Reds look to extend exciting trend among retired managers after hiring Terry Francona

Manager Terry Francona’s return to the majors from short-lived retirement may have been surprising, but the move has some recent precedent. After all, Francona himself spent a year in the broadcasting booth between his two-time World Series winning stint with the Red Sox and his highly successful run in Cleveland.

Two of Francona’s contemporaries, whom the longtime skipper could pass on the wins leaderboard with three successful years in Cincinnati, could provide a tantalizing vision of the manager’s future.

Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy have each trod the “coming out of retirement” road in the past few years. Baker, who was forced into retirement after the Nationals did not renew his contract following the 2017 season, stepped back into the dugout during the pandemic-shortened season in 2020 with the Houston Astros. Bochy left the sport to much fanfare following the 2019 season and returned to manage the Texas Rangers in 2023.

Reds fans hope Terry Francona follows in the footsteps of Dusty Baker & Bruce Bochy

Francona, Baker, and Bochy have long been tied together. When Tito and Dusty stepped away from baseball at the end of last season, many fans earmarked the 2027 Hall of Fame induction ceremony as the next major accolade for the duo. Francona's return will upset that reunion.

Bochy, too, is linked to the new Reds skipper. Both managers retired in part due to health problems, and both underwent a cardiac procedure during the 2017 season. Beyond that Francona holds a great deal of respect for the Rangers manager.

Upon their return to the majors, the teams that Baker and Bochy agreed to oversee could not have been different. The Astros were coming off a World Series appearance and had been a dominant force for much of the late 2010s. Baker inherited many of the core players from those successful runs and had to manage the departures of George Springer, Carlos Correa, and Zack Greinke in his four-year stint with the team.

Bochy, on the other hand, stepped into a team that finished fourth in the AL West in 2022. Sure, the Rangers had big free-agent signings Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, but the club lacked cohesion and most of the stars had underperformed. Bochy built a winning culture that got the best out of Texas’s talent roster.

Where did both managers end up? With the title of World Series champ.

That’s where the Reds hope the un-retirement of Francona will take them. Analysts, players, and fans are heaping praise upon the future Hall of Famer, but if Tito takes a page out of Dusty and Bruce’s playbook, this surprising move may rank among the most ambitious and far-sighted in Reds history.

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