Biggest Takeaways From Francona, Antonetti's Season Recap Press Conference

The Guardians are in offseason mode now, but they are eager to keep using this as a building block for next year.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Oct 21, 2022 4:00 PM EDT

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Terry Francona rolled into the press conference room on Friday afternoon wearing blue jeans and an Arizona Wildcats basketball pullover - a telltale sign that it's officially the offseason in Cleveland.

Francona smiled and seemed to be in a good mood, as was Team President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti who sat beside him on the dais. The two spoke to the media on Friday for a little more than 20 minutes to put a bow on a season that surprised most folks around Major League Baseball.

Here are my biggest takeaways from what we heard this afternoon:

Will Tito win Manager of the Year in the American League? We'll find out soon enough, but he sure has a great chance to win it this year. When asked today if he thoughts Tito was worthy of winning it this year, Antonetti said he thinks Francona is the Manager of the Year every season, but acknowledged just how outstanding his effort was this summer.

Francona hates the individual spotlight, but said he looks at honors like that as organizational awards and loves having the chance to share just how impressive everyone's effort was as a staff.
Francona's contract was technically up at the end of the season, but he was never "managing to keep his job" this year. Tito will be back next year and Antonetti said they want to have Francona leading this organization on the field as long as it makes sense for him to do so. A new deal has not yet been finalized, but Francona said they would take things on a year-by-year basis because of some of the healthy issues he's encountered.

It was a big deal for him to be in the dugout all season and he's referenced on several occasions how much energy he derives from overseeing such a young team.
How much is this team in need of some power? The Guardians ultimately lost a 5-game series to New York, which never accumulated more than six hits in any of those games, but out-homered the Guardians 9-3 over the course of the series. Cleveland also finished second-last in all of baseball in home runs this season.

Francona said that they were more concerned with teaching their guys to be good hitters and trusting that the power numbers would come for some of them. They wanted to make sure they don't sacrifice defense for offense, which proved important given how solid their defense was this season.

But he also said it's important for them to maximize what they had in each player's skillset.

"We weren't going to ask Franmil Reyes to steal bases when he was here," Tito said.
That said, I think the team could use a bat that could hit 25-30 home runs next year. They certainly need more offense from their catcher and probably from their first baseman as well (depending on if Josh Naylor is playing the field or DH'ing).
Antonetti said the front office has already been working on off-season plans for the last couple of months. As soon as the World Series wraps up, the team will be ready for the Winter calendar. Austin Hedges is the only Major League free agent and that's an area that needs addressing, but it won't be the only focus of the next few months.
Both Tito and Antonetti said they really want to use this season as a jumping-off point. They recognize how important it is to use the success they just had this year and turn it into sustained success for seasons to come. The ability to have a normal offseason without a labor stoppage certainly will help them have more regular contact with players as they prepare for Spring Training.