The Boston Red Sox are setting up Chaim Bloom to fail.
His end came shortly after his start. One hundred and eight days after Fenway Sports Group hired Bloom as its chief baseball officer, John Henry’s ownership group approved the sale of Mookie Betts to the Dodgers. The gesture didn’t mean much before. It doesn’t make sense now, three years later, with Betts jockeying for another MVP trophy in Los Angeles and Bloom getting the heave-ho in Boston.
The decision ended Bloom’s term, which ended abruptly Thursday afternoon. He was used as a shield during a mysterious Red Sox season, in which the franchise erased almost all the goodwill it had built up in the 2018 World Series. As has often been the case these past few years, the timing is strange: Henry will be looking for a new leader in his baseball operations department, just days after Steve Cohen’s Mets reached an agreement for the top free agent. -agent executive, former Milwaukee Brewers general manager. David Stearns.
The Red Sox hired Bloom, who had spent 15 years in the small-market laboratory of Tampa Bay, to build an enduring juggernaut, a consistent winner who never experienced the boom-and-bust cycles that the franchise in the 2010s. Bloom’s ownership tenure lasted a little over four full seasons, including an appearance in the 2021 American League Championship Series. That flirtation with contention wasn’t enough to ensure Bloom’s continued stewardship, which is hardly surprising. Dave Dombrowski was fired just 10 months after winning the 2018 World Series. Winning the 2013 World Series won’t protect Ben Cherington.
Bloom achieved less than his predecessors. The 2023 Red Sox are both over .500 and tied for last place in the American League East, a result symbolic of the franchise’s uncertain direction. Bloom built a quality lineup but a poor pitching staff backed up by one of the worst defenses in the league. “We need pitching,” said cornerstone third baseman Rafael Devers before the trade deadline, when the Red Sox were still in the wild-card race, but Bloom stood up effectively. Scanning the current roster and developing farm system, there are reasons to believe better days lie ahead, just as there are reasons to believe the franchise has fallen woefully behind its more frugal counterparts. in Baltimore and Tampa. They don’t even use their financial advantage the way they did before: In 2023 the Red Sox fell out of the top 10 in Opening Day payroll, after years of hovering in the top 5.
The Red Sox appear caught between cycles of rebuilding and cycles of contention, unable to keep up in baseball’s toughest division. Ownership was responsible for a surprising two moves last year, when the team first failed to sign Xander Bogaerts to an extension, and then cut him to about $160 million before pivoting. in a $313.5 million extension for Devers. The Red Sox seem confused about who they want to be this entire season. The spiral began when the franchise parted ways with Betts a year before his free agency.
The idea to sell Betts did not come from Bloom. In the summer of 2019, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman engaged in lengthy discussions with Dombrowski about a deal. The negotiations failed as the Red Sox went on a short winning streak. But that winter, after Dombrowski was canned, Friedman teamed up with Bloom, his former lieutenant in Tampa Bay. The Red Sox want to reduce their luxury-tax payroll after exceeding the competitive-balance threshold in 2018 and 2019. Bloom is charged with dealing with Betts to make that happen.
The trade appeared to be the opposite from the start. The Dodgers gave up outfielder Alex Verdugo, catcher Connor Wong and infielder Jeter Downs. To sweeten the deal, the Dodgers ate about half of Boston’s $96 million debt to pitcher David Price. Betts, the 2018 American League MVP, thrived in Los Angeles. He signed a 12-year, $365 million extension during the pandemic-affected summer of 2020. That fall, he helped the Dodgers end a 32-year championship drought. He is a perennial All-Star, a Gold Glover who can play in three different positions, the type of player owners should never part with.
But Henry’s group did. And the franchise has never recovered. Boston waived Downs last winter. Verdugo, 27, is an adequate if underwhelming performer. Wong, 27, is putting together a solid year in 2023. These are decent players. Most fans want to watch Mookie Betts. The ownership group has yet to release a product capable of scratching that itch.
Bloom strengthened the organization’s infrastructure, made various useful additions and helped the farm system. But he spent so much time looking at the long road that he ran out of room. Opposing executives found his deliberate, painstaking process left him without a foot in moments like the trade deadline. His decision to sell catcher Christian Vázquez last summer angered his clubhouse, but Bloom continued with pending free agents such as Nathan Eovaldi or JD Martinez, keeping the club at a high tax threshold.
After Bogaerts left San Diego, Bloom had little choice when Trevor Story, Bogaerts’ replacement at shortstop, underwent elbow surgery. The defense suffered because of it. The Red Sox will never escape from the basement of the American League East.
“The results that we expected as an organization just weren’t there,” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said SAYS on Thursday.
Again, Betts wasn’t there either. And because of that, because of a decision given to him by his employers months after his arrival, said Bloom.
(Top photo: AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)