NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The Red Sox have once again demonstrated their confidence in manager John Farrell, exercising his option for the 2018 season.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made the announcement to the media from his suite on Day 1 of the Winter Meetings on Monday. Farrell also was on hand.
"I'm thrilled that it's been exercised, obviously," said Farrell. "I love the city, the organization and the players that we have. This is an exciting young team with that young core group of players that we talk about. And it's developing year over year and will continue to expand."
The day after the Red Sox were eliminated by the Indians in the American League Division Series, Dombrowski announced that Farrell would be the team's manager in '17, but the matter of the contract option was left open.
Now, Farrell's job security won't be an issue once Spring Training starts.
"John has done a real fine job for us," Dombrowski said. "We had a very good year last year. I thought he did a good job in handling the club, being in a position where we had a good working relationship. He had the respect of our players, the players played hard for him. So we're very happy to have [exercised the option]."
In Farrell's first season as Red Sox manager, the club won the 2013 World Series. But Boston finished in fifth place in the AL East the next two seasons. In '16, Farrell guided Boston to a 93-win season and an AL East title.

"John has got a solid presence to himself and a leadership capability," said Dombrowski. "I also find him very open-minded when we have conversations, just about generalities of things, the give and take as people talk about."
The start of the working relationship between Dombrowski and Farrell had a very unique dynamic.
When Dombrowski was hired by the Red Sox in August of 2015, Farrell had just started chemotherapy treatment for Burkitt lymphoma.
"I appreciate his confidence," said Farrell. "We had a conversation a little bit yesterday and it got a little personal, where he reflected on how he walks in and inherits a manager in a chemo plan.

"It has a chance to work itself out where we win a division title. I think we addressed and faced a lot of challenges throughout the course of the season, whether that was injuries, a little bit of dryspells that we went through from a team-performance standpoint [at times], and we came out of it all, I think, in a stronger and better place."
Farrell is eager to get started on his fifth season as Boston's manager.
"The status of my contract has never changed the way I approach the job day in and day out, and it won't going forward," Farrell said. "My focus is always on what we can do tonight to win a game and put our players in position to succeed, and that won't change."
The 54-year-old Farrell has a 339-309 record for the Red Sox and is ninth on the franchise's all-time win list. Farrell served as pitching coach of Boston from '07-10 and managed the Blue Jays for two seasons before taking that position for the Red Sox.