Post-mortem leaves question of Francona’s future unanswered

Epstein said he and Francona would meet with team owners John Henry and Tom Werner along with club president Larry Lucchino in the coming days to discuss the future.

“We’re less than 24 hours removed from the end of the season,’’ Epstein said. “We need some time to calm down, get objective and look at ourselves, look at 2011, look ahead [and] make the best decisions for everybody.’’

On a day when concerns about team chemistry were revealed for the first time, Epstein exonerated Francona for the team’s September collapse, saying he had talked to ownership and all agreed that the manager wasn’t to blame for the team’s losing a nine-game lead in the wild-card race.

“That would be totally irresponsible and totally short-sighted and wouldn’t recognize everything that he means to the organization and to all our success, including at times during 2011,’’ Epstein said. “We take full responsibility for that. For all of us, collectively it’s a failure.’’

But owners can’t be fired and Epstein remains held in high regard by Henry. That could leave Francona and members of his coaching staff to pay the penalty for the well-funded Sox missing the playoffs for the second straight year.

Henry, who usually communicates with the media via e-mail, did not respond to questions about his team and its wrenching finish.

Francona said the team “became challenging’’ at the end because of fractured chemistry. He called a team meeting Sept. 7 - the day after a 14-0 win over Toronto - to address what he felt were lingering issues.

“There were things I was worried about,’’ Francona said. “I thought we were spending too much energy on things that weren’t putting our best foot forward toward winning. We spent a few minutes in the clubhouse talking about that.