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BREAKING: Cincinnati Reds to Hire Legend and WS Champion as New Manager

One year after retiring, Terry Francona is back!

Brady Farkas

Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona walks to the mount to remove starting pitcher Triston McKenzie (11) from the game in the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Progressive Field on Sept 24.
Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona walks to the mount to remove starting pitcher Triston McKenzie (11) from the game in the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Progressive Field on Sept 24. / Aaron Josefczyk-Imagn Images
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In a surprise move, the Cincinnati Reds are hiring former Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Fracona as their manager.

The team fired David Bell shortly before the end of the season. Francona had stepped down at the end of last season to retire, but evidently that retirement was short-lived.

Jeff Passan of ESPN had the report on social media:

First and foremost, the Reds job seems like a good job to have. The team is loaded with young talent, especially in the position player department. Spencer Steer, Elly De La Cruz, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Noelvi Marte and Matt McLain are a great set of building blocks for any roster. If Cincinnati is going to track down Milwaukee, St. Louis and the Cubs in the National League Central, they'll need to figure things out on the pitching front.

They have Hunter Greene at the top of the rotation and also have a solid lefty in Andrew Abbott. However, Nick Lodolo has struggled to remain healthy over the last two years. The team traded away Frankie Montas at the trade deadline.

As for Francona, he's managed 23 years in the big leagues with those three organizations. He helped lead the Red Sox to the 2004 and 2007 World Series. He's also a three-time Manager of the Year.

Lifetime, he's 1,950-1,672 in his career. In addition to his two World Series wins, he also took Cleveland to the World Series in 2016, where they lost to the Chicago Cubs.

The Reds finished in fourth place in the National League Central this year.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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