Terry Francona Comes Out Of Retirement To Manage 2025 Reds

Terry Francona, whose teams won two World Series and just missed taking a third, is returning to the stressful world of managing after taking a year off for health reasons.

Francona, 65, is reportedly returning to the National League, where he once managed the Phillies, with the struggling Cincinnati Reds, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports he has a three-year deal though the team has yet to make his hiring official.

Cincinnati is coming off a fourth-place season with a 77-85 record that left it 16 games behind front-running Milwaukee but just one game ahead of last-place Pittsburgh.

The Reds are resigned to losing Nick Martinez, one of their better pitchers, to free agency and may have to pare their already-low $100 million payroll after losing the broadcast revenue stream provided by Diamond Sports, which cut ties with 11 clubs earlier this week.

Francona, a former outfielder whose father also played in the major leagues, played for the Reds in 1987. He also wore the uniforms of the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and Milwaukee Brewers, batting .274 with 16 home runs as a part-time player.

Much more successful as a manager, he piloted the Phillies from 1997-2000, Red Sox from 2004-2011, and Cleveland from 2013-2023, winning more games than any manager in Cleveland history.

Francona was named American League Manager of the Year in 2013, 2016, and 2022, but oddly not in 2004, when his Red Sox became the only team to rebound from a 3-0 deficit to win a post-season series.

The Sox then went on to win their first World Series since 1918, effectively ending “The Curse of The Bambino” that began when the team sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees on Jan. 3, 1920.

He reached the playoffs in five of his eight years in Boston, winning a second World Series ring in 2007, and never had a losing season there.

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During Francona’s 11-year tenure in Cleveland, the club won one pennant, reached the post-season six times, and in 2017 compiled a 22-game winning streak, an American League record.

It came within a whisker of winning a world championship when the Chicago Cubs pulled out a rain-delayed, 10-inning, 8-7 victory in Game 7 of the 2016 Fall Classic.

A South Dakota native raised in rural Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, Francona owns a .538 career winning percentage and 1,950 victories as a manager. He also has a 44-34 post-season ledger that includes a 28-17 mark with the Red Sox (he was 16-17 with Cleveland).

Francona succeeds David Bell in Cincinnati but inherits many of the up-and-coming young players who excited fans in the Queen City.

Pitcher Hunter Greene and shortstop Elly De La Cruz were All-Stars in 2024 and the latter finished the season with 67 stolen bases, tops in the National League, and 25 home runs.

Fellow infielder Jeimer Candelario would be the highest-paid player on the 2025 roster barring the arrival of new players in trades or free agent signings. Under terms of his three-year, $45 million contract, he would earn $16 million.

The Reds hope to emulate the success of the Texas Rangers, who lured 68-year-old Bruce Bochy out of retirement last year and reaped the rewards when he promptly won a World Series.

Like Cleveland, Cincinnati must get maximum mileage from limited resources and hope Francona’s experience could prove the decisive factor.

The veteran pilot was picked over a handful of younger candidates.