The Red Sox learned partially from this experience, giving a nine-figure deal to Rafael Devers, who had just turned 26. The Betts-Bogaerts-Story trifecta and the surrounding fallout was what ruined the Bloom era, though who exactly is to blame for the way it played out is hard to say. Then, after low-balling Bogaerts on a contract extension, the Red Sox turned around and gave the kind of money Bogaerts wanted to Trevor Story - before Bogaerts had even left. ![]() Xander Bogaerts was on a similar track to Betts as a perennial All-Star who was revered in Boston - and had also made it clear he wanted to spend the rest of his career there. While the Betts deal didn't work out as Boston had hoped, what the Red Sox did with their next superstar free agent saga was genuinely baffling. Alex Verdugo has been solid, Connor Wong is now a useful player, Jeter Downs was lost on waivers and the Red Sox dumped some bad money by including David Price in the deal. None of those were the case with Betts and Boston, but the Red Sox still chose to trade a franchise superstar with one season left on his contract.Īs is often the case with these types of trades, the return hasn't been that good. ![]() Nine-figure, long-term deals aren't the problem in a vacuum, but signing a player to one to get a short-term upgrade, or as a reward for past performance, or when you don't know the player as both a person and athlete, or to guarantee huge salaries into a player's 40s, are when they become problematic. The fact that the Dodgers - arguably the savviest team in baseball and the stated model for many clubs - decided to give Betts their first nine-figure deal in six full seasons under the most lauded front office in baseball was a hint that Red Sox ownership was missing something with their line of thinking. Giving Betts a big deal dictated by the open market or even settling for just a compensatory draft pick when he left after one last hurrah seemed like paths that predecessor David Dombrowski would have taken, and that's not who the Red Sox wanted to be at the time. It became obvious when Bloom was hired that, regardless of what he thought, ownership didn't want to give Betts a megadeal via a bidding war with his contract set to end after the 2020 season and Betts intent on testing the market. So, the rebuilding of the farm system has happened and the payroll was trimmed as expected - but that hardly tells the story of Bloom's time in Boston. The Red Sox now have an average farm system, and the league's 11th-ranked payroll, just below the first threshold of the CBT. He had a decade of experience as a key exec in Tampa Bay, where the Rays did just what Boston was aspiring to do, with far less money to spend. After that 108-win championship team, Boston regressed to 84 wins but still had the top payroll in baseball with a roster full of big-money veterans.īloom was hired to continue to compete, but while running lower payrolls and rebuilding a farm system that was one of the consensus bottom-three in baseball at the time. That transaction is what Bloom will be most remembered for in Boston, but there's a more thorough accounting to be done of this era and who ultimately deserves the blame for a two-year downturn.īloom inherited the fallout of a situation that ownership saw as unsustainable just one season removed from Boston's 2018 World Series title. It was an announcement that surprised the baseball industry, as most assumed that Bloom would get one more year to bring the Red Sox back to the playoffs considering Boston made the ALCS under his management in 2021.īloom started his tenure by trading Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers, an iconic trade due to Betts' popularity in Boston, how well he's performed in Los Angeles and how poorly the trade has gone for the Red Sox. Sitting in last place in the American League East with virtually no chance to make the playoffs, the Boston Red Sox fired chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Thursday. ![]() You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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