The Red Sox have fired Chaim Bloom
- Thread starter Smiling Joe Hesketh
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Red Sox say Brian O’Halloran has been offered a new senior leadership position within the baseball operations department.
https://x.com/ChrisCotillo/status/1702359052263493814?s=20
https://x.com/ChrisCotillo/status/1702359052263493814?s=20
Egg on my face, I thought they'd stick with him. I personally hate it but...we'll see what they do instead.
I feel like some team is going to enjoy the fruits of Chaim's work and we're gonna look real stupid.
I feel like some team is going to enjoy the fruits of Chaim's work and we're gonna look real stupid.
If they think they can find someone to execute the same game plan more effectively, then okay. If this is yet another zig-zag, it's a disastrous mistake.
Like I said in the other thread, this was coming. He rebuilt the farm, but the team is ready to take the next step of acquiring impact talent from outside the org and they must not think Chaim is the guy to do it.
In the end I feel Chaim was an example of the Peter Principle in action. He could identify prospects and help with a farm system, but he struggled with identifying and scouting major league talent and could not do the most important job of a GM: put a winner on the field.
They clearly have a pattern now. Cherington and Bloom rebuilt the farms, now it’s time to find a finisher. My left arm for Theo.
Guess the smoke that he was being too deliberate with acquisitions may have had some truth. Clearly not the guy to leverage a larger budget into a win-now roster. I see this as good news.
Maybe the flirtation with David Stearns had poisoned the waters and separating from Bloom became inevitable.
Guess the Shaughnessyite lunatics are running the asylum. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they have an actual plan waiting in the wings. But the implication here is that they had a plan they couldn't wait out, which is to say, they have no plan.
Firing GMs after September losses to the Yankees is how it's done around here.
Unless he's getting an ownership stake, slim chance. OTOH, Im all for him getting am ownership stake.
Welp, can only surmise they believe now they have young contributors, a restocked farm and some room to maneuver in the market but don't have trust in Bloom as the guy that can put together a contender. Just feels like they really don't know what kind of club they want to have and are stuck riding the roller coaster of spend a lot of money-hire a guy to restock the farm-fire him to get someone who will spend on talent-hire a guy to restock the farm.
Dude comes in with a 5 year plan to rebuild the org from the bottom up, gets 80% there and then gets fired. Two reads here I guess:
1) Ownership is listening to baseball types who say "this is a guy who sold you on Kluber being the ace/ opening day starter this year. He can't do it at the major league level, so let him rebuild, put you in a good position, execute where he is best at, and then turn it over to someone who can execute at the Major League level." If this is it... I get it
2) They saw 3 last place finishes in 4 years, ownership becoming very unpopular (they did that themselves with mookie and Orsillo) and said "we need a fall guy, screw the 5 year plan"
Honestly either one could be the truth.
1) Ownership is listening to baseball types who say "this is a guy who sold you on Kluber being the ace/ opening day starter this year. He can't do it at the major league level, so let him rebuild, put you in a good position, execute where he is best at, and then turn it over to someone who can execute at the Major League level." If this is it... I get it
2) They saw 3 last place finishes in 4 years, ownership becoming very unpopular (they did that themselves with mookie and Orsillo) and said "we need a fall guy, screw the 5 year plan"
Honestly either one could be the truth.
Orrrrrrr they felt that Bloom had no plan besides wait for the kids. And wait. And wait. And wait.
Bloom had two tasks: rebuild the farm, and provide quality baseball on the field at Fenway. He did only one of those things.
Saying "the cycle" of hire a farm GM, fire him, hire a go-for-it GM, fire him, and back again might be ruthless in efficiency but it can't be good for your reputation as an organization, surely?
Isn't this all about pitching and defense? His teams hit pretty well but they sucked with the glove and the starters are well below league average. The farm system is stocked with position players but the pitching in the minors is lacking and I seem to remember Henry talking about having Bloom rebuild the pitching staff using the TB model. I wonder what happens with Cora.
Yeah I really thought this next offseason and 2024 was going to be the culmination of what Bloom was building. The last thing they need is sometime to come in and start trading the bulk of their top 10 prospects to get immediate help and then we are starting all over again.
No, it's a disastrous way to run an organization and also not a recipe for winning. It's listening to the whiner line instead of having a plan.
This seems like a classic big market mistake. Fortunately, they have a chance to get someone as good or better. As the non Chaimers would say, I hope there is a plan.
This is indicative of how Henry and co operate. They get the guy to rebuild the farm and then bring in someone else for the championship push.
As long as they identify the right guys to trade and do it for cost controlled pitching I'm all in. There are probably 6 or 7 guys in that top 10 right now that are very overvalued in terms of what they'll eventually become in the majors. Figure it out.
Given how opaque ownership and management have been lately (a great thing IMO) it's hard to have a clue what they're thinking.
If this is any sort of reaction to sports media or sports talk fans chirping... that would be worrysome.
Who is going to replace him? That's all that really matters.
If this is any sort of reaction to sports media or sports talk fans chirping... that would be worrysome.
Who is going to replace him? That's all that really matters.
Put together three last-place teams that all have the same fundamental problems and it's no surprise that Bloom is out of a job. The only part of the gig he did well was build a farm system, and the jury is still mostly out on the results from the bulk of the players he's drafted or acquired. I think it's pretty clear that free agency and managing a major league roster are significant weak points for him. Seems like he's just not cut out to be The Guy at the top of an org chart.
Yeah. While I do wish he'd gotten one more year with a bit more to spend I ultimately have a lot of faith in this ownership group* - if they dont trust Chaim's ability to translate the orginzational depth into major league winning, then I'm fine with the change.
*unless, as mentioned above, this is just another zig zag in philosophy
Genuinely shocked.
If there's a pattern, it could be that JWH likes different GMs for rebuilds and contention windows. Cherington~Bloom | Dombrowski~???
Unlike his predecessors (Sandoval, Castillo, Sale, I genuinely can't point to a big mistake in the Bloom era. Story? I think it's too soon to say.
If there's a pattern, it could be that JWH likes different GMs for rebuilds and contention windows. Cherington~Bloom | Dombrowski~???
Unlike his predecessors (Sandoval, Castillo, Sale, I genuinely can't point to a big mistake in the Bloom era. Story? I think it's too soon to say.
It's funny seeing the reaction on Reddit from other fanbases being "wtf are the Red Sox doing firing this guy" and the reaction here being "but he didn't turn the pile of crap he was left with into a World Series contender when he was told to trade away his best player". We are truly a spoiled fanbase.
It's reasonable to think that those are two separate skill sets. A lot of GMs are good at both. Bloom appeared to be good at one. Perhaps it's too soon to say he's not good at the other but the on-field results have largely stunk.
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