Known as Tito, Francona comes to Cincinnati as one of baseball's most beloved managers. He has a 1,950-1,672 record in 23 years as a big-league manager with Philadelphia (1997-2000), the Red Sox (2004-2011) and the Guardians (2013-2023). He took Cleveland to the playoffs seven times in his 11 seasons and won 921 games.

It felt right pretty close to the beginning of the meeting,” the 65-year-old, a two-time World Series winner with the Red Sox, said. “We probably talked for five hours. My palms were sweating. I wanted to put my uniform on.