Chaim Bloom Fired, What the Twins Can Learn From His Red Sox Tenure

[NeverSeenATwinsPlayoffWin]

Introduction

Today (09/14), the Boston Red Sox fired their CBO, Chaim Bloom. He was hired from the Rays organization after the 2019 season, which followed a trend of big market teams hiring their principal decision-maker from small market teams (Farhan Zaidi, Andrew Friedman, and Mark Shapiro were all hired within 5 years of Bloom's hiring). At the time, the Red Sox were coming off a disappointing 84-win season, 24 wins fewer than the 2018 total. Dave Dombrowski's (the previous CBO) wheeling and dealing took a farm ranked in the top-5 in 2016 to a bottom-5 farm by the end of 2018. Although the team had immense talent at the MLB level, there wasn't a lot of depth in the minors (especially arms), and the organization needed to retool in a certain sense. At the time, the roster looked like this:

Lineup- C: Christian Vazquez 1B: Mitch Moreland 2B: Brock Holt 3B: Rafael Devers SS: Xander Bogaerts LF: Andrew Benintendi CF: Jackie Bradley RF: Mookie Betts DH: JD Martinez

Bench- 2C: Sandy Leon INF: Michael Chavis 4OF: Sam Travis UTL: Eduardo Nunez

Rotation- SP: Chris Sale SP: Eduardo Rodriguez SP: Nathan Eovaldi SP: Rick Porcello SP: David Price

Bullpen- CL: Brandon Workman SU: Ryan Brasier SU: Matt Barnes MR: Marcus Walden MR: Josh Taylor MR: Colton Brewer LR: Andrew Cashner

Pitching was a big culprit of their downfall; the Red Sox conceded 647 runs in '18, compared to a whopping 828 in '19. Disaster years from Eovaldi and Porcello (ERAs above 5.50) and paying $60M for Chris Sale and David Price to pitch a combined 4.35 ERA over 255.2 IP did not help either. Brandon Workman had a sensational year (3.6 WPA and 108 K with a 1.88 ERA), but the bullpen was mediocre and definitely not enough to support the horrid starting staff. 

 

Big Decisions (2020 season)

As mentioned above, the two biggest holes in the Red Sox organization were the pitching staff and the farm, while the lineup actually scored more runs in '19 than they did in '18. As such, it would have made sense for Chaim Bloom to target pitching in a major way. Instead, he brought in former Twins Trevor Hildenberger and Martin Perez, as well as Collin McHugh (who opted out due to COVID) and Zach Godley. They then traded two of their best relievers, Workman and Hembree, for Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold, as well as offing David Price in the Mookie Betts deal (more on that later). It's hard to make the case that they significantly improved their pitching organizationally in this season.

On the hitting side, Chaim Bloom made a change that will likely be attached to his legacy for the rest of his life, regardless of whatever else he goes onto accomplish. One of the narratives from this trade that I don't feel is discussed often enough is the fact that Boston did not receive a single pitcher in the deal. Originally, (as Twins fans should know) Brusdar Graterol was one of the pieces of a potential three-team trade that was supposed to head to Boston. However, Boston changed their minds after learning that Graterol would likely need to spend his career in the bullpen due to health concerns.

The Dodgers and Red Sox altered their trade slightly, which ended up being Betts, Price, and cash for Verdugo, Downs, and Wong. Although Walker Buehler was likely off the table, I feel that Dustin May would have been an equivalent asset to a starting pitcher, Graterol (What Boston thought they were getting from MN), and Boston should have pushed hard to nab a starter in this deal. The trade was generally seen as an underpay by the Dodgers, which was highlighted by the fact that they signed him to a monster extension 5 months after the trade. Three and a half years after the trade, it looks like Chaim Bloom traded a top-3 player in baseball for salary relief, an above-average OF, a backup catcher, and a bust. I am not going to knock Bloom for the fact that he traded Betts; there were rumors and speculation that it was impossible to sign Betts to an extension (either payroll concerns or Betts himself), but he should have gotten more, and he should have acquired arms.

 

Brief Success (2021 season)

The Rule 5 draft proved to be very impactful for the Red Sox, as they tapped into their rival's endless supply of near MLB-ready arms, poaching Kaleb Ort and Garrett Whitlock from the Yankees. They also signed Japanese reliever Hirokazu Sawamura while resigning Martin Perez. They also traded for Adam Ottavino (and his underwater contract), giving up only PTBNL. Kike Hernandez, Hunter Renfroe, Marwin Gonzalez, and Garrett Richards were other FA additions. The 2020-21 offseason featured another big trade. Andrew Benintendi was sent to the Royals for Josh Winckowski and a few throwaway pieces. While Winckowski has turned into one of their best bullpen arms, the Red Sox waived Joel Payamps on the day of the trade, who is now one of the best relievers in baseball. 

The Red Sox' success was mostly due to their rotation going from "downright atrocious" to "acceptably average." Nathan Eovaldi pitched like a #1b or #2a starter, while Perez, Pivetta, Richards, and Rodriguez all pitched average, with all of their ERA+ numbers being between 96 and 103. Their bullpen was pretty bad, Garrett Whitlock was the only guy with an ERA under 3.00, and he only finished with two saves. The Red Sox made it to the ALCS, but predictably, their pitching fell apart: they gave up five or more runs in 5/6 games against the vaunted Astros.

 

Final Downfall (2022-23)

The offseason following their ALCS defeat would have been a great time to spend money on an ace. Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Carlos Rodon, Robbie Ray, and Marcus Stroman would have been legit aces for Chaim Bloom's team. Instead, they replaced Eduardo Rodriguez with Rich Hill and Michael Wacha (both on 1-year deals) and decided to give 20M/year to Trevor Story, despite already having franchise cornerstones on the left side of the infield.

Predictably, the Red Sox failed to capitalize on their breakout campaign, with the pitching remaining stagnantly mediocre and the offense taking a big step back. Nick Pivetta (4.56 ERA) was the only starter with enough innings to qualify for league-wide stat rankings, and the patchwork bullpen did little to stymy opposing offenses. The Red Sox saw their (persistent) issues with arms and... decided to do nothing, as they had done every offseason under Bloom. They also let two of their biggest offensive contributors walk, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of many Sox fans.

They let many of their one-year additions walk (as well as their #1, Eovaldi), and brought in a new set. The 2022/23 crop has really bolstered the 'pen, but Corey Kluber did not pan out, and the Red Sox were forced to move two of their better relievers, Houck and Whitlock, to the rotation with poor results (both guys own an ERA North of 5.00). Paxton and Sale have been hurt, and Kutter Crawford may be the second best starter on the team. Yes, Brayan Bello is a revelation, but he is not an ace (yet), nor is he capable of carrying the rotation. The bullpen has been pretty good, but dreadful starting pitching will be the story of the '23 Red Sox.

 

What the Twins Can Learn

Prior to 2023, the Twins also employed the "washed veteran pitcher on a one-year deal" strategy on numerous occasions, much to the chagrin of myself and most of the fanbase. Chris Archer, Dylan Bundy, JA Happ, Homer Bailey, Rich Hill, Martin Perez, Lance Lynn, and Bartolo Colon did not give the Twins a whole lot besides elevated blood pressure and the uncontrollable urge to throw the remote through your living room window. Those guys would be fine if they were depth pieces (i.e. Dallas Keuchel in '23), but when you are counting on Chris Archer to fill the 3rd or 4th spot in the rotation, it takes the "low risk" out of the low risk/reward contract.

The biggest takeaway from Chaim Bloom's failures has to be that you won't have good starting pitching if you don't go out and get it. He started with a rotation of five, with all five having a season where they finished at least a top-6 Cy Young voting to a rookie ace, three swingmen, and the corpse of James Paxton. He did not swing any big trades to bring any big-time starters in while letting go of Joel Payamps and Jeffrey Springs. While many of us lament the loss of Arraez, CES, Steer, Petty, Raley, Graterol, and two months of Nelson Cruz, having a rotation as good as the '23 Twins have had is not cheap and is very difficult to pull off for a small-mid market team. 

Another important reminder is that "selling" in a trade does not automatically make your team better down the line. I was shocked that so many fans wanted the team to sell at the deadline to recoup assets for a potential run in '25 and beyond. Getting rid of Mookie Betts, David Price, Andrew Benintendi, and others has done more harm than good regarding the Red Sox' playoff chances these past few years. The Tigers, Royals, and Pirates have been sellers for the better part of the last decade with terrible results. The Twins are not currently being helped by assets acquired in the Jose Berrios or Ryan Pressly trades, and this team would look a lot stronger with those guys on it. I am not arguing that it's never a good idea to trade for prospects, but selling when you don't have to does not always work.

 

Final Thoughts

Starting pitching really does make and break the success of your organization. We saw in '21 and '22 how over-reliance on guys finding a second wind leads to disaster, and we see in '23 how excellent pitching can make up for some offensive ineptitude. While one-year deals can patch holes on the hitting side (Solano, Renfroe, etc) and in the bullpen (Stewart, Jansen, etc), you have to be really lucky to get above-replacement play from starters who aren't good enough to sign multi-year deals. With the Twins potentially losing Maeda and Gray, as well as the uncertainty with Ober, the Twins front office would be wise to view Boston as a cautionary tale, lest Falvine end up like Chaim Bloom.

[tony&rodney]

Perhaps the Twins can find another trade partner who needs a position player for a starting pitcher.

Can the Twins get by with Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Paddack, & Varland in 2024? David Festa and Simeon Woods Richardson may help at some point next year as well. Perhaps there is a free agent pitcher available to sign. Somehow, a trade seems like a better option. Never such a thing as too much pitching.

[Jocko87]

Thanks for the detailed write up.  I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately with all the David Sterns news.  I've been hearing of him as the wunderkid for quite sometime and just don't really get it.  After he and Falvey worked together I'd take Falvey's trajectory over Sterns anytime.

As for Bloom, presiding over an era where Mookie Betts, Zander Bogarts etal left without having a glut of prospects beating down the door is a problem.  I've seen a few reports of what he inherited and its ugly but he had the bullets needed to make a proper overhaul.  Now the Red Sox look like they are stuck in that ugly middle ground.

[Linus]

The build a bullpen from cast offs strategy sounds familiar. 

[NeverSeenATwinsPlayoffWin]

34 minutes ago, Linus said:

The build a bullpen from cast offs strategy sounds familiar. 

Because it's actually possible. It's much easier to squeeze 50 IP from a shaky reliever than it is to squeeze 150 IP from a shaky starter. The Braves are getting great value from McHugh, Tonkin, and Yates, the Orioles have Coulombe and Perez, the Rays have Diekman and Adam, the Dodgers have Miller and Brasier, and the Astros have Neris. It's pretty easy to fill the middle of your bullpen with cheap veterans or waiver claims, and these elite teams are able to make it work.

[Riverbrian]

IMO... Chaim Bloom joined the Red Sox at a very difficult time. 

Big time transition from needing to shed payroll, rebuild a farm system while staying competitive. That's quite the needle to thread.  

Dombrowski is very good at his style of assembling teams but his style drains the farm eventually leaving the organization nowhere to go but to keep increasing payroll to sustain competitiveness. He successfully did it in Detroit and he successfully did it in Boston but was out of a job as a result. When you look at results... there is no reason for someone as successful as Dombrowski to be looking for work.

When POB's or GM's are asked by owners how they are going to roster a better team after not making the playoffs while over the luxury tax threshold, with no young talent on the horizon the owners are not going to like the answer that they will have to spend even more because that is the only recourse when you have no young talent to bring in or trade for better talent.   

Being in that situation makes a guy like Bloom an attractive replacement. They needed a guy who cold get them under the cap, rebuild a farm system and stay competitive. They needed some of that Tampa Rays magic to accomplish this. 

Here's the thing... One guy can't do it alone. It doesn't matter what industry that you work in.... transition/change is difficult. You can't simply slam the Rays style into Boston when the Red Sox front office is mainly intact. 

Chaim Bloom was able to reduce the payroll and build the farm system back up... What he didn't do was develop or acquire enough pitching to win at the level expected in Boston.

Everybody should know by now that pitching is the hardest thing to acquire... it's expensive, it's volatile and it costs lots of money or big prospects... the very two things that Chaim Bloom had to build back up. 

 

[Cory Engelhardt]

10 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Perhaps the Twins can find another trade partner who needs a position player for a starting pitcher.

Can the Twins get by with Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Paddack, & Varland in 2024? David Festa and Simeon Woods Richardson may help at some point next year as well. Perhaps there is a free agent pitcher available to sign. Somehow, a trade seems like a better option. Never such a thing as too much pitching.

I fully expect a starting pitcher addition, probably via trade, this offseason. Can never have too much pitching, right?

[Dman]

Bloom came into a no win situation with needing to trade Betts.  He got a near certain starter in Verdugo who was a top 100 prospect as well I believe.  Verdugo didn't pan out as well as hoped but it seemed like a solid cornerstone player at the time. I do agree with the OP he should have gotten pitching in that deal.  Deciding no on Graterol was understandable especially in hindsight as he is a reliever now, but it was a mistake not to get young pitching there from the Dodgers.  TBH where else did he have to go but LA that was interested in giving up much for Betts?  He pretty much had take it or leave it deals from Freidman I would imagine.  So that was a tough first start and in hindsight he didn't get much to help the team.

Given their pitching issues I never did understand why they didn't try to keep guys or bring in more starting pitching help unless to stay away from the penalties and if that was the case then hard to fault him for cleaning up the mess Dombrowski left him with.  Still I think there were better moves he could have made and I never came away impressed with how he handles things in Boston.

On the positive side he did build up the farm but will end up missing out on all the draft and development that happened in his time there. Mayer might be ready late 2024 and Teal looks like a fast mover and they have lots of other young guys that look like they could be difference makers.  I think they will be a team on the rise in 2025 with cash to spend and young guys to fill in the gaps but he isn't going to get the time to reap those rewards.

Maybe they just needed someone to blame to help get them out from under all the penalties and Dombrowski go for broke trades. In that sense he helped immensely, but I can't say I blame the Red Sox leadership as he just didn't seem to make great moves IMO.

[NeverSeenATwinsPlayoffWin]

42 minutes ago, Dman said:

Bloom came into a no win situation with needing to trade Betts.  He got a near certain starter in Verdugo who was a top 100 prospect as well I believe.  Verdugo didn't pan out as well as hoped but it seemed like a solid cornerstone player at the time. I do agree with the OP he should have gotten pitching in that deal.  Deciding no on Graterol was understandable especially in hindsight as he is a reliever now, but it was a mistake not to get young pitching there from the Dodgers.  TBH where else did he have to go but LA that was interested in giving up much for Betts?  He pretty much had take it or leave it deals from Freidman I would imagine.  So that was a tough first start and in hindsight he didn't get much to help the team.

Given their pitching issues I never did understand why they didn't try to keep guys or bring in more starting pitching help unless to stay away from the penalties and if that was the case then hard to fault him for cleaning up the mess Dombrowski left him with.  Still I think there were better moves he could have made and I never came away impressed with how he handles things in Boston.

On the positive side he did build up the farm but will end up missing out on all the draft and development that happened in his time there. Mayer might be ready late 2024 and Teal looks like a fast mover and they have lots of other young guys that look like they could be difference makers.  I think they will be a team on the rise in 2025 with cash to spend and young guys to fill in the gaps but he isn't going to get the time to reap those rewards.

Maybe they just needed someone to blame to help get them out from under all the penalties and Dombrowski go for broke trades. In that sense he helped immensely, but I can't say I blame the Red Sox leadership as he just didn't seem to make great moves IMO.

All of the exciting Red Sox prospects are hitters. According to MLB.com's rankings, they have only 2 pitchers in their top-15, neither of which are in their top-8. Both guys have some legit concerns about their futures as a starter (they're both under 6' 1", 170lbs, and they both have issues with control), and their pitching pipeline is basically nonexistent for starters, hence why they had to hand out so many one-year deals.

Overall, their farm ranks right around the Twins', and considering how the Orioles, Cubs, and Nationals were able to build their farms over the same timeframe, I am not convinced that Bloom did a particularly good job of building organizational depth.

[chpettit19]

The lesson to be learned is that it's really hard to follow a Dave Dombrowski tenure when the team owners also tell you to cut payroll and you're in a market that expects championships every year.

[NeverSeenATwinsPlayoffWin]

4 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

The lesson to be learned is that it's really hard to follow a Dave Dombrowski tenure when the team owners also tell you to cut payroll and you're in a market that expects championships every year.

The Cubs had the same record in 2019, and I would argue that their farm was probably worse. The Cubs have achieved about the same amount as the Red Sox since 2019, yet they are a) probably going to play in October this year, b) have a top-five farm system, and c) have competent starting pitching.

Bloom paid the luxury tax last season, and I think the narrative that he had to make substantial cuts to salary is dubious. He should have used the gargantuan payroll last season ($236M) to acquire pitchers capable of holding a spot in the rotation, or he should have fully committed to signing/drafting young pitchers to fill out the farm. 

The Red Sox were not a great situation for an executive, but how many places are? In St Louis, they demand championship-caliber baseball on a league-average payroll every year. The Guardians and Rays have set high standards on bottom-5 payrolls. The Brewers are massively overpaying Yelich, have had injury problems with their starters, they are in the bottom half of the league in terms of payroll. 

My least favorite line of argument is, "this guy faced some adversity and failed; therefore, the failure was caused by the adversity" especially when the adversity is relatively minor. Chaim Bloom had four years and a ton of money to make it work, and honestly, he left his club a lot worse than he found it. 

[chpettit19]

19 minutes ago, NeverSeenATwinsPlayoffWin said:

The Cubs had the same record in 2019, and I would argue that their farm was probably worse. The Cubs have achieved about the same amount as the Red Sox since 2019, yet they are a) probably going to play in October this year, b) have a top-five farm system, and c) have competent starting pitching.

Bloom paid the luxury tax last season, and I think the narrative that he had to make substantial cuts to salary is dubious. He should have used the gargantuan payroll last season ($236M) to acquire pitchers capable of holding a spot in the rotation, or he should have fully committed to signing/drafting young pitchers to fill out the farm. 

The Red Sox were not a great situation for an executive, but how many places are? In St Louis, they demand championship-caliber baseball on a league-average payroll every year. The Guardians and Rays have set high standards on bottom-5 payrolls. The Brewers are massively overpaying Yelich, have had injury problems with their starters, they are in the bottom half of the league in terms of payroll. 

My least favorite line of argument is, "this guy faced some adversity and failed; therefore, the failure was caused by the adversity" especially when the adversity is relatively minor. Chaim Bloom had four years and a ton of money to make it work, and honestly, he left his club a lot worse than he found it. 

Yeah, I didn't say he did well. Just said it's hard to succeed in the situation he was put.

I didn't make the "this guy faced some adversity and failed; therefore, the failure was caused by the adversity" argument. I just said it's hard to succeed in the situation he was put.

Your thread asks "what the Twins can learn from (his) Red Sox tenure," and I answered that they can learn it's really hard to succeed after Dombrowski does his "trade everyone on the farm for a run at a championship" thing, your boss tells you you have to cut payroll, and, because of that, trade a top 5 player in baseball, and your fan base won't accept anything less than a legit championship chance. It's hard to succeed in that spot. It's hard to succeed in any top exec role in a major sports league. There's only 30 top spots in MLB. It's hard to succeed. There's not some big lesson to be learned by Chaim's tenure in Boston. Needing your pitchers to pitch well, your hitters to hit well, and your trades to bring back good players aren't lessons learned from this. They're just the basics of running an MLB organization.

The Red Sox won 92 games 2 years ago and now he's been fired. Running an MLB organization is hard. That's not saying none of them should ever be fired, it's just stating that it's hard, and there's not some grand lesson to be learned here beyond Chaim Bloom having not met the criteria to continue running the Boston Red Sox front office.