Terry Francona, White Sox might not be a perfect fit

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Terry Francona comes with a higher price tag than White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is used to paying for a manager. | Bizuayehu Tesfaye~AP

Updated: November 15, 2011 9:25AM

Ask most in the know to describe White Sox board chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in one word, you can bet “loyal’’ will be a frequent response.

That’s why the offices on 35th and Shields were taking great interest in how the entire Terry Francona drama played out with Boston on Friday.

Reinsdorf took a real liking to Francona when he managed in the Sox system at Class AA Birmingham during the Michael Jordan baseball experience, and The Chairman has shown that loyalty to his baseball family runs deep. A loyalty that could now be tested.

After meeting with management Friday afternoon, it was announced later in the day that Francona would not be back for a ninth season with the Red Sox.

“I’ve always maintained that it is not only the right, but the obligation, of ownership to have the right person doing this job,” Francona said in a statement. “I told them that out of my enormous respect for this organization and the people in it, they may need to find a different voice to lead the team.’’

Which is exactly what the White Sox are looking for after Ozzie Guillen ended his eight-year stay on the South Side.

That Francona is on the radar of the White Sox makes sense, not only because the Sox return a core group of veteran players that would like need a manager that they can respect, but also because Francona is a laid-back fixture — basically the anti-Ozzie.

What raises the red flag would be Francona’s price tag. Reinsdorf managers the last 15 years or so have been first-year guys, which means they come on the cheap. Francona was a $4-million a year skipper, due $4.25 million next season if the Red Sox brought him back, and then $4.5 million in 2013.

The White Sox paid Guillen $2 million this past season, and that was after he ended an 88-year World Series drought in 2005 and brought the Sox back to the playoffs in 2008. But loyalty hasn’t always had a price tag with The Chairman.

The other concern is the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately factor, with Francona coming off back-to-back underachieving years, including a 2011 season in which he was a part of an historical meltdown to fall short of the playoffs. The knock on the ’11 White Sox was underachieving, so it wouldn’t seem like the best fit.

Then, too, it seemed as if the inmates were running the asylum in Boston. There are more question marks about where Francona is in his career than where he was a few years back, when he basked in the glow of winning two World Championships.