Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona takes notes during a Cactus League game between the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants. (Imagn Images)
CINCINNATI — The moment is finally here for Terry Francona and the Reds.
Ever since the press conference last Oct. 7 at Great American Ball Park, practically every Reds fan has been filled with hope and expectation that there’s a man in the dugout who can push all the right buttons and lead a talented and young group deep into the playoffs.
Starting this Thursday against the Giants, the Reds will have a different feel to them.
Not since Dusty Baker led the Reds to the playoffs in three of four seasons between 2010-13 has there been this much hope.
Why is there so much hope?
Simple, because everywhere he’s been Francona has gotten the most out of his talent – and in the last two stops – has taken his team to postseason success. Ever since his first job, which was admittedly a learning experience in the toughest place to learn (Philadelphia), Francona has maximized his roster and led them to the postseason.
In Boston, the Red Sox broke an 86-year drought in his first year by winning the World Series in 2004 in most dramatic and historic fashion. Three years later, he took a younger, made-over roster and won a second World Series. His teams made the postseason in five of his eight years there.
In 11 years in Cleveland, he took his team to the playoffs six times, coming within a Game 7 loss to the Cubs from ending another World Series drought.
Reds hall of fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman knows Terry Francona better than anyone in Cincinnati. The two spent a lot of time discussing whether the Reds could be the right fit for his next managerial job. Brennaman told me he sees one particular similarity between Francona and Pete Rose, who managed Francona in his only year in Cincinnati in 1987.
“I used to tell Pete this, (Francona) is the same person today that I met when he was with the Expos in 1984 he has not changed one iota,” Brennaman said. “And that speaks a hell of a lot about a person, because he’s been through the wars, and he still maintained the same type of down to earth, honest approach, I think, to life, and I think certainly to his vocation as manager of big league club. I think he has an incredible versatility of changing according to the kind of team he has. He’s going to have a lot of pressure to deal with these young kids that, as you well know you have a veteran ball club. You walk in there, put the lineup on the wall and get the hell out of the way.”
Let the players’ performance make the decisions for Francona. That’s one rule of thumb Francona has always followed.
One look at the way he’s handling one of his early challenges tells you all you need to know about the nuance of Terry Francona as a manager and a leader. Asked about whether Alexis Diaz is ready to overcome his struggles in the bullpen after his minor hamstring issue, Fracnona said, “I think we want to make sure he’s got his legs under him with delivering and everything,” Francona answered. “We know what he can do. We just want to make sure he’s ready to do it.”
That answer seems simple enough but it’s the way he demonstrates confidence in the player’s ability but puts the onus on the player to earn his place on the roster like everybody else.
The same could be said early in camp when he needed to send a message to the young, talented but still maturing Noelvi Marte.
“He’s got tremendous talent but he’s got a lot to earn,” Francona said.
These are only little cracks of daylight into the whole picture that will reveal itself over the course of a season.
“I think we felt that Tito could be successful to be any type of team,” Cleveland President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti told me. “He’s just an extraordinary leader that creates a great environment and is so invested in each player and each person to help bring out the best in them. Regardless, if you’re a young player or player in the middle of your career, or an older player, he finds a way to relate to you, finds a way to make you believe in yourself a little bit more and go out and be your best and perform.”
Antonetti hired Francona and was with him for his entire 11-year run in Cleveland.
“He’s a brilliant tactician. Tito has this self deprecating humor, but he is a brilliant person generally, and a brilliant baseball tactician or tactician, so I was constantly learning from him, things that he would share and perspectives that he’s had. He’s always one, two, three, four moves ahead of everybody else.
“He finds a way to bring groups of people together to form really high performing teams, and obviously plays out very visibly on the field with players. But he does that with every group he leads, whether that’s coaches, support staff or whomever. I don’t ever wonder about the passion. It’s the energy, I mean, the job that he’s asked to do and managed to do. It’s a grueling, incredibly demanding job every day, and it takes a lot of energy to do that consistently, and I know I’m not sure I would I have the energy to do it. So it’s a marvel to me at those men that can do it. But I’ve never, I would never question his passion.”
Jed Hoyer, the president of baseball operations for the Cubs, was in Boston with Theo Epstein when the Red Sox hired him before the 2004 season.
“I know young Tito, successful Tito, as a matter of fact,” Hoyer said. “I mean, great move by them. I had actually talked to I talked to Nick (Krall) about him. We talked last series of the year. We talked about him. And he’s a great manager. There’s no other way to say it. He has his own style, but he keeps it light. He also keeps it serious. At the same time, players love him. I think he’s just an outstanding game manager. He takes the information, but also he has fantastic instincts. I mean, really, no negatives there. He’s got an incredible track record, and it’s a great hire for the Reds.”
Also on that staff in Boston was Mike Hazen. Hazen was Boston’s general manager under Dave Dombrowski in 2016 when Francona exacted a measure of revenge on the Red Sox with a 3-0 series sweep, capped by a clinching win at Fenway Park.
“They got one of the best managers of all time to go in their dugout, and it’s gonna make it that much more challenging in the National League,” Hazen told me. “He has a way in a clubhouse of getting a team to come together, unlike most guys that I’ve ever seen. You know he has his style and the way he goes about it, and a lot of it’s not traditional, but he makes players feel so good about themselves, even the players that he may not like all the time, they think they he likes them. That’s an unbelievable skill.
“I think everything’s going to serve him well. I think his experience and his years in the game are going to serve him well. I think the years of success that he had and has had are going to serve him well, winning World Series is going to serve him well. Doing what he did in Cleveland is going to serve him very well. He’s one of the best managers of all time and and he’s going to be an asset for them in the dugout.”
Then there was this line from Hazen that one should keep in my about his approach with everyone that is around him in his first year and something that’s been very apparent already this spring.
“He treated me on day one like I was there for 20 years,” Hazen said. “Honestly, I think that’s how he treats people. I think that’s why people feel good about being around him.”
This Thursday, that feel-good vibe begins at Great American.
26-man roster projection 4.0:
IL: Tyler Stephenson, Spencer Steer, Rhett Lowder, Andrew Abbott
OPTION to Triple-A: Alexis Diaz, Blake Dunn
The guess with Steer is that they play it safe though there’s certainly a chance the cortisone shot he received this week will help and he could DH and pinch-hit until he’s ready to throw full strength. Lowder will work his way to full strength at Triple-A. There are two final calls. One is on the last bullpen spot, likely between Ian Gibaut and Alexis Diaz, who still has options remaining. The other is whether Steer is ready to go. With Tyler Stephenson (oblique) on the IL to start the season, Austin Wynns figures to earn a spot.
CINCINNATI -- One look was all that was needed when he made his debut in…
INDIANAPOLIS -- Kentucky's postgame press conference was coming to an end Friday night when graduate…
INDIANAPOLIS — For the third time this season, and for the first time ever in…
CINCINNATI -- Hunter Greene knew his teammate needed a pick-me-up. One out away from a…
CINCINNATI -- Terry Francona can only hope that Thursday morning was not a sign of…
CINCINNATI -- Time for the Terry Francona era to begin in earnest. With a new…