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CLEVELAND – For the second year in a row, the Indians will have to play a long stretch of their season without manager Terry Francona at the helm.
The team announced Thursday evening that Francona will be taking time off for the remainder of the 2021 season for health reasons, including surgery he will need on his left foot for the staph infection he has been battling since January.
Francona missed almost all of the shortened 2020 season with stomach issues that later turned into a critical stint in intensive care due to blood clots. It took him until the final weeks of the season to be able to sit down with the Cleveland front office team in the stands to watch his squad.
He thought he was fully recovered and was doing his best to get back in shape. But in November, he started to have pain in his foot which would not go away. He returned from his home in Arizona to visit the Cleveland Clinic in January to see why the pain was still there. He learned he had a staph infection, had another procedure to remove some of the bone from his big toe, and was stuck in hospital for an additional 10 days.
Despite everything he had been through, Francona showed up for spring training on time in February with crutches, a boot and a PICC line in her arm to receive daily IV treatments. At this point, he’s only got one boot left (well, plenty of boots, considering he said it’s impossible to keep them in one piece throughout the season), but he knew that playoff surgery would be a must.
So now that Francona is officially focused on her health for the remainder of the season, bench coach DeMarlo Hale will take over as interim manager. Last year, first baseman and wide receiver Sandy Alomar Jr. filled that role due to the club lacking a bench coach as Brad Mills chose not to be home with his family. With Hale here, he will replace Francona, moving third baseman Mike Sarbaugh to serve as bench coach and now third outfield coach Kyle Hudson.
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