Terry Francona the next Cleveland manager? Don’t bet on it

With just over two weeks remaining in the season and Indians fighting to stay on the positive side of 100 losses, CBS’ Jon Heyman dropped a bit of a bomb on Wednesday evening, reportingthat Terry Francona’s “name is already making the rounds in insider circles as a possibility to manage either Detroit or Cleveland, if either of those teams should have an opening.”

Photo Courtesy of Keith Allison via Flickr.com

And, of course, rampant speculation ensued, especially for something that’s never going to happen – for a multitude of reasons, actually.

Organizationally, the Indians are in pretty dire straits. After finishing July with a .500 record – 50-50 – the club won just 12 of its next 40 games, going from 4.5 games out of first place to 20. And while there are some core pieces in place for the next few years – Carlos Santana, Asdrubal Cabrera, Michael Brantley, Jason Kipnis, Zach McAllister, Justin Masterson, Vinnie Pestano and Cody Allen – this is a team filled with plenty of holes. Only complicating matters, the farm system is among the worst – if not worst – in baseball with most of the worthwhile prospects in the lower the minors, and they’ll like have to deal Shin-Soo Choo and possibly Chris Perez this offseason as well.

This isn’t an ideal situation for any skipper to walk into, especially one that spent the last eight years of his managing career with the free-spending Red Sox. It would definitely be a tough sale – particularly for a club that’s often missed on many of the free agents it’s courted over the past few years.

And then there’s the money aspect of it.

Francona’s a big time manager with a big time track record that’s going to cost big time bucks. Over the course of his last contract with Boston, which only lasted two of the three guaranteed years, his salary averaged $4 million per year and would likely seek something in that proximity at his next stop. This season only seven Indians made more than that, six of those were by $1 million or less. How can the franchise justify paying a top flight manager more than the overwhelming majority of its players?

And with all that being said, Manny Acta may not even get fired after this year.

Under the Shapiro regime, either during his time as general manager or team president, the Indians have – right or wrong – shown a tremendous amount of patience and loyalty to the manager. Eric Wedge lasted seven full years with the team despite several ups and downs, going from 93 wins in 2005 to 78 the following year and 96 wins in 2007 before dropping to 81  and then 65 his last season. And they even backed Wedge when he wanted to change pitching coaches just 12 days before Opening Day, replacing lame duck Mike Brown with Carl Willis. And just like Wedge, Manny Acta surpassed a lot of expectations last season, winning 80 games, before bottoming out the next.

Yes, Terry Francona would be an ideal fit for the Indians, a franchise that has tried to model itself like the Red Sox as a stats-conscientious organization. But once it’s all summed up – the current state of the franchise, the potential cost, and the fact that Acta may not even get fired –it’s not just doubtful Francona joins his old team; it’s simply not going to happen.

 

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For attempted humor, snarky comments, and baseball updates follow the site on Twitter, @ReleasePoints.

Or if you're at work or just looking to kill more time check out the site's homepage here or the Archives tab here.