Over and Out

Well there’s one question answered for the off season as the Sox have let yet another General Manager go as they have fired Chaim Bloom.  This is not a particularly stunning turn of events, three last place finishes in four years is not going to have your bosses exactly enamored of your performance (well, if you are the A’s GM maybe).  Anyway, while this is big news I think it’s more interesting to look back briefly but then look forward.

And when I say look back I find myself looking (cue Jerry Trupiano voice) WAAAAAY back.  OK, maybe not that long but I immediately found myself thinking of Dan Duquette.  I think in many ways Bloom and Duquette’s tenures with the club have their similarities.  Both had some down years, both had shocking playoff runs (1999, 2021), both made controversial decisions to let franchise players go (Roger, Mookie) then instead of doing the expected and signing the newer blood (Mo, Xander) they tet them go too.  But most of all I think both guys suffered from a bit of Jeterism.  Both guys were probably judged to harshly by their critics and both probably defended too much by their fans.  Looking at Bloom I think we can say there are a number of positives;

- the farm system is in MUCH better shape today
- the financial situation is a lot better than it was (to be fair partially by the passage of time)
- the core of a potentially very good team is here

None of that is to say all is well and remain calm.  But I think that the job of whoever follows Chaim is a lot easier than the job Chaim had when he arrived.  The Mookie Betts trade and letting Xander walk are moves made by ownership pure and simple.  Yeah Bloom was the GM and the buck stops here but the fact is those moves only get made if ownership OKs it.  Chaim Bloom isn’t stupid, he knows damned well that a team with Mookie Betts is better than a team without him.  And frankly even IF Bloom is stupid and thinks that’s not true then it’s on ownership not to hire the guy who wants to trade Mookie Betts.  We can and have debated at length whether the Mookie trade was any good.  In one sense, no of course it wasn’t you never win that kind of a deal.  Having said that I think if Bloom landed two everyday MLB players (Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong)that’s probably about as good as you can do in that situation.  Again, it’s a bad trade but it’s about as good as you are going to get.  Similarly I think his performance with the draft has been awfully good.  Nick Yorke, Marcelo Mayer, Kyle Teel, Roman Anthony, Chase Meidroth, the Sox have loaded the position player element of the system pretty well.

I think if I were another team in the AL I’d be somewhat concerned.  The Sox have money to spend and they didn’t fire Bloom to bring in someone to run the club on a budget.  If they were going to do that they’d have kept Bloom and I think you can make a case for Bloom sticking around and at least getting one year of loosened purse strings to take a shot.

But I think this is the right call.  For me Chaim Bloom’s biggest flaw was his timidity.  I think his tenure really can be summed up by one deal.  In the 2021/22 off-season just moments before the lockout he traded Hunter Renfroe for Jackie Bradley Jr. and a couple of minor leaguers.  It was a pretty blah deal; trade high, build the system and bring back a known quantity.  However, that known quantity was one that had known flaws.  Had Bloom backstopped that with the 2022 version of Chris Young or Gabe Kapler or Jonny Gomes…great.  The idea that JBJ would hit .083 or whatever wasn’t THAT big a reach.  Instead there was no fall back.  And that’s not where the Sox are now.  This team is well situated to move forward.  There are holes to be sure but they are obvious 2B (or SS depending on where you put Story) and of course the rotation.  The Sox need to get a stud pitcher this winter and I don’t think Chaim Bloom is the guy for it.

In the end I think Bloom was set up to fail.  A team already fading, a directive to trade the greatest player in a generation and a lack of funds to replace him, that’s not a winning formula.  But he leaves having taken the bullet and hands the reins over with the Sox looking very much like they did after the 1997 season when Duquette was given the chance to build on what he had.  If the next GM can do what Duquette did from 1998-2002 I think we will be pretty happy.