Cleveland Indians Manager Terry Francona: ‘We’re All In An Uncharted Area’

Nobody loves baseball more than Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona, so he’s a realist on the effects the coronavirus outbreak is having on all sports, but especially his.

“If we think we’re going to roll out a normal baseball season, we’re kidding ourselves,” said Francona, on a video conference with reporters. “If we’re going to play baseball everyone’s going to have to be willing to make adjustments.”

What kind of adjustments? Everything is apparently on the table. What’s certain, however, is that there will have to be adjustments made by teams to the adjustments Major League Baseball makes whenever the games do resume.

“We’re going to have to be willing to make some concessions,” said Francona. “Because it’s just not realistic to think we’re going to start playing in Cleveland right away. It’s just not going to happen.”

Until something does happen, until an agreed-upon contingency plan for the restart of baseball is in place, Francona is doing what most baseball people and non-baseball people are doing: sit at home and wait. For Francona, home is Tucson, Ariz.

“I’m kind of bored. I’ve taken up walking, which I never thought I would,” he said. Francona, his coaches, players, and members of the team’s front office have regularly-scheduled video conferencing sessions.

“This is more different than anything else we’ve been involved in,” he said. “We try to keep track of (the players) as much as we can. We try to have calls with players together, so we can see their faces and talk to them. We’re all in an uncharted area, and it’s kind of unsettling. So the more we can settle in and have guys feeling normal, while following the guidelines, the better it is.”

At some point, the games will resume. Nobody knows when that will be, but it’s incumbent on each organization to be as ready as it can when it gets the green light.

“The teams that handle adversity usually put themselves in a better position for winning than the other teams,” Francona said. “That’s why I like our guys so much. I think they’re willing to handle adversity. This will just be another area of that.”

If there’s a silver lining for the Indians to the late start of the season, it’s that a handful of players who would have started the season on the injured list had the season started at its normal time will likely be ready to go when baseball returns. That list includes pitchers Carlos Carrasco, Mike Clevinger, and Emmanuel Clase, and outfielders Tyler Naquin and Oscar Mercado.

“There are a lot of teams that are in similar situations to us, where if the season started on time they wouldn’t have guys. But now, whenever it starts, we’ll have our guys back,” said Francona.

When baseball does return it will presumably be with some sort of shortened version of a spring training, prior to the playing of games that would count. Francona said it’s impossible to say how long it would take for he and his coaches to get the Indians ready to resume play.

“It depends on how long we’re out, and how much they (MLB) are willing to add to the roster,” he said. “The position players can get ready quickly. The pitchers are the guys that need to get stretched out. But if you want to start the season knowing that your pitchers aren’t stretched out, there’s ways to get around that.”

There’s been some talk about having teams play games in empty stadiums in Florida and Arizona. For Francona, that would be another roll-with-the-punches situation.

“It would be different,” he said. “We’ve played some games that were makeup games or games that started at an odd time and the ballpark is kind of empty, and it feels weird. So I’m sure it would be different, but whoever handles it the best, you’re going to give yourself a better chance to win. That’s how we feel about everything. This would be just another thing we’re trying to handle better than the team we’re playing.”

The preferred end game, of course, would be the World Series, which could potentially be played at a neutral site. That, said Francona, is the least of his worries right now.

“If we’re playing in the World Series, I would go anywhere,” he said. “These are hypotheticals. But we need to do what’s in baseball’s best interest. I don’t know what that is. There are people smarter than me making those decisions.”