestyle, but to (manage) in a place like this — it can be a stressful job and I’m as bad as anybody. I have zero perspective and I’m probably never going to get it. I kind of live and die with how we’re doing. But doing it in a place where there are people that I know we’re going to grow to be very trusting and work together, I get a big kick out of working together, like, ‘How are we going to beat this team?’ I really do get a big kick out of that.”
(Top photo of Robert H. Castellini, Terry Francona and Nick Krall: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
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