Little late on this, but worthy of mention. The Sox bench coach, Brad Mills, has departed to Houston for two years plus a club option. All the platitudes out of Sox camp you expected to hear were said.
Houston owner Drayton McLane said that — and Francona verified — Mills was given a lot more responsibility than your average bench coach. He ran spring training and handled most of the player communication. That’s great, and it makes Mills doubly qualified to be a big league manager.
But it worries me from Francona’s perspective. All along, we’ve heard that he’s a player’s manager and players love him. How do they know that if it’s Mills doing most of the talking all season? And if it’s Mills doing the bonding monotonous exercises in spring training? Has Mills been the man responsible for what Tito supposedly excels at? Is Tito more the game manager, and Mills the player’s manager? If true, maybe you start hearing about how Tito’s become more stern over the years.
All conjecture, but it crossed my mind.