MILWAUKEE – With the Cincinnati Redsfront office looking toward next season with job security anticipated, the potential lame-duck status of the team’s high-profile manager next season has become all but
moot.
Manager Terry Francona has one guaranteed year left on his original three-year contract with the club, plus a club option for 2028.
Team president Nick Krallshrugged off the idea of addressing the option sooner rather than later to avoid the appearance of lame-duck status for Francona next year.
“I don’t think it’s a lame-duck status for a guy like that,” Krall said. “I also think we’ll sit down and have conversations with where he is and how he’s feeling and what he wants to do.
“I love working with the guy, and I couldn’t see myself working with somebody else in that role.”
That relationship between Francona and the front office team that hired him out of retirement two years ago next month is what makes his job status as much a matter of health and desire to keep managing as any other consideration.
Health issues contributed to Francona’s brush with retirement after the 2023 season with Cleveland. Francona, 67, swims daily and appears healthier and energetic through two seasons with the Reds – even through this year’s draining effort.
“There’s a honeymoon period whenever you go somewhere. That’s always the case,” Francona said. “But when you feel stronger about people after you’ve been there for a while, and after things haven’t gone necessarily like you want them to, that’s, to me, the biggest compliment I can give them.
“I care about them. I respect them. They look out for me,” he added. “If anything, I feel like I want to try to run through a wall for them. I can’t do it. But I’d try.”
It’s hard to imagine the Reds would be able to find a better fit for what they’re trying to do the next couple of years than the Hall of Fame-bound Francona.
“He’s been really great to work with,” Krall said. “We have tough conversations. But we can open and honestly have those conversations. And I feel good about the conversations we have.”
Said Francona: “There’s a lot of things that I see (out of the public eye) that I respect and appreciate. I see how much they care and how they treat people. And I appreciate it.”
Francona, who earned his 2,103rd managerial win when the Reds beat the Brewers 4-3 on Sunday (Sept. 13), ranks 11th on the all-time wins list and has a .535 career winning percentage. Everyone ahead of him on the list is in the Hall of Fame except recently retired managers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker, who are both expected to be elected.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Lame-duck Tito? Francona relationship with Reds makes status non-issue
