Chaim Bloom was hired in October 2019, succeeding Dave Dombrowski Winslow Townson/USA TODAY NETWORK
UPDATE: 1:15pm ET: The Red Sox this afternoon parted ways with Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom. Click here for more.
There have been "rumblings for awhile now” about the future of Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom and manager Alex Cora, but “it’s finally reached the surface” with the team likely to miss the postseason, according to Boston-based WEEI-FM's Christian Fauria. Should the Red Sox finish last in the AL East this season, it will mark three of the last four years they have finished there. Fauria said, "That’s just who you are ... and I don’t know how long you can get away with this.” Fauria said the team is "still on-track, this team is still on pace” in Bloom's mind. WEEI's Andy Gresh said, “I think as long as the Red Sox are over .500, (Red Sox owner) John Henry is going to look at this and Chaim’s going to be able to sell him that they’re on-track, they’re on-pace. Then it becomes does Chaim Bloom end up getting enough stroke in the ear of the owner to be able to make a change at manager if he wanted to." Gresh said the situation is "more about is ownership okay with the direction in which this team is going and how they’re being built.” Gresh noted fans “were still showing up” to Fenway Park this season, and said, "My whole caveat to Bloom would be gone if it cratered from an attendance standpoint, and it hasn’t” ("Gresh & Fauria," WEEI, 9/13).
TIME IS TICKING EITHER WAY: In Boston, Peter Abraham noted if ownership is going to get rid of Bloom, it needs to "get it done." If not, they it needs to "squash the chatter.” Whatever happens the rest of the season “shouldn’t change that decision.” At this point, either the Red Sox “feel like Bloom deserves another chance to build a contending team or they don’t.” The Mets, Nationals and White Sox have “already made decisions about their leadership.” Waiting until after the season “serves no purpose.” Abraham wrote if a change is to be made, “get started on finding a replacement” (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/13). But MLB Network’s Chris Russo believes Bloom has “done a good job.” Russo: “Everybody, for whatever the reason, thinks Bloom’s an idiot. How in the world is that possible?” The idea that Bloom is "some lousy general manager is a bunch of nonsense,” as Bloom has “tried to accommodate the owner.” Russo: “When you’re a GM, half of your job is to manage the owner. And he, I think, really has done a good job to manage the owner” (“MLB Now,” MLB Network, 9/13).
FENWAY’S DAY OFF: Abraham in a separate piece noted the Yankees and Red Sox on Tuesday afternoon played “in front of maybe 10,000 people at Fenway Park.” The Sox announced an attendance of 30,029, which was “based on tickets sold.” The team “declined to reveal the actual attendance.” All the no-shows “weren’t unexpected,” as it was a makeup game from Monday night’s rainout and “plenty of fans had to go to work or school.” But it was “more about a Yankees-Red Sox game not being worth the time and effort.” Abraham: “The best rivalry in baseball? Only in the history books these days” (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/12). In Boston, Gabrielle Starr wrote a game between the Red Sox and Yankees “used to be the event of the season, even when the two sides weren’t playing at the same level.” This is about two franchises that “look lost, broken, shadows of their former, formidable, fiery selves.” The rivalry “can and should be better than it’s become.” The people in charge “need to remember what these teams are supposed to be: big spenders for whom anything less than a playoff berth is unacceptable.” Starr wrote baseball is “better when these two teams are clashing giants” (BOSTON HERALD, 9/13).
