After 11 years on the job, Terry Francona is officially no longer the manager of the Cleveland Guardians. He is officially retired.

For the first time in 11 years Francona did not participate in the year-end exit interviews with the players. He didn’t think it was right since they are no longer his players and he is no longer their manager.

The 64-year-old Francona held his final session with reporters on Tuesday, accompanied by Guardians’ president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti.

This was a baseball rarity. The manager wasn’t fired. He wasn’t clashing with his bosses, his players adored him, and the fans worshiped him. He probably could have remained Cleveland’s manager for as long as he wanted the job.

There aren’t many happy endings for most managers, but this was one of them: A manager voluntarily retiring, and his organization loudly blowing his horn and saluting him as he walks out the door.

“There’s some sadness that Tito is stepping away,” said Antonetti. “But there’s also immense gratitude for everything he’s given to our organization. His is a great legacy that will continue to impact our organization for years to come.”

The majority of managerial changes are typically awkward, messy transactions, but with this one, the incongruity of events was lost on no one, including Antonetti.

“Often times, when a team changes managers it’s because things have gone awry organizationally, and there needs to be a massive change,” he said. “Thankfully, that’s not where we are. Obviously this year didn’t go the way we wanted, but we’re in a really healthy place organizationally, in large part thanks to Tito’s contributions.”

In his 11 years as Cleveland’s manager (2013-23), Francona seriously fattened his Hall of Fame credentials. Among all American League teams during that period, only the Yankees had a higher winning percentage than Cleveland’s .549 (921-757). Francona’s 921 wins since 2013 are the most by any major league manager. The all-time winningest manager in Cleveland history, Francona was voted the American League’s Manager of the Year three times in a 10-year span from 2013-22.

Prior to hiring Francona as manager in 2013, Cleveland had been to the postseason only once in 11 years. After hiring Francona the Guardians reached the postseason four times in the next six years and six times in 11 years overall. That run included a World Series appearance in 2016, when Cleveland lost Game 7 to the Cubs.

Throughout his tenure in Cleveland Francona battled multiple physical ailments that at times forced him to step away from the game. He has had countless surgeries over the years, and is scheduled to have two hernia surgeries and shoulder replacement surgery during this offseason.

“I need to go home and get healthy,” Francona said on Tuesday. “Managing is hard, and the older you get the harder it gets. To do the job the way I think you need to do it, I wasn’t really able to do that and that bothered me.”

It also led him to make the decision at some point in the summer of 2023 to retire at the end of the season. “I knew it was the right decision because I felt better after I made it,” he said.

Francona ranks 13^th among all major league managers with 1,950 career wins, and 10 of the 12 managers ahead of him on that list are in the Hall of Fame.

After getting his surgeries out of the way Francona is looking forward to life without dugouts.

“I’m ready to rest a little,” he said. “Let someone else be in charge.”

Who that will be remains to be seen. Antonetti said that the managerial search will include internal and external candidates.

“They need to find the next guy that they can hopefully spend 11 years with,” Francona said.

Said Antonetti: “I don’t think our challenge will be a lack of interest in the job,”

Francona’s days as a manager appear to be over, but he’s not going to walk away from the game completely. “He will have a role with us moving forward. Exactly what that looks like will take some time to figure out, but he’ll stay engaged with the organization,” Antonetti said.

“I don’t foresee managing,” Francona said. “If I was going to manage, I liked doing it here. But I also don’t want to just turn away from the game. We’ll figure something out that makes sense. I just need some time.”

Once he recovers from his surgeries, Francona, who lives in Tucson, Ariz., said he would like to join his buddies in a golfing trip to Ireland next summer.

After managing four years in Philadelphia, eight years in Boston, and 11 years in Cleveland, Francona is looking forward to some “me” time.

“I’m a better person now for coming here,” he said of Cleveland. “I came here for the right reasons and I’m leaving for the right reasons, and in between it’s been really good.”