Here is an interesting column from Buster Olney from a few weeks ago comparing Boone to Francona, this makes me feel a bit better:
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Boone's path to an MLB dugout
Aaron Boone is a friend and a colleague, someone with whom I've worked on Sunday Night Baseball the past two years, so sure, my point of view about his potential as a managerial candidate for the
New York Yankees or some other team down the road is skewed by the many hours spent in travel, preparation, and on air together. But that past access means that my perspective is well-informed, more than enough to say this: He will be a great manager someday for some team looking for the next Terry Francona.
He likes people, a characteristic that might seem trite on the page here but is a common denominator in almost all of the longest-tenured managers, from Bobby Cox to Joe Torre to Dusty Baker to Bruce Bochy to, yes, Francona. Some managers resent players, or ignore the clubhouse attendants, or look down on the youngest front-office members, but a lot of the best managers -- not all of them -- have a natural respect for and an interest in others in their world. Aaron shares that trait.
Like Francona, Boone shares in a baseball legacy. Aaron's grandfather played in the big leagues, and so did his father, and so did his brother. He has had a lifetime of running around clubhouses and ballparks, and assessing players and their moods and on-field and off-field challenges. Aaron was a good player for stretches in his 12-year career, and he had periods when he struggled, and any of the best managers would tell you, those experiences in the worst of times might be the most useful in relating to players. Francona wields his own mediocrity as a weapon of self-deprecation, citing his own failures when his players make mistakes, and it helps him connect with everyone.
Francona is pliable in how he considers strategy, open-minded to listen to alternatives if he sees demonstrations of logic and success, and while a baseball lifer like Francona might have an old-school reflex under certain circumstances, he could not have worked as successfully as he has with progressive front offices -- under Theo Epstein in Boston, and Chris Antonetti in Cleveland -- without being open-minded. Francona managed his bullpen and starters differently in the Indians' postseason run of 2016 than he did in Boston's championship seasons of 2004 and 2007.
The Cleveland front office will sometimes bring suggestions to Francona and his response is sometimes, "I understand what you want to do and it makes sense, but just give me some time to get there with the player." Aaron has a similar approach to problem-solving. We've had debates and discussions over personnel decisions or rule changes in which he'll mull over the elements for a week or so, before revisiting. "I agree with you, and here's why," he has said. Or: "I disagree with you, and here's why."
Managers are no longer the all-powerful, dominant forces they once were, and they probably never will be again. Exhibit A: Bruce Bochy is a Hall of Fame manager with three championships in the past eight years, and his longtime pitching coach Dave Righetti was just fired over Bochy's objection.
Front offices shape rosters, and with some teams, the front office dictates lineups and scripts possible pitching moves before each game. Managers have more resources than ever to draw upon in making in-game choices. A lot of the preparation or pregame thought that an Earl Weaver or Tony La Russa mastered is now generated by front offices. The days of the drill-sergeant manager who chews out players (and general managers) and creates change by intimidation is over. A lot of the best managers now excel at interpersonal relationships. This might sicken the ghost of John McGraw, but this is just the way it is.
The most significant daily contributions of the managers for most teams might be in reading the clubhouse and the players in it, and in fostering a positive and fun work environment in which accountability from player to player becomes habit. This is something that the best stats analyst cannot provide; it has to come from the guy leading the room, whether that's the manager or best player.
Terry Francona is tremendous at this, and I think Aaron Boone would be, as well."
http://www.espn.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post/_/id/17643/olney-shopping-mccutchen-and-cole-could-renew-pirates-postseason-possibilities
