My take FWIW ...
Obsessive Sox fan for 55+ years. Didn't love LaRussa first go around, although loved that 1983 team and the way the pitching staff dominated baseball the second half of the regular season. Felt he was a good X and O guy, the partnership with Duncan helped him a lot, but intuited and some insider press pals confirmed that his clubhouse schtick as the detached resident genius rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
Not at all happy that THAT GUY (and I never warmed up to his act with the A's and Cardinals) -- who has been away from a dugout for a decade, and a decade where tech and personality has dramatically altered the game -- could be considered a leading candidate by anyone. Why? There are so many others!
That said, I never bought and would be incredibly surprised if the the Reinsdorf owned Sox EVER considered Hinch or Cora. The point can be and already has been debated ad nauseam but why hire guys fresh off a scandal like that? In many people's eyes a truly big scandal? And to do it that soon? And by a team that already has a scandal in its history that mocks the team name (obviously I'm talking Black Sox).
I think we're seeing a few things coming together here and it's not simply a TLR hire in the conventional sense. I think Hinch and Cora were never going to be considered. I think Bochy likely got some discussion, but for whatever reason (likely JR), TLR was preferred. But a common characteristic of Reinsdorf owned sports teams is getting too cute by half, thinking they're going to come up with clever ideas that will revolutionize the game and elicit wows.
Specifically -- I think they LOVE whiz-kid manager Justin Jirschele, want him for the long-haul, but realize that they can't throw him into the fire with no big league experience. So, the "we're smarter than everyone else" boys decide they are going to bring TLR and all of his supposed genius out of mothballs, surgically attach JJ to Tony's hip as Assistant Manager (NOT Bench Coach because a Bench Coach has too many specific real Bench Coach duties which would prevent full time learning from the grizzled old manager), with the thought that in Year 1 it would be TLR as Mgr and JJ as Asst-Mgr, but in Year 2 (or 3) it would flip and it would be JJ as Mgr with Tony as Asst-Mgr (or Mgr-Emeritus).
One consistent fan thing (here and elsewhere) is to assume that the guys in charge can't see obvious things that we as fans see. These aren't stupid people. The more plausible explanation to me is that they are the opposite -- people who think they are just a wee bit smarter than they actually are. I can totally see the plan I mentioned as their thought process -- or a somewhat similar plan. If it's TLR, there's just no way that it's a straight-forward conventional hiring of a retread manager hire. Just don't see that, but looks like we'll know in short order.
And edit: I would hate a pure TLR hire ... because, "why?" But I don't hate the idea of creating an apprentice situation for JJ -- who I think has all sorts of potential and the industry seems to think so as well.'