The Chaim Bloom experiment is finally over
Aside from the month of July, 2023 has been a dreadful year for the Red Sox, to the point that their biggest win of the season was canning their general manager.
I understand that Chaim Bloom was maybe building an impressive roster through the minor leagues, although it’s impossible to say how that will all pan out. The problem is what he wasn’t doing: giving the Major League team their best opportunity to win in the present.
Missing the playoffs in four out of five seasons is unacceptable no matter what is going on in the farm system. I don’t care how good their prospects are, the Red Sox are an organization that should be above tanking for half a decade in hopes that they eventually build a homegrown championship team. That shit is absolutely mind-numbing for the consumer.
We saw the results of this approach a couple weekends ago when the Yankees were in town and Fenway Park was as empty as it’s been since the early 60’s before the Impossible Dream team. You can’t have a general manager who thinks that building a winning culture requires you to first reach the lowest lows the team has experienced in 60 years, all the while assuring you that things will be okay in 2025. I think I speak for the vast majority of the Boston fanbase when I say that we don’t have that kind of patience. The reality is that standards around here have been raised to massive heights in the first 23 years of the 21st century and nothing is changing that. If you’re not willing to do everything you can to make your team a winner right now, then you’re not built for this town.
John Henry doesn’t seem to understand this, which is why he brought someone like Chaim Bloom on board in the first place. Now he gets to treat Bloom as a scapegoat when the guy was actually running the operation exactly the way Henry wanted him to.
The good news is that the Red Sox’ decrease in attendance this year finally started to grab the attention of ownership and forced their hand to make a significant change. Now let’s get Theo Epstein on the phone and run it back.