When you're an employee on a contract, you do what your supervisor (i.e., manager) requires, or you abrogate that contract. (Unless, the contract says you get to do whatever you please.) Therefore, if anyone is goofing off in the clubhouse instead of providing support on the bench, it is the manager's responsibility. If he does nothing about it, then the example and laxity hurt the whole team.
I realized this when I was 19 and traveling as a scorekeeper and driver with amateurs, a junior college basketball team. The coach never understood what was happening or how his failure to influence their off-court behavior through his own actions was a talented team's undoing. Talent without discipline is a waste in any line of endeavor.
(O.K., Babe Ruth was an exception. There's always an exception, but if Ruth led a life of moderation off the field, he might have been even greater than he was.)
If there are bad apples spoiling the Sox, they're now getting what they deserve: no playoffs, no extra cash, dimmer future contract prospects, likely shorter careers.
What has Francona learned from all of this? His next job may show the answer to that.