And for all of those who argue how little the manager matters, I ask...
Why have one then? Why not just have a phone in the dugout for the players to communicate directly with the FO or their AI bot?
There is a manager, because leadership indeed DOES matter. Attitude, expectation, environment, attention to detail, competitive fire etc DOES matter.
I'm sure Rocco would be fantastic in our FO, but he is NOT a good leader.
As I've said for 2 years now.... if Rocco were to be fired, it is HIGHLY unlikely that he would be hired by another MLB team to manage. So, we extended him.... because we were worried that another team was clamoring to compete for his services if his contract expired? (just writing that made me giggle)