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John Farrell officially is returning as the Boston Red Sox's manager in 2016, but it wasn't always a sure thing.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke with assembled media in Cleveland during the team's final series of the season and broke down the process he went through with Farrell, which included less conversation than normal given Farrell's ongoing cancer treatments.

Farrell's chemotherapy treatments are on track to finish this month , and he will have checkpoints along the way this winter, but is expected to be at the helm come spring training, barring setback.

Check out more from Dombrowski in the clip from NESN's "Red Sox First Pitch" in the video above.

Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@BostonGlobe