Francona Expected to Be Back on the Indians Bench in 2022

Indians skipper Terry Francona has already announced that he's coming back to the team in 2022, and that despite missing most of the season he'll be motivated and ready to go with a young team that could be very much on the rise for next year.

While the Indians are looking ahead to 2022 with another infusion of young players, the club is expected to have back manager Terry Francona after another few months away from the bench. 

This time Francona's health has included him wearing a boot on his right foot all season after undergoing toe surgery for a staph infection in February. 

He's also dealing with a hip problem, which required surgery.

Francona had managed just 14 games in 2020 because of a serious gastrointestinal issue that landed him in the Cleveland Clinic for a number of weeks.

Dominic Hale has done a solid job with Francona gone, coming into Friday's game against the Yankees 71-74, 2nd in the AL Central. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Asked Chris Antonetti if CLE is operating as though Terry Francona will return in 2022.<br><br>&quot;We continue to plan looking at 2022 with Tito as our manager. If at some point that changes, we&#39;re gonna have to reconsider things. But we have no reason to think that&#39;ll be the case.&quot;</p>&mdash; Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZackMeisel/status/1439258673377947651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>