“I don’t think we have every single answer right now.”

On Friday afternoon, local reporters sat down with Indians manager Terry Francona, president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff for a wide-ranging, hour-long Q&A about the season, playoffs and offseason ahead. Here are some of the highlights of that discussion.

On whether this season’s abrupt ending felt different than the World Series loss a year ago:

FRANCONA: “It’s different. Last year, the one thing about emotions that’s really cool is that you don’t know what they’re going to be, and last year pride won out so much. This year, our season ended before we wanted it to and that happens to a number of teams, but the way we went into these playoffs, I felt like we were positioned to do some damage. And you know, some of the damage was self-inflicted and we hadn’t played like that. So there were a number of things that went wrong and we still competed like crazy and think that’s something our guys do a good job of. But, we didn’t play our best baseball and so you have to go into offseason knowing that and it is really hard. It’s, you know, you spend time thinking about it and like Cherny said yesterday he was in kind of a fog. But I mean, it’s a hard thing to rationalize, because we spend so much time doing it and we can’t just turn it off when it’s over. It’s impossible.”

On the team-wide offensive struggles in the ALDS:

FRANCONA: “Yeah, it, I mean, we were talking a little bit ago and our batting average was [.171] and our OPS was in the 500s. And their arms, they have some really good [pitchers]. They have a good staff. Saying that, I don’t think anybody should be able to do that against us. We just, for whatever reason, we didn’t put our best foot forward all the time. The comeback win was incredible, I think that maybe masked our inefficiencies during the series. But that’s something that we’ll certainly try to figure out how to dissect it so you can learn. We’re always trying to learn, but I don’t think we have every single answer right now.”

Asked if Corey Kluber was fighting a back issue:

FRANCONA: “No, I didn’t ever say that. I think you guys took that and ran with it. I said that he was maintaining his back exercises. I never said his back hurt, ever. I don’t doubt it was the interpretation but I never said that. His back was the same as it had been all year.”

On what Kluber was fighting through in Game 5:

FRANCONA: “That’s the hard one for us. We talk to guys at length, obviously, and for whatever reason his arm slot as he got into the games was kind of getting lower and lower, which meant his fastball was becoming flatter and flatter. The biggest thing I told Klubes before Game 5 was, ‘You’re our guy, obviously, we just want to make sure something is not bothering you or not telling us.’ And he said, ‘I’m fine.’ But, we did notice that his stuff was flattening out and in a Game 5 situation, you could only be so patient, so we made a move when we did. But, he still says he’s fine. Now, everybody gets exit physicals and you go through these guys pretty closely. You know when the season is over the can take a deep breath, we’ll see what comes.

“With all the things that didn’t go right, his two starts, it’s just hard to imagine he would be leaving games when he did. That was not something that we expected.”

On going with Trevor Bauer over Mike Clevinger for Game 4:

FRANCONA: “We did want to go with Bauer. We were having a hard time getting Clev through one inning. You watched, right? Do you think Clev was having a tough time? “He was having a tough time getting through his innings. We did want to start Bauer. That’s part of why we set it up the way we did. We would have started Tomlin if we didn’t pitch him, but when we pitched him we felt like that might not be the best way to go.

“It’s open season on second guessing. … I think you’re throwing things out there and not thinking it through. I think it’s too easy to do that, also. I think there’s some middle ground there.”

On difficulty of a starter moving to a bullpen role:

FRANCONA: “That’s why the last week of the season we decided to put Clev in the bullpen so that wouldn’t be the case. He relieved last year, also, so that was the reasoning there. We wanted Clev to be a huge weapon for us in the playoffs. We were having a difficult time getting to that. The game we won, he gave up the home run. We brought him in in New York and tried to get some length and we had to take him out, so that didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.

“With Danny, it was a huge question mark, because we’ve all seen what Danny can do and at times what Danny did. For me, the question marks are the toughest thing to maneuver around. If you know what somebody can or can’t do, you try to stay away from it. When you don’t know, that can be very difficult. We had a number of question marks that I agree made it difficult.”

Asked if, now with the benefit of hindsight, he would change any of the decisions made for ALDS roster:

FRANCONA: “We were talking about that today. I really don’t think so. It’s too easy when you lose to say, ‘We could have done this.’ Even myself, I get it. But we had Kluber, who was virtually unhittable. We had him on two starts on normal rest, and it didn’t go very well. It’s going to be hard to win a series when that happens.

“No. I don’t think anybody is tougher on me than me, but we’ll never just throw something on the wall and hope it sticks.”

On whether the arm slot problem dated back to end of regular season for Kluber:

FRANCONA: “In the game against the White Sox, he was getting under balls. And he knew it. We took him out after the fifth inning. He was kind of joking, he said, ‘I don’t want to get into some bad habits.’ So after that game they went to the bullpen and had a pretty good bullpen session. Then Game 2 didn’t go very well. When that happens, we all kind of stop and think, ‘OK. What’s going on here?’ But, his bullpen was tremendous and he felt good going into the start. His first inning, other than yanking a ball to Didi, he was really pretty good. And then you start noticing in the second he started to creep down a bit. I don’t think he even realized it. But we could tell.”

Asked if it was a tough decision to carry Michael Brantley on the roster, because he was still fighting some offensive rust:

FRANCONA: “I don’t know about a tough decision. I didn’t think we all anticipated that he would have to play as much as he did. Or if he did, he kind of worked his way into it. You saw his at-bat when he came back. We kind of thought we could envision that at-bat in a playoff game, where he helped us win a game. We lost Edwin and it seemed to make sense to me, facing some right-handers to not put him in the outfield. Our other alternative was Lonnie, who didn’t have a heck of a lot more at-bats than him.”

On tough decisions ahead on long-time Indians like Brantley, Carlos Santana and Josh Tomlin:

ANTONETTI: “First and foremost we have an appreciation for what all those guys have done over the course of their careers with us. They’ve all been huge contributors to our success over the last few seasons. We’ve got a great deal of appreciation for that. In a couple of those cases we’ve have decisions to make about options that we’ll have to make in the next couple of weeks. In Carlos’ case he’s obviously a free agent. He’s a guy we’d like to have back. We’ll see if there’s a way where we can make that happen.”

On areas of the roster in need of improvement:

ANTONETTI: “We have the benefit now of having a few weeks to work through how we’ll configure our roster. That’s the first thing we need to think about: How we’ll configure our things internally and then see what kind of opportunities are out there externally. Our goal, no matter where we stand presently, is to try to find ways to improve. We’ll go into the offseason just like offseasons in the past, thinking about ways where we can get better.”

“If you look across the board at our team performance. We performed pretty well throughout the course of the year. We had the best run differential in baseball. If you look at our offense, our defense, our starting pitching, our relief pitching, it was all pretty good. That’s a good foundation going into the offseason. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to look to get better.”

On not overreacting to five games:

ANTONETTI: “It’s really important to distinguish disappointment in the result vs. disappointment in the process. It stinks that we’re sitting here today. We’re all incredibly disappointed that we’re still not playing, and that’s a result that we’re going to have to live with. But I am incredibly proud of the process and the group and how we do things as an organization. We focused a lot and there’s been a lot of discussion on decisions and what decisions we made. And we’re left to live with those results. But I’m really proud of the way we worked through them. We worked through them as a group. And as a group and working together we accomplished a lot of great things this year. Winning 102 games is a pretty great accomplishment. Winning 22 consecutive games and doing something no team has done for over 100 years, that’s a great accomplishment. It’s not the one we sought out to do. It’s not the one we wanted. But, there’s still a lot of great things that happened during the course of the year. And I couldn’t be more proud to work alongside and with the group we do.”

On being unable to close out series in the playoffs the last two years:

FRANCONA: “I certainly have kind of asked myself that a little bit, too. We keep our radar up pretty much for anything. Do you see a team that thinks it’s going to come too easy? Do you see a team that’s pressing? Our guys were pretty consistent. How many times have you heard me say every game’s different? That’s going to get grouped together — how many put-away games we’ve had. I don’t view it like that. I think every game is separate. For whatever reason — there are different reasons every game — we didn’t win that game. I don’t think it’s a common theme. Last year, so much was made of having Napoli and his presence. We still weren’t good enough to put away. So I think it’s different all the time. Chris said it better than me. We won 102 games. The playoffs is a completely different animal. Last year we won that first game, albeit with little different methods. Then we got hot as all get-out, and probably played better than we had during the season. This year it went the other way. Unfortunately that happens. You can’t push a button and play your best baseball, or believe me, we would.”

Asked if the 22-game streak might’ve had any negative impact:

FRANCONA: “No, I think it was good for us. I think it was real good, because we had, for the better part of about three months, we were kind of stuck in neutral. We never lost a bunch, but we didn’t win a bunch. We came back from the West Coast and I think we were three of four games over .500. And, from that point on, we were a different team. So no, I think it was really good for us.”

On Jason Kipnis’ role next season:

ANTONETTI: “We’ll have the benefit of a few weeks to work through that and think about what the best way to configure our roster is. Some of that will be dependent upon the guys we have, and some of it will be dependent upon what opportunities are out there externally for us. I don’t think we need to make that decision today. I think Kip deserves a lot of credit for working really hard and going out there and becoming an option as an outfielder. He put in a lot of work to make that happen. To have a guy that now has the versatility — we talk about it all the time as we build rosters — having guys that have versatility to play multiple positions is an asset for us.”

Asked if this season took a physical toll on Francona:

FRANCONA: “A lot. We were just talking to the other group a little bit ago. This is by far the most wiped out I’ve ever been after a season physically. And I need to, when I go home, whenever that is, make a concerted effort to getting stronger. And I don’t mean stronger like look good in the lobby stronger. But, because I have a responsibility to do some things here, and I felt like at times I leaned on Millsie and some of the coaches too much. It’s supposed to be the other way around, so I need to get a little stronger so I can uphold my responsibilities here, so I don’t short-change anybody, because that’s not good.”

ANTONETTI: “By the way, that’s never happened, that he’s short-changed anybody.”

Asked if he is returning as manager:

FRANCONA: “Unless there’s something I don’t know. No, I just was trying to answer it as honestly as I could. There’s no hidden meaning or anything like that. I’m just pretty wiped out. … During the season, we don’t really ever take time to take stock of ourselves. You go, go, go until it’s time to not go. But, I know that it was harder for me this year physically than it’s ever been.

“In a perfect world, you have energy and you’re out there because you feel like you can help. So, I need to go back home, when I do go back home, with that in mind. Swim more than I’ve swam in the past and be healthier so when I go into next spring, there’s more gas in the tank. Because, it was hard physically.”

On Jay Bruce being a free-agent

CHERNOFF: “He was phenomenal at coming in here and just fit in immediately in the clubhouse. He was a real pro around the other guys and came in at a big time of need with Lonnie and Brantley both out. And just had a tremendous contribution on and off the field. I think as we head into the next few weeks and into the free agency period, we’ve got to kind of get together as a group and figure out which of the internal guys or external guys can we play on or do we need to play on, and we’ll take those decisions and start working through them over the next few weeks.”

On feedback from Bruce:

CHERNOFF: “He seemed to really enjoy his time here. He talked a lot about Tito and the environment that he created here, and he seemed to really like it. So, there’s certainly, I would think, a mutual interest. Whether that can actually work out, free agency is always a different question.”

On the possibility of losing Mickey Callaway or Sandy Alomar. Jr. to a managerial vacancy:

FRANCONA: “I think from my side of it, I’d be surprised if some teams don’t come looking at some of our coaches, because we have really good coaches. I also think there’s probably a respectful way to go about it, where if teams want to talk about that, I think it’s up to them, not us to do that. But, I would be surprised if some of our guys don’t get interviews.”

Asked if there is a bittersweet feeling when a coach is up for a promotion elsewhere:

FRANCONA: “The pride always wins out. It never fails, guys deserve a chance because of the work they do, and then it’s on us to find the next best person. And, yeah, it hurts when you lose guys, but believe me, the pride wins out, because they deserve that.”

On Yandy Diaz’s role going forward:

CHERNOFF: “Again, like we talked about with Kip a little bit, he certainly has some versatility in different positions that he played this year. Tito can probably talk more about it, but he came up and really helped us at a time when we were kind of sorting through things. Especially in September. We were able to tap into a lot of the depth on our roster and kind of mix and match. As we head into next year, we’ll have to figure out what the alignment is defensively with guys like Kip and Jose and Gonzo and Yandy is a part of that, obviously, too. But, I think we certainly have options with the depth that we have.”

Asked what position Francona has in mind for Diaz:

FRANCONA: “I could see Yandy potentially being our third baseman. He could probably do other things also. It’ll be nice to have a whole spring with him where the Major League staff is with him and he can work at one position.”

On Diaz bouncing between positions in the spring:

FRANCONA: “He was playing everywhere. And we probably asked more of him. It got to a point where we were trying to go by need, which I think makes sense, but the need kept changing and so Yandy would go one way and then the other way. I think if we can keep him at a position, that would be the best for him. And my guess would be that third base is probably his best spot, but things change, as we’ve seen.”

Asked for reasoning behind Diaz being off the ALDS roster:

FRANCONA: “You know, the idea was that he hadn’t played a ton and he wasn’t swinging the bat like he had been. And then, when we tried to put our roster together, we had Brantley and Chisenhall, and the idea was to be really good defensively and we could hit where we wanted. As we saw, things unfolded vastly different. All of a sudden, Edwin’s not available. There goes one of our hitters. And we didn’t particularly catch the ball all that good, either. So, it didn’t work out the way we anticipated.”

Asked if any players had surgeries coming up:

ANTONETTI: “Brandon Guyer just had [wrist]surgery. He’s rehabbing and he’s actually in the clubhouse right now. That’s the only one on the docket right now. But, what we need to do is take stock of where everyone is. Everyone is going through the process of getting exit physicals. We’ll see where it goes from there.”

Asked if Roberto Perez will be the starting catcher next season:

FRANCONA: “I don’t think there’s any reason to name a number one in October. I think we have two pretty good catchers. You make decisions, and the decision to start him the last game was really hard. I went back and forth, talking to coaches, talking with Mickey, talking with Millsie. I think what I said was that there wasn’t a wrong decision, but I don’t think we would go out and name somebody the number one catcher right now. We thought we had two pretty good catchers during the season, and during the playoffs you do things because you’re trying to win. that has nothing to do with moving forward, who will catch more games.”

On the lineup pressing in the ALDS:

FRANCONA: “We did not swing the bats as a ballclub real well. I think they have a lot to do with that. We got to Game 3, and then when you have guys that aren’t swinging the bats well and you have a guy like Tanaka, who exasperates that with his style of pitching, it kind of overwhelmed us. Their bullpen is fantastic, a lot like ours. Our bullpen, we got to our bullpen in the third inning and held them for the rest of the way until the end when we got sloppy again. But those are two of the best bullpens in the game.”

ANTONETTI: “For context, and just to finish on that, too, obviously, we did not swing the bats the way we had hoped. Some of that’s the function of the pitching staff we faced, but if you look at the Yankees, they were a prolific offensive team during the course of the season. Their offense was appreciatively different than it was during the season. I think that is an element of two very good pitching staffs facing off. Scoring in the postseason is a lot more difficult. You’re facing a lot better pitching.”

FRANCONA: “We got over aggressive, for sure. We got to a point where we were chasing up and down. Usually, its one or the other. But we did get overaggressive.”

ANTONETTI: “As Tito said, going into the series, we felt very very good about where we were. That being said, we had a great respect for that Yankees team and their staff. I know they snuck in in the Wild Card, or what could be perceived as snuck in, but they are a really good team that was playing really well at the end of the season. We knew we had our work cut out for us by the opponent we were playing, but we felt really good about where we were and how well positioned we were. Obviously, after Game 2 we felt great about our positioning.”

On internal options for first base if Santana isn’t back:

ANTONETTI: “That’s something we need to work through. Edwin’s obviously played there. Lonnie’s played there some. We have some other guys that have some experience at first base. And then there’s a litany of guys on the trade and free-agent market that we’ll explore.”

On Santana’s season and improvement defensively:

FRANCONA: “It was one of the bright spots and we had a lot of bright spots this year. Not just his defense, but his advancement, being a teammate, just his attitude. He was fun to be around. I think he’s expressed to me so many times how he wants to stay here and I know these things happen to work out, but he was a joy to be around this year.”

On Danny Salazar:

FRANCONA: “We have to find a way, Danny included, to get him more consistent. That’s such a big word in our game. And he’s had times, you look he made the All-Star team. Again, he’s still very young and with young players, young pitchers especially, we’ve seen it with Carrasco or look at Kluber, you can’t give up on good young pitching or they’ll be pitching good for somebody else. And it’s not always perfect, but we got to keep working at it, because there is work to do. But, if we can get it figured out, we’ve all seen what he’s able to do.”

CHERNOFF: “Whether that’s consistency of performance or just consistency in his durability and ability to go out and make 30-plus starts in a season. It all comes back to that.”

On Bryan Shaw:

FRANCONA: “We were talking about that earlier. Sometimes I think the way I view it is it’s almost like the offensive lineman that shows up every game and the only time people really talk about them is when he misses a block. He took so much pride in being available, and he carried so much of the load for us for five years. It is remarkable. And you guys saw the other day, he was throwing 97. And I think because of his personality, people laugh it off at times. But my goodness sakes, he is so reliable. And if he’s not in our bullpen, it will probably take two guys to do what he did. It’s amazing. He’s kind of happy go lucky, but boy does he take a lot of pride in pitching.”

Jokingly asked if Francona will still be calling the bullpen for Shaw even if the pitcher is gone next year:

FRANCONA: “It will be hard not to. It’s kind of easy to take him for granted, because he does it. There was so few times over the course of five years where he wasn’t available. There’d be times where I’d tell him he’s not available. And he’d go, ‘I’m fine.’ It’s amazing.”

Jokingly asked if his cribbage winning percentage will rise if Shaw isn’t around:

FRANCONA: “Well, he may be able to sign with another team for less, and make more money, because he’s not very good.”

On Andrew Miller’s knee:

ANTONETTI: “Good. Andrew said he felt really good at the end of the season. Felt good throughout the postseason. One of those guys will make sure we get checked out, make sure that he’ll be in a good spot going into the offseason and he’s got a good plan coming into spring training.”

On the $17.4-million Qualifying Offer for free-agents:

ANTONETTI: “Are there guys on our roster that we would consider making a qualifying offer to? Yes. So, what we have to decide is, ‘Does it make sense for us to pay one of those guys $17.4 million on a one-year deal?’ That’s really the question we have to answer. So, there are guys that we can envision that being the case for, certainly.”

Asked how a team can ask for more from a group that accomplished so much in the regular season:

FRANCONA: “That’s why we try to do things the way we do it. We show up, we try to do your best every day. We try to value what it takes to win more than the teams we’re competing against. And we’re sitting here answering questions today and it’s really raw, and it’s disappointing the way it ended. I also don’t want that to get skewed, because when I hear questions like, ‘Will you have holes?’ We won 102 games. That is so hard to do. And, with time, I think you’re able to see things more clearly and not let things skew some of your decisions. Today may not be the best day to do that. Some things change. Some things never change. The way we go about attacking, trying to be good, that’ll never change regardless whether some of the names do or not.”

Asked if he felt physically wiped out during the season:

FRANCONA: “Yeah, a little bit. Fortunately I don’t have to hit or pitch or anything. Yeah, it was challenging. I had a lot of good people that [helped]. Millsie took so much pregame responsibility, which I appreciate and I lean on him. And it had nothing to do with the decision-making process or anything. But a little hard physically, but nothing more than that.”

On the mood of the players last 24 hours:

ANTONETTI: “Shared the disappointment, obviously. All of those guys were hoping and expecting we were going to be playing, not packing up boxes.

More on difference between this year and last year’s ending:

ANTONETTI: “It is different. Last year, when our season ended, we knew it was ending. We were either going win the last game or lose the last game. This year, we didn’t. We expected to be playing more games. The reality is we’re not. And so that is a little bit of a different dynamic than last year.”

On Callaway’s impact over the years:

FRANCONA: “The first thing that I noticed when the season started our first year was his level of confidence. It seemed to me that it exceeded his experience. Then, as you watch him and you’re with him every day, you see that that confidence allowed him to have other voices, and get input from other people, and sift through that and take what he wanted. But my goodness, he had such an impact on the pitching staff. He’s so good. And I would be surprised if that doesn’t lead to him managing if he wants to at some point, because he’s really good.”

Asked about Kluber’s heightened curve usage early in Game 5:

FRANCONA: “Game plan. We were trying to use… it was a point of trying to use our best breaking ball early in the game. Just try get them off the fastball and slow them down.”

On what could be behind Kluber’s low arm slot issue:

FRANCONA: “It could be fatigue. It could be that he’s getting lower on his back leg that’s bringing his arm down. There’s a lot of things.”

ANTONETTI: “And as Tito said, his bullpen before that start, he was working on those adjustments to keep his arm slot was. He felt good coming out of that bullpen.”

Asked if that had been a problem for Kluber in the past:

FRANCONA: “Sure. It happens from game to game. It’s just everything is so magnified in a playoff setting, as it should be.”

On Kluber’s strong finish to the season:

FRANCONA: “It’s why at times if I appear edgy when I’m asked, [it’s because] we had it set up like we wanted to. It’s hard to imagine having a better guy giving the ball to. It didn’t work.”

On taking time to appreciate the winning streak:

FRANCONA: “I haven’t. I enjoyed the journey. I always enjoy the journey, even when it’s not the way you want it to go. I enjoy going through it with our guys, and [the front office]. It was the same way during that. It wasn’t the end all, be all to us. You have more games to play. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I probably enjoyed it differently than people realized. I wasn’t all that caught up in everything that everybody else was. I just liked the way we were playing. I liked the way we played after that even more. That’s where you can see a let down. I thought we played just as good of baseball after that.”

Asked if there could’ve possibly been a better September experience for the callups:

ANTONETTI: “Yeahh, continuing to play further into October. I can imagine it being better. But I think that was one of the things that was great about the streak. Sometimes in September, depending on where you are competitively, those games can kind of just pass by. There’s not a lot at stake. But our guys were, you know, they were playing with something on the line. Mike Clevinger, I think, the 20th game, where we had the opportunity to tie the record. Yes, it was a regular season start, but there was a little bit more to it than there would have normally been. I think some of our other guys benefited from that same experience. Beyond the streak, but playing meaningful games in September, where there’s a lot on the line all the way up to the last day is a really good development opportunity for guys. We talk about it all the time. For our Minor Leaguers, when they get up here, it’s all about, ‘How do you find a way to help the team win?’ In Greg’s case, this was a guy that’s played every day in the Minor Leagues, but we were asking him to come in and pinch run in a one-run game or go in and play defense for an established Major League guy. Those are great opportunities for guys to develop and think about how they can help the team win.”

On Jose Ramirez turning into a star:

CHERNOFF: “It was really fun to see that. We’ve seen it with some other guys who have struggled, like Kluber, where he has his ups and downs in his first couple of years, then just turns into this tremendous pitcher. Jose, the same thing, he had been through a lot in his Minor League career up to that point, some of the ups and downs, to see the day-to-day consistency that he had, when he went into a little bit of a slump at one point, to be able to pull himself out of that. It was tremendous to be able to watch that.”

On the plans for third base:

FRANCONA: “I don’t think we need to make the lineup out for next year yet. And I think what we did in the playoffs won’t mean anything moving forward. The reasons that I said before is why we had Urshela. We’re not going to go into a season planning on pinch-hitting for our third baseman at the first opportunity. That was just by the way things were working out for us now. That won’t be the case when the season starts.”

On Francisco Lindor’s power surge:

ANTONETTI: “I think the information would say it was more hard contact. I don’t know if it was purposeful on his end, but that contact ended up being balls that were line drives and balls that were in the air more frequently than ground balls. But Frankie would be the first to tell you that wasn’t a purposeful thing he was looking to do. Tito has talked about that all the time, the evolution of hitters, as they just get more time and more experience, they develop and sometimes that power comes on a little bit later. I think what Frankie did throughout the course of the year was put up a lot of really good at-bats and make a lot of hard contact.”

On Lindor’s consistency amidst increase in responsibilities on and off the field:

FRANCONA: “I think he’s smart enough to know what comes first and that’s baseball. He loves playing, which, and he has a ton of energy. We talked to him early in Spring Training about the things off the field. But he’s mature beyond his years in a lot of ways.”

On the development and emergence of Tyler Olson:

FRANCONA: “I think the natural first question is, ‘Is it real?’ And I think as he continued to pitch, he was legit. I mean, he can probably actually handle more than he was given. I think during a regular season, you will see him start to throw full innings, because his two-seamer is so good down in the zone and he’s got so much movement that he might be a guy that won’t just face lefties, but pitch full innings.”

On the job the front office did:

FRANCONA: “I wish they weren’t sitting here — it would be easier to say. I’ve never been in a place in my life where I have felt so comfortable with the way that we go about things. Even when we’re not successful, the way we come to our conclusions or to our answers, we do it in such a way that when I step back and I see — maybe something I’ll see on TV — I’ll say ‘Woah. That’s how it can be.’ The grass is greener here for me, and it’s not just me. I think those sorts of things start at the top and trickle down, and I don’t think Chris or Cherny get enough credit for the attitude around here. I think they deserve more. I love the way we do things around here. Now, we’re not always, as we’re seeing today, we’re not always successful, but the way we go about it, I have bought into it and I will continue to.”

ANTONETTI: “We can leave now if you want to tell them the truth.”

FRANCONA: “Gosh that was hard.”

ANTONETTI: “Do you take cash, credit, money order?”

Asked if there were any concerns early on when Edwin Encarnacion was going through his slump:

CHERNOFF: “If you are asking me that question, you obviously don’t know me very well. I am nervous all of the time about everything. I think it’s a huge credit to Edwin. He came to play every day despite the struggles he went through. You could see in the work and the way he was going about it, his desire to be in the lineup every day, that he was going to find a way through it. This guy is a tremendous hitter and has been for a long time. Obviously we were searching for every possible resource to help him find a way through that, but I don’t think there was any heightened anxiety that he had turned into a different kind of hitter. It was more just, ‘How do we help him get through that?’”

On trusting that Encarnacion would finish strong:

FRANCONA: “I’ve said it a million times, I think guys that, as long as they maintain their health, they’re going to get to their numbers. It’s the damndest thing you ever seen. Even the guys that get out to the good start, guys that are hitting .500 after three weeks, you look up and they’re hitting .260. They just get to their numbers. Edwin still had his bat speed, he was still healthy. There were things along the way that certainly helped me. There were a couple of times where I wanted to give him a day off because I thought it would be good for him, and he was like, ‘No.’ I really appreciated that. I thought this is a guy who, he’s trying to figure it out, and we just needed to be patient. Sometimes it’s hard to be patient. But as you look back, if you’re not, we could have really missed out on some good baseball.”

On Austin Jackson:

ANTONETTI: “I think just going back to the time we signed him, we felt that he was a good fit and that he complemented our roster with some of the things he brought: Versatility to play different outfield positions, a right-handed bat to complement some of our left-handed hitters. We knew he had some success in the past, but it would be hard to say we would fast-forward to today and he would be one of the more productive hitters on our team. I’m not sure we could have envisioned that at the time. To Austin’s credit, he did a tremendous job through that rehab process, getting himself back healthy and strong and then taking advantage of opportunities when he was given them. Not only against lefties, but there were times against righties when some of our other guys were down and he was a big part of our offense.”

On considering re-signing Jackson:

ANTONETTI: “Absolutely. Austin did a great job.”

Asked if, barring anyone being hired by another team, the coaching staff would remain intact for 2018:

ANTONETTI: “Everyone is under contract for 2018. As Tito said before, we expect that there will be interest from other teams in a number of our coaches, and I think we will have to see how that process.”

On Brantley’s $11-million team option:

ANTONETTI: “It’s a significant decision for us, but as we told Michael, we’ve always envisioned him being part of the organization, not only for 2018, but beyond. That’s been our mindset from the beginning. There’s a process that we need to work through with making those decisions. At the same time, Michael needs to go through the process of just getting healthy and figuring out what his plan needs to be. There is no player on our team that goes about things better than Michael does: The teammate that he is, how hard he’s worked and prepared. He sets that standard for our guys. We have a profound appreciation for what he’s done and how he does it.”

FRANCONA: “You know how you were asking me before about these two knuckleheads? [motions to Antonetti and Chernoff]] There’s no better feeling — I walked into my office one day and Chris was sitting to the side of my desk and Brantley was sitting next to him and they were talking about him trying to play and all the things that it involved. I just turned around and walked out, because I wanted them to have the chance to talk, because I knew what it was about. It’s a good feeling. Not everything is always perfect. There’s so much gray, but I knew they were communicating about it. I was thrilled about that.”

On getting texts and messages after the loss:

FRANCONA: “I got a lot of really, really special texts already. For me personally, it’ll be hard to watch the rest of baseball. Last year, when we lost, it was over. There was no more baseball. When we lose, I want everybody to lose, and that’s not going to happen. That’s a hard one to swallow. When baseball is over, I’ll feel better, because it’s just a natural feeling. It hurts. You want to be a part of it and you’re not. It’s hard not to be jealous. A lot of things you’re not proud of, it’s hard not to feel that way. Then when it’s over, you take a deep breath, because nobody else is playing and then you start thinking more positively about next year.”

On ownership remaining as aggressive as the past couple of years:

ANTONETTI: “We haven’t had any conversations yet about what our payroll might be next year, other than we’ve all seen what the past behavior has been and ownership has continued to give us resources beyond what we could have expected to try to continue to have a winning and championship-caliber team. When we go into the offseason, I know we have a lot of decisions to make and things we need to work through, but we have a roster that’s still really talented and we’ll find ways to complement it effectively.”

FRANCONA: “I think back to the first Winter Meetings we had. Chris was sitting at a desk in the middle of the room by himself. We didn’t have any pitching. I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ Now, we have a good team. And we’re going to continue to have a good team. Some of the names might change, but we’re going to be good. That helps.”

On Boone Logan:

ANTONETTI: “He chose the conservative route, so you really won’t know how successful that is until a guy starts his throwing progression and Boone is not yet to that point.”

On Francisco Mejia playing third in the Arizona Fall League:

ANTONETTI: “He’s going to get an opportunity to play in the Arizona Fall League and get some exposure at third base. We’ll see how that goes and that can help shape our plans in Spring Training. It’s important not to lose sight of the developmental year Francisco had as a catcher. He did an extraordinary job at continuing his development, both offensively but more specifically defensively, the way he led the staff, some of the nuances of catching. He’s in a much better spot now than he was a couple years ago as a defender. We talk about it all he time: The more versatility guys can have, the better. If he can be an option for us not only behind the plate, but at another position, that’s a huge asset.”

FRANCONA: “You guys were asking about the winning streak. That’d be the one thing that jumped out that I wish could have been different. He didn’t get a chance to catch because of that. We had no games. I think he caught one day in Detroit when we spread a game out. But, there just wasn’t the opportunity to catch him as much as I would have liked. That would be one of the things from that streak that stood out.”

On Francona saying once that Mejia was always standing near him with a bat in his hand…

FRANCONA: “You could tell, it’s a young kid who’s used to playing every day. He’s making the jump from Double-A to the Major Leagues and he’s playing so sporadically. You could even see in his at-bats, he was getting a little out of control. That’s not the type of hitter he is. He’s a really advanced hitter. He was put into some situations that were extremely challenging.”

— JB