Source: Francona, Red Sox to meet, could split
Updated: September 30, 2011, 1:55 AM ET
Terry Francona may depart as manager of the Boston Red Sox, a well-placed source within the organization stated Thursday.
“It has not been decided yet whether (Francona) is wanted back or will want to come back,” the source said. Francona’s fate could be decided in a meeting of the team’s upper management of owner John Henry, CEO Larry Lucchino and president Tom Werner. The meeting is expected to be held on Friday.
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Despite general manager Theo Epstein’s declaration during a news conference Thursday at Fenway Park that “we do not believe in scapegoats, in particular nobody blames Tito for what happened in September,” Francona’s future with the team remains very much in doubt.
Francona himself reinforced the idea that after eight seasons, he may have reached his limit.
“It’s a fair question,” he stated when asked if he wanted to be back.
To a follow-up inquiry if this had been his most trying season, he said: “Only because it’s now. There’s not a whole lot here that is not trying even in the ideal of, you know, because everything is so important to people here and that is good. But because it’s fresh and raw, it seems that way, but there have been a lot of trying moments here. We just fought through them, I think, a tiny bit better.”
The Red Sox have until a week from Saturday to pick up club options for one or both of the next two seasons, but Epstein stated the upper management and ownership will take a breather and reassess everyone in the organization in the next few days, including Francona. His options are worth $4.25 million each for 2012 and 2013.
“Tito and I spent some time speaking today, just catching up on the season and speaking about what the next few days will look like,” Epstein said. “We’re going to get together, all the ownership, Larry (Lucchino) and I and Tito over the next several days and speak about the season and speak about the future.
“We’re less than 24 hours removed from the end of the season, so we need some time to calm down and get objective and look at ourselves, look at 2011 and look ahead and make the ideal decisions for everybody.”
In the course of those discussions, the group is likely to address a perception held by some within the organization that this team — despite four wildly successful months — operated in a vacuum of clubhouse leadership. That, in turn cultivated a climate lacking accountability, over which the manager presided with a curious sense of detachment, a marked departure from his previous approach, when he was fully engaged with his entire roster.
AP Photo/Elise AmendolaWhile saying nobody in the organization blames manager Terry Francona (left) for the Red Sox’s collapse in September, Theo Epstein admits the team will be “dissecting that forever.”
That perception was not unique to the front office. A veteran Red Sox player, in the wake of Wednesday’s devastating loss in Baltimore, stated the Sox clubhouse had “zero” chemistry with too many “me-me-me” guys. That might have been more easily dismissed as typical heat-of-the-moment carping if Francona, somewhat surprisingly, had not alluded to internal problems in the clubhouse during Thursday’s news conference. That might raise eyebrows among players accustomed to the manager always having their backs and keeping their issues in-house.
But that did not happen Thursday, which may be another clue that Francona doesn’t anticipate to return. He talked about a team meeting he called in Toronto in the aftermath of a 14-0 win on Sept. 6.
“I’m not sure if anybody knew, because there were some things I was worried about,” he said. “I think we were spending too much energy on things that were not putting our ideal foot forward toward winning. We spent a few minutes in the clubhouse that day, speaking about that. There were some things that did concern me.
“Teams normally, as the season progresses, there are events that make you care about each other, and this club, it did not always happen as much as I wanted it to. And I was frustrated by that.”
Without anyone firmly at the rudder — including, some in the organization believe, Francona — the team lost focus, which became apparent in both on- and off-the-field behavior, part of which surfaced as a conditioning issue.
“I think we have high standards in that area and other areas,” Epstein said, “and I cannot sit here and state those standards have been met across the board.”
Gordon Edes covers the Red Sox for . Information from ‘s Joe McDonald was used in this report.
Follow Gordon Edes on Twitter: @GordonEdes
source : espn.go.com
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