I suspect that this has been the plan for much longer than the last few days; that in the post-mortem meetings after the 2014 season in October it was decided that Lucchino would step down after the 2015 season and a succession plan was put into place. Lucchino has spent a good amount of his time working the PawSox project this year. This involved Kennedy taking more day-to-day responsibility with LL's supervision on the business side. And this involved someone stepping into the "CEO/Baseball Ops" supervisory role - again with LL's guiding hand, but being phased out of the day-to-day. The Shank article says that Werner "has interest" in the CEO role.
My sinking feeling is that Werner has been, and will be, the next person "in charge" of baseball operations. An outside hire would - rightfully - demand the termination of Cherington and the rest of the existing staff. That's usually how it's done - "getting your own guy" in place. So, if Cherington is staying - and Henry seems to think he is - then the "new" boss needs to be internal. And we're back to Werner.
The trouble is that Werner is a pretty terrible sports executive. He might be a great TV guy and/or executive, but his tenure in San Diego should give everyone frightful chills. His recent work at the top of the pyramid for Liverpool has been....not good. He isn't a "baseball guy" but he's a part-owner, so if he wants to be CEO, he's probably going to get it. And that's terrible, awful, no-good news for Red Sox fans.
And if Werner has been "getting his feet wet" in the CEO role this season...it makes too much sense. Panda was a TV signing; you can totally envision Werner loving the "star for the TV show" and the attendant marketing possibilities. Ditto Hanley - a big name, with a big baseball Q rating. Now, those could easily also fit LL's modus operandi - he's also a starfucker of the highest order. But Werner is both a starfucker AND baseball dumb...and it's hard not to think that he had a big hand in bringing these players in.
Basicially, I'm scared shitless of the pending Werner Era. He's a proven dunderhead who thinks in terms of the "tv show", not the baseball team. If he ends up in charge - or already is - then fans are fucked.