So....who is the new GM/head of baseball ops?
- Thread starter moondog80
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“Just as the Boston Red Sox will have to determine whether Breslow is the right fit, Breslow must be making his own calculations about the pluses and minuses of working at Fenway Park. Breslow has been in advanced discussions with the Red Sox, according to sources familiar with the search process, interviewing for their No. 1 job in baseball operations.”
https://theathletic.com/4975553/2023/10/18/red-sox-cubs-craig-breslow/
https://theathletic.com/4975553/2023/10/18/red-sox-cubs-craig-breslow/
Pluses: he actually still lives in greater Boston. Not sure how he worked for the Cubs without moving there, but I'd guess he traveled a fair amount. Anyway it sounds like he's being considered for replacing Bloom, not just for the head of pitching development.
It's interesting that the guy who wrote the article says "a" top job in his Tweet about it.
View: https://twitter.com/PJ_Mooney/status/1714779549127332027
Wonder if it would be the GM job & they have a different CBO lined up? Assistant GM & VP of Pitching is probably a bit further down the food chain.
View: https://twitter.com/PJ_Mooney/status/1714779549127332027
Wonder if it would be the GM job & they have a different CBO lined up? Assistant GM & VP of Pitching is probably a bit further down the food chain.
Right, but that doesn't mean that's the job they're in negotiations regarding. I don't think they could in good faith interview someone for GM only without a CBO.
Cubs have definitely made some leaps in their farm system, including 2 Top 100 pitchers:
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-pipeline-2023-midseason-system-rankings
Looping back a bit, Chris Cotillo and McAdam provided a CBO/GM update on their MassLive Fenway Rundown podcast yesterday. They talked about a potential “Tampa stench” as a narrative that may be forming internally with Sox leadership, as in they’re done with the Tampa model.
Cotillo mentioned that Click was part of the Tampa tree, and that he was friends with Bloom. They also said that if people didn’t think that Click would contact Bloom and ask him what’s up prior to interviewing with the Sox, they were stupid.
I agree with the other poster that Click talking to the Sox helped get his name out there, but I think the “family consideration” withdrawal was Click’s way of saying, “I spoke with Chaim, but wanted to see for myself what you have in mind. No thanks.”
Cotillo mentioned that Click was part of the Tampa tree, and that he was friends with Bloom. They also said that if people didn’t think that Click would contact Bloom and ask him what’s up prior to interviewing with the Sox, they were stupid.
I agree with the other poster that Click talking to the Sox helped get his name out there, but I think the “family consideration” withdrawal was Click’s way of saying, “I spoke with Chaim, but wanted to see for myself what you have in mind. No thanks.”
Per that Athletic article, I do like the fact that Theo and the Cubs thought so highly of Breslow, that they allowed him to stick his foot into any door of the front office regarding responsibilities.
And of course the pitching improvement has been night and day under his watch which is pretty damn important.
And of course the pitching improvement has been night and day under his watch which is pretty damn important.
Cubs ERA by year...
'23 - 4.08 (14th)
'22 - 4.00 (20th)
'21 - 4.87 (27th)
'20 - 3.99 (10th)
'19 - 4.10 (7th)
'18 - 3.65 (3rd)
'17 - 3.95 (7th)
'16 - 3.15 (1st)
'15 - 3.36 (3rd)
'14 - 3.91 (21st)
Cubs play in the 10th toughest park for pitchers per Savant.
Breslow joined the team between the '18 & '19 seasons & was promoted after the '19 & '20 seasons.
So you might have to show your work on the bolded. But what's going on with the development through the system is intriguing.
I
I believe the ratio of innings logged between free agents vs. developed pitching has skyrocketed under his care. Something that allows you to spend elsewhere. It’s not all about just looking at ERA. If there is one thing the Red Sox has been horrific at the last 20 years, it’s steady pitching.
80% of their starting rotation is free agents (Stroman/Smyly/Hendricks/Taillon).*
*Javier Assad did replace Smyly, but those 4 above are still 2nd through 5th on the team in innings this year.
Funny how everyone forgets the 2019 deadline, when DD was heavily criticized for doing nothing.
Given the state of the big league club, I would be happier with Breslow in the top baseball OPs job over any of the other perceived candidates who haven't taken themselves out of the running yet. It also seems like it would be harder for Cora to throw his weight around at a legit former big leader (and ex-teammate) like Breslow over someone who never played pro ball at that level (or at all, in many of these cases of younger execs in the mix).
And as a bonus, Breslow can sign himself to be the last arm out of the bullpen as probably a better option than what they have now (after all, at Breslow's current age, Jaime Moyer had 53 more wins to go).
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I think people are overthinking the "power struggle." Around deadline time, Bloom probably told management something like "we can stay on our trajectory (develop and nominally compete) even if we do nothing substantial at the deadline." Cora probably told management something like, "we're gonna suck if that happens. The pitching is shot."
Management fired the guy that got it way wrong.
Breslow would be an interesting choice for a couple of reasons. One, the team has struggled to develop front line pitching for a long while – and two, they need front line starting pitchers immediately to begin their contention window. You have to imagine he would identify the right guys – whether he can actually acquire them is another question. But it def. fits Henry’s bill of picking CBO’s who serve specific needs.
It’s a good point. We have a really imposing home-grown position player core in the high minors and in the younger part of the MLB team.
But we have a ton of interesting-but-flawed pitchers who—in different ways—need to take steps forward to really contribute. If Breslow has really figured something out in Chicago that has helped them, e.g., turn a fifth rounder with a 92 mph fastball into a late-blooming borderline ace in Justin Steele, well, we could use some of that.
Steele’s career has basically been what if Brandon Walter had the year he just had and then came back and pitched 300 IP of a 3.00 ERA over the next two seasons.
But we have a ton of interesting-but-flawed pitchers who—in different ways—need to take steps forward to really contribute. If Breslow has really figured something out in Chicago that has helped them, e.g., turn a fifth rounder with a 92 mph fastball into a late-blooming borderline ace in Justin Steele, well, we could use some of that.
Steele’s career has basically been what if Brandon Walter had the year he just had and then came back and pitched 300 IP of a 3.00 ERA over the next two seasons.
If Breslow is the pitching talent evaluator that he's reported to be, I'm very interested in his assessment of Whitlock and Houck. I think both of these guys as well as the team may benefit from them having more defined roles as they move forward. I realize that hasn't been terribly easy in the past, but if Breslow comes on board, is able to fill two rotation slots with a legit #1 and #2 or 3 type from the outside and define the roles of Whitlock and Houck I think that the pitching staff as a whole takes a big step forward. I think most of us agree on the need for two horses to go along with Bello, but I really think that these other two guys settling into roles is a key part to the pitching equation.
Absolutely adore this idea. I'm in so many ways an admitted Theo honk like you read about. But he was clearly successful, and the "Theo tree", if you will, produced 3 WS titles in the dozen or so years here, along with two additional ALCS trips and I believe another two trips to the playoffs. That is a crazy amount of excellence AND sustained success. The system consistently churned out cost controlled talent and the Red Sox were also among the top spenders in the game, and - not shockingly - this recipe tasted really good.
As I've mentioned, I liked the Click idea also, but once he was mentioned at all, Byrnes was top of my personal list. As someone that also is / was on board with the idea of some Romero / Cora tandem, (at least in so far as I think it's on par with taking a chance on excellent AGMs, but also unknowns from other front offices - ie Sestanovich, Fuld, Sig M, etc). Hadn't really thought of the anyone besides Romero as GM with Byrnes as CBO, but with Breslow's pedigree in pitching (which the Red Sox clearly need), I must say I like your idea the best @JM3.
I think I'd be happy with Byrnes, and his player dev resumé is pretty solid. We should also remember that he did the following deals:
- Traded pre-arb Max Scherzer for prospect Ian Kennedy and three years of Edwin Jackson
- Traded pre-arb Anthony Rizzo for Andrew Cashner
- Traded prospect Max Fried for (one year of) Justin Upton
- Traded prospect Trea Turner for Wil Myers (in a complex 3-team trade)
- Traded pre-arb Zach Eflin and Yasmani Grandal for Matt Kemp (and $32 million toward the 5/$100 million left on his contract)
Edit: These were A.J. Preller's deals shortly after Byrnes was fired
- Traded pre-arb Max Scherzer for prospect Ian Kennedy and three years of Edwin Jackson
- Traded pre-arb Anthony Rizzo for Andrew Cashner
- Traded prospect Trea Turner for Wil Myers (in a complex 3-team trade)
- Traded pre-arb Zach Eflin and Yasmani Grandal for Matt Kemp (and $32 million toward the 5/$100 million left on his contract)
Edit: These were A.J. Preller's deals shortly after Byrnes was fired
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This is obvioulsy a very high-level summary but I would bet a lot of money that this is the way it played out.
Cora wanted reinforcements, didn't think that the injured players coming back would be enough of a shot in the arm. Bloom probably took the position that the prices on the market were too steep and getting people back from IR would be better than any deadline deal.
Bloom's assessment turned out to be very wrong and, combined with the things we've heard about being overly deliberate/cautious, ended up getting him axed.
Bloom's assessment turning out wrong doesn't mean that Cora's (as you imagine it) was right, though. And as we've seen from the players who were traded at the deadline, the vast majority were either unhelpful or extremely cost-prohibitive. Or both.
If Bloom's position was that adding players at the deadline probably wasn't going to be the difference between playoffs or no playoffs, was he actually wrong?
They didn't just fail to make the playoffs. They objectively sucked over the last several weeks. I doubt Bloom guaranteed a playoff spot doing it his way. I suspect his view was more along the lines of "we're within 3 games now. I think we'll remain close enough throughout that we can get in with the reinforcements and a hot streak without giving up any assets." And, in fact, if they were "in the WC race" until near the end, I *think* a plurality (and maybe mgmnt) would've said, "that hurts, but it appears to be consistent with a solid plan towards sustained success." I think it was more of just how wrong he was. And the result of Bloom's approach turned out so disastrously that it caused much more serious concern about his overall skill/ability to execute.
Wouldn't it have hurt more to buy at the deadline & still play mediocre to bad?
I'm not relitigating Bloom & I've said on numerous occasions I'm fine with him being fired... but adding a couple dudes would have only put them in a worse position in the future without likely making a substantial impact on this season.
Now selling...
Yeah but the Sox needed pitchers in July and by not adding someone who is at least Major League average it caused a domino effect where once their starters couldn't get past the fifth inning an overworked bullpen had to pick up the slack. A bullpen, that was already picking up the slack, by pitching two bullpen games two times out of every five days for a month. You see how that once one of those dominoes fall, it affects the rest of the team. The starters don't pitch long into the game, so the bullpen needs to get called in early. The bullpen is gassed so they give up runs which puts pressure on the offense to realize that we have to score seven plus runs a night to make up for our tired pitchers. In parallel that puts pressure on the fielders, who weren't great to begin with, to play almost perfectly so that their mistakes don't lead to more runs. Suddenly everyone is pressing and losses are piling up which leads to the manager being pissed off.
It's just a mess.
By all accounts the Sox have a pretty good minor league system and there's only so many positions that you can fill, so there has to be some guys who are decent but won't fit into your plans. If you're a good evaluator, you trade those players for ones that can help you right now. Maybe they wouldn't have gotten into the playoffs. Maybe the news guys would have been bad. Maybe nothing would have changed. But on the other side maybe things would have changed or at the very least the team could have felt better about themselves going into the offseason. The fact is nothing was done to bring help from the outside (and I know about the players coming off the IL, but counting on injured players to bounce back quickly and close to 100% is/was foolishly optimistic) and the team just crumbled.
So yeah. Sometimes you have to spend a little capital to inch forward.
I suppose that might've depended on the nature of the buys. And how it would've affected management's view might depend on "how bad." As someone correctly pointed out, I'm speaking in pretty broad generalities, given the lack of much info beyond what actually happened. But whatever approach was employed, if it turned out *this* badly, the result is the same: "We're no longer confident in this guy."
I, too, am trying not to relitigate Bloom here. So I'll stop the exploration of the alternative universe. My only real point was that I'm not certain it was a "power struggle," so much as "while Cora might have been "meh," (YMMV) Bloom missed the mark by a thousand miles.
The bottom line is the team was not good enough, & at this point, to a fair extent, that's on Bloom. But spending significant resources on this team seems to me like it would have been a mistake. They treated this year like a bridge year all year - choosing disposable players for the roster like Jake Faria, Dinelson Lamet, Caleb Hamilton & Jorge Alfaro rather than risking adding any better pitchers or catchers to the 40-man roster. They treated the whole year with the long view, which is fine, but you can't treat it with the long view, & then buy to appease your manager at the deadline when your team isn't good enough. The Angels bought at the deadline, which was foolish at the time, & turned out to be even more disastrous. I know you respect that, but it's not the way to build a successful franchise.
& there are definitely pieces they can move on from in the system, but it makes more sense to do it in the off season as part of a coherent plan as their window & budget opened up in '24 rather than as a rushed attempt to triage the season.
Define "a significant resource"? I'm not suggesting that they traded Mayer or a highly rated prospect, but a couple of lottery tickets could have gotten at least a league-average starter. Prospect hoarding isn't a plan, especially when you have the manager and players on your team begging you for help. Part of being a good GM is knowing when to veer from the plan a little bit and running out three starting pitchers for more than a month is a "break glass in case of emergency" type situation.
Why wait until the offseason? I find that thinking foolish. It's like buying fire insurance after your house burns down.
It would take more than a couple lottery tickets to get a league-average starter, unless you define all non-elite prospects as lottery tickets. & it would have taken a lot more than a league-average starter to get them into the playoffs. If the manager & players don't have any faith in themselves to make the playoffs, that tells me more about the manager & players than it does about anything else.
That's a fairly non-sensical analogy. Buying at the deadline would be more like buying expensive fire insurance that costs more than the crappy home you are trying to insure, and buying that insurance means that you don't have the money to invest in all of the improvements to your home you had planned even after you get your tax return check, leading to a half-azzed renovation job.
I was very much in Bloom's corner right up until he was fired. But, despite a few young players gaining traction and valuable experience (Casas, Bello, Juran), the Red Sox spent another year spinning its wheels. That doesn't fly in this market or under this mananagent. Bloom should be fondly remembered for resetting and elevating the prospects list. Now I look forward to the new CoBO and GM combo to leverage his work and take us and keep us in the playoff picture.
I don't really care about Bloom's job. I care about the Red Sox, & I think they would be in a worse place if they bought at the deadline. I don't think it would have done enough to salvage this season, and I think it would have a negative impact on future seasons when their true window opens, which I've said for a couple years would be '24.
Bloom is a guy who worked hard, was by all accounts very kind & pleasant to everyone, did a nice job making improvements to our farm system & player development program, made a lot of money being our CBO, & will make a lot of money in MLB front offices for many years to come. But he's not unique. He was not without flaws, & the bottom line is the team he put together at the MLB level wasn't good enough. If they chose to fire him because he didn't sacrifice the future to bolster the not good enough team & not for putting together a not good enough team, that's kind of dumb, but whatever.
Perhaps a flaw in Bloom's approach was to rely on a manager who proactively did not believe in his plan to execute it.
I appreciate that Bloom had to go - but I'm extremely puzzled by Cora's apparent elevation into a kingmaker in the search for the next POBO. For the manager to gain so much influence in the organization after two consecutive years of absolutely putrid, post-trade team performance, like he had nothing to do with it, that is an absolutely mindboggling feat of prestidigitation.
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That said, responding to Sin Duda... .I don't think last year was spinning wheels at all. I think it was important to know what the hell the team actually had in Houck, Whitlock and Crawford in order to figure out the pieces to put together the Next Great Red Sox Team (which I really think is starting in '24).
I was hoping for a deal for Montgomery and then an attempt to resign him. He likely would have been much less expensive than he'll be after the playoffs. And I've been advocating for Bloom to use some of that MI surplus to get a starter.
That said, responding to Sin Duda... .I don't think last year was spinning wheels at all. I think it was important to know what the hell the team actually had in Houck, Whitlock and Crawford in order to figure out the pieces to put together the Next Great Red Sox Team (which I really think is starting in '24).
So basically what you're saying is that Bloom's hands were tied? There was absolutely nothing he could have done to make this team better. At all. That's a way at looking at building a baseball team, I'll give you that.
It wasn't about the players not having faith in their teammates, it's more like they needed help and their pleas went unanswered. Have you ever been in a situation at your job where management has cut staff and there's too much work to be done by the current staff? You request more headcount because there's too much going on. It has nothing to do with a lack of faith in yourself or your teammates to get the job done, but you can understand that you're not equipped to do the job as it needs to be done with the current headcount. That's what Devers and Cora were asking for, better pitching; more headcount.
As far as making the playoffs, looking at this roster in March I never thought they'd sniff the postseason but they were three games out of a playoff spot at the end of July. You keep saying that this is my argument (which it really isn't) my argument is that Bloom left the team high and dry pitching wise for the entire month of July confident that Sale, Whitlock, etc. will right the ship. They needed pitching, he did nothing. You're insinuating that this was the right call but with the way that they played in August and September I'm not sure how you can say that. It was the wrong move, I'm not sure why you're even arguing this point.
Or, as I suggested originally, Cora warned the bosses that Bloom was wrong about this year, post-deadline. And after the deadline, the 3 starters blew up and the reinforcements didn't do a lot of reinforcing. I see no reason to think that Cora wasn't on board with the basic idea of trying to nominally compete and build at the same time.
I doubt anyone -- on this board or in management -- thinks Cora had "nothing to do with it." (I think the debates as to "how much" are kind of pointless, but MMV).
TBH, at the time, I thought that was a defensible position. (I probably said so at the time; That's why I'm not the GM). My point is that he was just...so....fucking....wrong. (I was, too; but I'm still not the GM).
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Not to re-litigate Bloom either but given how well he did at the deadline in 2021 when the team was way ahead of schedule, I wonder how much arm twisting might've happened to get Bloom to go after Schwarber and Davis. That was 100% the kind of approach they probably should've taken this year -- perhaps they got lucky in 2021 and got a distressed asset in Schwarber due to his injury and defensive liabilities (this was pre-NL DH). But the fact that he wasn't able to get anything of note (and I like the Urias pickup) does reinforce the narrative that Bloom clung too tightly to his guys.
I disagree with @JM3 a bit in that I think the team *was* (or could've been) good enough to compete this year -- but what they were rolling out in July--openers, guys playing at the top of their abilities--just wasn't sustainable absent some reinforcements, particularly in the increasingly taxed bullpen. Would adding guys have required making some tough choices about who to deal? Of course. But that’s literally what Bloom was paid to do. And, in some ways more importantly, I don’t think the choice was likely as binary as “Make deals and sacrifice the future” and “Do nothing and just wait to compete next year.” Again, it may have involved a little luck in 2021 but he did once before.
I disagree with @JM3 a bit in that I think the team *was* (or could've been) good enough to compete this year -- but what they were rolling out in July--openers, guys playing at the top of their abilities--just wasn't sustainable absent some reinforcements, particularly in the increasingly taxed bullpen. Would adding guys have required making some tough choices about who to deal? Of course. But that’s literally what Bloom was paid to do. And, in some ways more importantly, I don’t think the choice was likely as binary as “Make deals and sacrifice the future” and “Do nothing and just wait to compete next year.” Again, it may have involved a little luck in 2021 but he did once before.
Byrnes was let go by the Padres in June of 2014. The last 3 of those deals were made the following offseason by current GM AJ Preller.
Even the top 2 trades are somewhat defensible. Obviously we know now what Scherzer would become but Kennedy finished 4th in Cy Young voting a year after the trade.
Rizzo was blocked by an equally good prospect in Yonder Alonso. In hindsight it looks bad because Rizzo would become a multiple time all star but they had to move one of them without the luxury of the DH at the time.
I think the narrative that Cora warned Bloom and Bloom didn't listen is speculative at best. It doesn't add up to me. Why would Cora direct his pleas specifically at Bloom and not JWH? Why would JWH co-sign Cora's (speculated) position that the team should spend more of its assets and JWH's money? Is it reported anywhere that it was Bloom's preference — and not Henry's — to stay under the tax this year?
There's a strange and persistent fantasy that there was a constructive addition to be made at the deadline for each of the last two summers and that Bloom failed to make it. We were in the unenviable position of being 3 games back both years, and in extreme sellers' markets because of the expanded playoffs. Should we have had better teams to start the year? I wish. But that's on John Henry.
If the position is that Henry should spend more money on payroll, I'm all for it. But I don't buy the narrative that it was Bloom's idea not to spend Henry's resources. I think he determined that it was unwise to give up long-term assets for short-term fixes, even in the rotation, and I think he was right.
Jordan Montgomery would have been a great addition, but I think we should all be happy that we didn't give up Yorke and Wikelman Gonzalez for two months of him.
There's a strange and persistent fantasy that there was a constructive addition to be made at the deadline for each of the last two summers and that Bloom failed to make it. We were in the unenviable position of being 3 games back both years, and in extreme sellers' markets because of the expanded playoffs. Should we have had better teams to start the year? I wish. But that's on John Henry.
If the position is that Henry should spend more money on payroll, I'm all for it. But I don't buy the narrative that it was Bloom's idea not to spend Henry's resources. I think he determined that it was unwise to give up long-term assets for short-term fixes, even in the rotation, and I think he was right.
Jordan Montgomery would have been a great addition, but I think we should all be happy that we didn't give up Yorke and Wikelman Gonzalez for two months of him.
I said the baseline team that Bloom assembled was not good enough to make buying at the deadline a good investment. I don't attribute 100% of that to Bloom as I feel that his hands were tied in certain ways (poor pipeline of cost-controlled talent when he arrived, it being a reset year for tax purposes, building toward the '24 window, not selling at previous deadlines which may be a Bloom issue or an ownership issue), but he also made poor choices in several areas that were clearly under his control (Kluber, Hernandez, Jansen, etc.).
All the analogies you give don't really relate to baseball. Could he have made the team better? Of course. But this isn't real life where increased productivity directly ties to the end goal. Like yes, I bet he could have made the team 5 wins better. But making the team 5 wins better does not accomplish anything. You have an 83-79 team that also misses the playoffs by 5 games instead of 10 games, just with a worse draft pick. & in order to make the team 5 wins better, you have to literally sacrifice increased odds of future success. It's not like you can just buy pitchers off the street, give them a raise, & have that increase in productivity for your team translate to more revenue.
I don't think I have once during this conversation said what your argument is (nor do I understand what you are saying I am saying your argument is). & the reason I'm arguing the point is that the goal is not to win 5 more baseball games. It's to win the World Series, or at a minimum be a consistent playoff team. I don't think buying would have accomplished either of those goals.
When you buy, you pay a premium. It's the value of having something now vs. in the future, & it works in a similar way to most other economic things. If you need something now that will pay off, it could certainly be the smart choice. Buying at a premium to not accomplish anything meaningful now at the expense of future happiness is not smart, though.
A pretty straight-forward sports example (because I don't feel like getting into the economics side with mortgages, credit card interest, time value of money, etc., etc.), is in the NFL when teams will trade a pick this year for a pick a round earlier the next year. Yes, it could help the team doing it now. Maybe it will put them over the top or this guy is the guy. But you're paying the premium to do it now. & teams that pay the premium to do it now, when they aren't in a position to capitalize, almost always regret it.
The "right" call, especially with the power of hindsight, was certainly selling, not buying.
Getting back to the "objectively sucked" comment- yes, 8-19 would qualify as "sucked" for sure.
Twice that number, of 16-11 probably puts them right on the edge of making it, given that those extra 8 wins had a decent chance to come against Houston, Texas or Toronto. At least that would have made September interesting.
That's only .590 ball; not unreasonable for a decent team or even a .500 team playing a bit over its head. So I think if there was a reasonable move to make, Bloom should have made it.
Twice that number, of 16-11 probably puts them right on the edge of making it, given that those extra 8 wins had a decent chance to come against Houston, Texas or Toronto. At least that would have made September interesting.
That's only .590 ball; not unreasonable for a decent team or even a .500 team playing a bit over its head. So I think if there was a reasonable move to make, Bloom should have made it.
I supported Bloom for most of his tenure here. I tried to see his overall vision for the team and thought '24 would be his sink or swim season. He's gone, I'm not upset about it and excited to see what the next CBO and GM can do moving forward. That said there is one issue that I think gets overlooked when we discuss Bloom's inactivity during the last trade deadline. For better or worse, the "reinforcements" that the team was waiting on were part of the 40 roster that were not likely to be DFAed or demoted upon return. The type of replacements that were needed would likely have been guys that you would be depending on for the last two months of the season and hopefully beyond. Let's say that Bloom trades a prospect or three for real contributors while waiting for the reinforcements to return, which they ultimately did. Upon the return, how does he handle the 40 man? It's mostly rhetorical taking into account that we have no idea if anyone from the 40 may or may not have been moved in any hypothetical trade, but the types of players needed weren't exactly plug and play, throw away types and there was going to be redundancy that would have to be addressed when guys started returning.
The difference is in 2021 is that they were leading their division & had an 84.3% chance of reaching the playoffs per Fangraphs. Whereas this year Fangraphs had them at like 28.7% to make the playoffs. Incremental additions to your team when you are likely to be in the playoffs are much more important that making acquisitions to try to maybe sneak in.
But the main difference between the '21 deadline & the '23 deadline is that Schwarber >>> Urias.
Austin Davis had a 5.59 ERA for the Pirates when they acquired him & a 4.89 ERA with the Red Sox. He & Hansel Robles as acquisitions are not particularly discernible from Mauricio Llovera/Zack Weiss/etc., & the fact that Davis/Robles had to pitch so much said more about how disastrous the Sox bullpen was in '21 than it does about anything that happened in '23.
Of course its speculative.
And I dont think Cora literally warned Bloom. But I do think it's likely that Bloom essentially said to whoever he says things to in mngment that "we can kinda sorta compete and not give up anything and the reinforcements will help." And Cora essentially said to whoever asked internally (probably some combo of Bloom and others), "we need, x, y, and z or there's a good chance the team is going to shit down its collective leg." In my speculation, the money angle is irrelevant because Bloom affirmatively said, "dont worry boss, I dont have to spend your money." He was wrong. Would they have let him spend any money if he had said, "AC is right, leg-shitting is imminent."? No idea. And I dont care. Because that's not part of my speculation.
And to the extent it matters, my speculation is based on the fact that Cora is still here and Bloom is not. Those things we do know. I dont think this is based on Cora "undermining" Bloom or whatever "power-struggle" narrative people like pursuing. I think (speculation ahead) Bloom promised something in July; he failed to deliver in a most spectacular fashion.
100000000%.
Full transparency, I don't like that Cora seems to be VERY involved in finding the next POBO. He should have some say in it, but it should be very minimal.
But, there are a lot of posters here who are painting him out to be some sort of Littlefinger type schemer and conniver, who never bought into Chaim's plan and pulled the rug out from under him whenever he could. I think that's complete bullshit.
I would bet that Bloom told ownership in the last 3 off-seasons that the Sox should compete for, and make, the playoffs with the rosters he assembled. I would bet that he reiterated that stance this trade deadline and was confident that the players getting off of IL would help push the Sox to the final wild card. I think Cora disagreed and thought they needed reinforcements.
If this is what happened, I do think it's kind of unfair to Bloom. It's a high-wire act without much room for error to cut payroll, get the farm better and compete at the major league level. However, I think that that's what he promised and, ultimately, he didn't deliver.
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