I think he's waiting to see what materializes. Maybe EVOO and JDM are traded. Maybe they both stay and we spin a few prospects for a 1B upgrade. Bloom doesn't know which will happen, so it's hard for him to spin it one way (buyers) or the other (sellers)
Forgive the highly subjective, speculative nature of this: I think Bloom feels a little trapped between his desire to really rebuild (which might include a couple losing last place seasons), and the pressure to win in the Boston market. He may have underestimated the heat he'd feel from the fan base/Boston media market, if he didn't go all in. And I think the success of 2021 took him by surprise. It should have had him pivot to more of a GFIN mode, but that just wasn't in his preconception for how he/it was gonna proceed. So, he's been kinda caught, trying to split the difference. But splitting the difference may be the worst of all choices in its outcomes.
Hilariously, this is how I felt when they acquired Eric Gagne.
A World Series that we won in spite, and not because, of him.
In terms of Pythag the Sox finished 2021 13 games behind Tampa and Houston, and 11 games behind Toronto. They finished ahead of the Yankees, but I think most people predicted the Yankees would bounce back strong in 2022 because no one had them winning 86 games last year. Based on all that, and how the 2022 season was playing out, even before all the injuries, very little about that says that the success of 2021 should have led to them pivoting to a GFIN approach.
In 18.2 regular season innings, he put up an ERA of 6.75 and a shockingly bad net WPA of -1.59. The net of acquiring him was costing us 1.5 games to close out the season. That includes his good performances offsetting the bad ones.
It isn't that hard to "go get ball players" when you're starting with on of the best systems in baseball, including 2 guys who were at different points possibly the #1 prospect in all of baseball and ownership tells you short term to ignore the luxury tax if that's what it takes to win. And you also get to start with Ortiz Betts and Bogaerts
I agree with you they wouldn't be as good as either team in that case. But they would be MUCH better and playoff caliber. And once there, health and luck play a big part. Mind you, I prefer they aim to build a championship caliber team, and not just a fringe playoff team. But my point stands regardless and maybe is reinforced - Bloom stayed in neutral in the off season for a team that was good but not good enough. He's been betwixt and between for a coupla years. And he was talking out of both sides of his mouth today (or, yesterday). At this point I hope he gets off the fence already and sells every pending FA he can tomorrow, save Xander. Maybe he will.
They were playoff caliber already before everyone got hurt, and had no realistic way to get from good to good enough, if good enough means a true talent top team in the league, without an unrealistic spending spree or trading the whole farm again, and even that might not have been enough.
It's a $12m mutual option for 2023 with a $8m buyout.
Well, that certainly changes the picture. Thanks for the clarification. That makes the trade that brought him back even more inscrutable!
The amount going with him will determine any prospects we may receive. Not familiar with their system, so I don't have a binky to hope for.
Drive by comment, or did you really not know we got prospects along with JBJ?
After last night's start, I can't imagine we don't move him. He looked good. He, JDM, possibly JBJ are likely all gone by the deadline. Curious to see who else.
I’m actually thinking the team today will look very different in 12 hours and Eovaldi will still be on the team.
Yeah, boss. I know... very expensive prospects. The younger one flunked out of AA and was shipped back to Greenville. Hamilton is having a very average season in Portland.
No worries. Just thought I'd ask as we get a lot of casual posters flocking in during moments like these.
I think he really thinks that he can do some deals to improve the future, not worsen the present, and can win enough to get to October. (The playoffs, not the regular-season calendar).
I'm curious to see what he does, because those seem like mutually exclusive things to a degree. If we have non-returning vets and a bunch of rule 40 guys, it might be possible to shift pieces around without entirely upsetting the apple cart. The problem is the vets who might be traded are generally doing well. . .so I'm not sure trading JD (or the like) and replacing his production with Pham will keep us in the mix through August and September.
I'm going with a 49/53 steal ratio as eye opening. I don't know what your definition is, but I would say that's definitely in the ballpark with the guys you listed.
Which is why I don't think it's eye opening. He's not an outlier. He's just another guy.
Really anxious to see that package ... do we have anything WAS will want in an effort to pry some our way?
Not necessarily, Maguire is a fine backup but a huge downgrade from Vazquez. If the Padres are looking for starting pitching or a better DH I could see the move making sense.
Maybe. It's all on a continuum, anyway. The team as constituted was a fringe playoff team (very soft June schedule). Add Schwarber, Renfroe, and a blue chip arm, and they are a solid playoff team. Meanwhile, the injuries to the rotation starters at least, was totally predictable. that's what happens when you build a staff of old guys coming off down/injured years. Did anyone expect any of Sale, Hill, and Wacha to not miss significant time (and join Paxton on the IL)? ...oy.
I think trading JD and/or Eovaldi would make it much closer to mutually exclusive (i.e., I'd be completely wrong). If Bloom now knows that nobody he trades is fetching a grade A prospect anyway, maybe he just goes for more organization depth by moving players like JBJ and some Seabold-like younger players to open up room on the 40 roster. Ultimately, though, I dont see him making a team 3.0 games out of the playoffs on August 1 non-competitive, which I think moving one or (especially) both of them would do.
The expectation (or mine) was that Sale would replace one of the inevitably injured Hill or Wacha. That kinda sorta worked for a week or so. And the
First base and right field notwithstanding the bolded part is my biggest gripe with Bloom this year. Even if he were given the benefit of the doubt that he couldn't have known that Dalbec would revert to 2021 form and there's no way he could have foreseen that Kike would be out injured for a long stretch the current state of the starting rotation, given the guys who were comprising it, was indeed totally predictable.
That’s fair but…you don’t expect them all to go down at the same time. It appeared that they were looking at a rotation of Pivetta, Eovaldi, Hill, Wacha, and then add Sale and Paxton in later. They then added Whitlock to the rotation. That’s seven guys. But at one point all of them but Pivetta was out. And they were calling up tons of AAA guys.
Going in to the year, it looked like the pitching staff was going to be reliant on increased innings from Sale, Houck, and Whitlock- and ideally, a return to form from Barnes (with the Wacha and Hills of the world replacing Richards / Perez). Of course, Sale got hurt, Barnes was awful, and the Sox kind of seemed to not know what to do with Houck and Whitlock. Ultimately, the Sox are going to get less innings from Houck, Whitlock, and Sale this year than they did last year which I think has been the biggest problem.
