I guess two World Series victories can give you some job security. Before the off-season is over, the Red Sox intend to lock up Terry Francona with a longer contract:
"We've been on record before as saying it's certainly one of our goals of the offseason to engage with Tito and his contract," said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. "That process is in the early stages, and hopefully will be done with the confidentiality that marked most of the Mike Lowell negotiations. We'll try to do it behind closed doors, but I don't want to give an exact timetable because a lot of it depends on the natural ebb and flow of the rest of the offseason as we engage in free agency and potential trades."
The Red Sox don't want Tito to go anywhere and Tito doesn't want to go anywhere. There's no doubt in my mind they'll figure out a nice extension that benefits both sides. The only question is, how many years do they agree on?
This shouldn't get messy because both sides have the same goal. I envision Terry Francona being the manager of the Red Sox for a very, very long time to come.