My take here is Hinch is feast or famine hero or goat. I won't fault him for his in game management, but I will fault him for the long stretches of WTF we went through some many times the year. The manager is responsible for the culture and we have been lucky to have guys who genuinely like each other, however this may really challenge that locker room. Hinch could not correct the funk or keep us in a good head space. We lost the World Series with one of the best teams every assembled to a scrappy ass team who was mentally stronger than us, with a manager who's fire was reflected in their players. We were hang loose ball crushers in the good times and tight assed strike out artists in the bad. If we can upgrade our talent significantly by trading Hinch to the Mets we should, anyone can do Xs and Os it's the inspirational leaders that make a difference.
Thank God we got one in 2017, because our window of being the favorite is quickly closing with out some major offseason pitching moves. Although for me being the favorite has made the season less fun, the wins were many times just mundane and expected and the losses were disappointments. Only two outcomes existed for this season Championship or disappointment. It's hard to think that we will ultimately look back on 107 wins, a ROY, a Cy Young, 2nd place MVP, a division championship, a league championship, a walkoff against the ****ing Yanks and call it a failure but that was the lens for this team.