Bloomsday In Boston

Ian Browne, mlb.com:

Given the title the Red Sox created for Chaim Bloom — chief baseball officer — there is no question who will sign off on the key decisions the club faces in the present and future.

But what became equally clear during Bloom's press conference unveiling at Fenway Park on Monday is how much collaboration will take place in the lead-up to those decisions.

The dawn of a new day has arrived for the Sox, and it is one in which the lead baseball executive will foster a unified approach in baseball operations. This was the reputation Bloom had with the Rays, a franchise that has been one of the most forward-thinking in the game for several years. It is also one that Theo Epstein had during his successful run in Boston from 2003-11.

"The best part about this opportunity is the chance to lift up your whole staff and to put them in position to succeed," said Bloom. "I had a lot of good experiences with that with my former club, and that was the most satisfying part of the job to me. By empowering people and also challenging them productively, asking good questions, you might be able to make them a little bit better. They're going to make you better. That is a big part of what appeals to this type of leadership to me." ...

It has become clear in recent days and weeks that there are clear reasons that the club moved on from veteran baseball executive Dave Dombrowski ...

The first is that the Sox simply didn't agree with Dombrowski's vision going forward. They wanted an executive who would be more open to embracing new ideas and also rebuilding a farm system .. [and embracing] a more efficient payroll.

The second is that they felt Dombrowski under-utilized many of the other bright minds in the front office, particularly the four (Brian O'Halloran, Eddie Romero, Zack Scott and Raquel Ferreira) who ran the front office on an interim basis until Bloom was hired at the end of last week. ...

In Bloom's world, there is strength in numbers when it comes to running a baseball operations department. For example, Bloom has never taken credit for the Rays' vision to utilize openers on the pitching staff, a decision that helped keep the club competitive the last two seasons. Instead, he helped build that consensus. ...

Bloom was the only external candidate they spoke to. And within a week of first reaching out to Bloom, the Red Sox hired him.

"Chaim's experience with the Rays allowed him to touch, understand and lead every aspect of a Major League team's baseball operations, from setting a vision and structure for player development to the seamless integration of analytics into game management," said Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy. "At the age of 36, Chaim has developed a well respected reputation across the league, and is known by his colleagues as someone who is creative, thorough and collaborative." ...

"He's a great asset," [Red Sox manager Alex] Cora said. "Everything I heard about him, he's been outstanding. When you're 36 and you've been in the big leagues for 15 years, you have to be good. And he's really good at what he does. ... I'm very eager to learn from him ... I'm looking forward to working with him on a daily basis and continuing to get better."

Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic:

Ten days ago, Chaim Bloom received one of the most important phone calls of his life. It was Red Sox president Sam Kennedy inviting him to Boston to interview for the team's front-office vacancy.

Three days later, Bloom arrived in the city. Over the course of roughly 48 hours, he met with over a dozen Red Sox executives as he interviewed for the job. ...

The Red Sox search was so covert that by the time word got out about Bloom on Thursday night, he'd already been offered the job, was flying back to Tampa and was on the verge of accepting the offer. ...

[H]e was the lone candidate for the job. It was more or less his to lose.

"In the end, it was only one we felt compelled to ask permission to interview, and that candidate was Chaim Bloom," chairman Tom Werner said Monday ...

Principal owner John Henry described two days of meetings the Sox had with Bloom as a "long two days. ... Especially for him," Henry said. "He met with everyone, and all of us came away thinking this is the right fit. Chaim was the right guy for the job." ...

On October 18, Henry called Rays owner Stu Sterberg for permission to speak with Bloom, who'd been a part of the Rays front office since 2005, most recently as their vice president of baseball operations. ...

"I thought that would be a five- or 10-minute phone call to talk logistics, and we ended up talking for an hour and a half," Kennedy said of his initial call with Bloom. "It was a very open and candid conversation about our situation, what we were looking for." ...

Bloom arrived in Boston on Tuesday night and had dinner with Kennedy and O'Halloran before launching into a jam-packed Wednesday schedule. He first met with Henry alone in the morning, then Kennedy and Werner joined them for lunch, with some of their non-baseball executives in marketing, partnerships and operations joining.

Bloom then had one-on-ones with manager Alex Cora, O'Halloran, Scott, Romero and Ferreira. That night, he met with Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon. They discussed a variety of topics and situations, including how to build a sustainably successful team, collaborative leadership and deploying resources efficiently.

On Thursday morning, Henry invited Bloom to his house in Brookline, where he, Werner and Kennedy met with Bloom for a few more hours before offering him the job. Bloom had a follow-up phone call with Kennedy the next day to negotiate a few details before Bloom accepted the job.

Three days later, Bloom was being introduced by the Red Sox in Fenway Park as the new boss, with O'Halloran as his general manager.

"The week went quickly, and it was packed," Bloom said. "Really a lot of good baseball conversation, which I really enjoyed, and then, as this thing became more real, then the thoughts started to turn to, OK, what's step one? How do we get ready for today and how do we have some kind of plan to get me plugged into an organization, as I said, that already has a lot of really talented people functioning at a really high level." ...

"In our extensive conversations with Chaim, he really ticked every box we were hoping he would check out," Werner said. "He's thoughtful, innovative, collaborative. Every person we talked to within other teams in baseball had the highest regard for Chaim. We were so pleased that our in-person interviews matched our expectations."

Jen McCaffrey and Josh Tolentino, The Athletic:

We asked The Athletic's Rays writer, Josh Tolentino, some questions about what to expect from Bloom as he takes over in Boston.

What is Bloom like as a leader? Was he around a lot? Did he have a heavy presence in the clubhouse or is he more behind the scenes?

JT: One of the biggest aspects many people around the organization enjoy the most about the Rays' front office is how accessible everyone is and the friendly atmosphere the group creates. Bloom played a key role in creating that. He was a frequent visitor at batting practice and always showed his face inside the clubhouse before and after games at Tropicana Field. There were several times during the season when Bloom could be found strolling the clubhouse after a big win or even a late-night loss, beer in hand, and chatting with players about what had just happened. ... He visited every minor-league team over the course of the season, checking in with top prospects along with all of the coaching staffs and scouts. ... It's that type of dedication that makes Bloom stand out and what helped him earn the trust of many people around the organization.

The Red Sox are focused on strengthening their farm system. Bloom has been credited for helping create The Rays Way, a blueprint for the club's player development system. Is there anything more you can tell us about that?

JT: ... Since the club is limited with its resources and has the lowest payroll in baseball, the Rays must be creative and find unique advantages. They make full use of not just the 25-man roster, but the entire 40-man on a daily basis ... Near the end of August when the Rays were in Houston, Bloom approached rookie infielder Mike Brosseau ... [Y]ou could see from Bloom's body language he was really trying to get a message across to the rookie, who up to that point of the season was tearing it up. ... [W]e found out later that day Brosseau was optioned to Durham in a matchup-based decision. When Brosseau re-joined the team as part of September call-ups, he praised the front office's decision making ... It's moments like this that show the Rays really try to get the greatest possible contributions out of their players, even when a situation might not appeal in the player's favor.

The Rays' use of the opener changed the game. What can you tell us about that and how heavily do you think Bloom was involved in developing it?

JT: No one front office executive will take credit for the opener strategy, but Bloom obviously played an important role. He was actually the highest team official on the road with the club in Kansas City back in 2018 when the Rays first implemented the idea ... While the Red Sox seem poised to carry a full shelf of starters into 2020, it wouldn't be that shocking if Bloom brought the opener with him to Boston on a case-by-case basis.  The opener wasn't just a strategy but also a reflection of an entire organization trying to stay ahead of its peers. The Rays led the American League in ERA (3.65) this season, and Tampa Bay's bullpen boasted an MLB-best ERA of 3.66. Bloom was considered one of the most forward-thinking minds in baseball without the GM title. ...

Alex Speier, Boston Globe:

The Red Sox clearly are hoping the 36-year-old Bloom will allow the Red Sox to become a more innovative, cutting-edge organization, one that moves beyond the constraints of traditional baseball ideas and methods in search of getting the greatest possible contributions from their players, while also identifying competitive edges.

Bloom grew up in and played a significant role in the development of a Rays organization that did just that — yet his impact wasn't felt so much in any single decision he made as in the development of a culture that allowed managers, coaches, executives, and players the freedom of creativity. [Rays manager Kevin] Cash and [pitching coach Kyle] Snyder could speak freely about the merits of an untested big league strategy and make the call about whether and how to use it.

"He's had his hands on everything," Snyder said. "[But] he develops a lot of trust, and I genuinely feel like he empowers everyone. That's not an easy thing to do." ...

The organization long had discussed the potential of bullpen games, maximizing matchups, limiting the exposure of a pitcher to a lineup for a third time, and helping to protect a young pitcher as he acclimated to the big leagues. The opener was not merely a novel strategy, but a reflection of an organization — one that was and is determined to give opportunities to prospects, in contrast to a Red Sox organization that at times has been reluctant to give homegrown pitchers the latitude to struggle while transitioning to the big leagues.

"[The opener] just goes to the outside-the-box, front-line thinking," said Snyder. "The conversations never stop as far as, 'What can we do next from a team standpoint of innovation?' He's impacted our entire player development infrastructure." ...

The Rays are an organization other teams examine for clues about best practices. ... Tampa Bay featured a holistic approach, finding players who had tremendous upside and then putting them in environments and situations to get the most out of their abilities. That requires understanding a player's raw materials as identified by scouts and statistical data, recognizing how coaches/teachers and technology can help a player to leverage those abilities, and making determinations about how best to use a player to maximize their abilities. ...

Success in such undertakings also requires tremendous communication. A great strategy developed in the front office carries no value if it fails to elicit buy-in from the players and coaches asked to implement it. Bloom's history suggests that he has the ability to not only help foster ideas that can make a difference, but that he also recognizes the challenges of implementing them.

In 2013, when Gabe Kapler was an adviser to the Rays' front office, he recalled a conversation with Bloom about helping players differentiate between traditional statistics — ones that weren't necessarily valued by the organization — and new, less-familiar ones that more accurately captured what the organization valued.

"He asked me a very thoughtful question about the potential contradiction between trying to make sure players were concerned about the right statistics vs. having them become overly concerned about those new stats," recalled Kapler. “"He wondered if we were really minimizing the stress of players versus just shifting the cause of it. This was an example of his inquisitiveness and a unique focus for an executive. He cared about how
players are motivated and discouraged and didn't claim to know anything. He was looking to partner with me on discovering the answer." ...

In Bloom, the Red Sox are adding a leader who is familiar with approaching relatively daunting tasks with a sense of possibility and opportunity. "The conversation never stops about, 'What can we do to give ourselves the next advantage?'" said Snyder. "There's no question he's going to do a good job building that farm system back up given the difference in philosophy between the previous GM and now. I think he'll do a really good job initiating a change in culture."

Chad Jennings, The Athletic:

Given the Red Sox rotation problems in 2019, and their lack of a fifth starter heading into the offseason, it's worth wondering whether hiring Bloom could push the team more deeply into the opener mindset. Or, at the very least, might Bloom's history and familiarity with the concept give the Red Sox a different avenue when it comes to rotation depth, strategy and development?

"This is not something that we had just come up with, or necessarily that we came up with at all," Bloom told Tablet magazine early last season. "This is something that I think was part of baseball conversations certainly for as long as I've been in the game… The trick is implementing the idea and communicating it and getting buy-in and getting everybody on board." ...

Bloom ... would not have to veer too far from his previous rotation strategy, nor would he have to push the Red Sox much beyond their current setup. ...

With the Red Sox, Bloom could see his total payroll expand to nearly four times what it was in Tampa, but the Red Sox owners' desire to get below the luxury tax might create some familiar spending limits. The opener could be a way to round out next year's rotation using in-house options. ...

If the Red Sox fill the rotation with a more traditional fifth starter, the opener could become a go-to Plan B, rather than the last resort it was in 2019. Rather than suffer a series of underwhelming spot starters, the Red Sox could plug inevitable rotation holes by using openers when necessary. ...

It's possible to think both inside the box and outside the box, and that combination might be exactly what the Red Sox need, and what they've been preparing for.

Chad Jennings, The Athletic:

The choice of Bloom, 36, to run the Red Sox baseball operations had a lot to do with not knowing. There is no all-powerful man behind the curtain. No single solution can solve every problem. No successful baseball team can be all about scouting, all about analytics, all about payroll or all about player development. ...

"[W]e were extremely desirous of bringing in someone who would augment and add," principal owner John Henry said. "As opposed to just bringing in someone who might've just been an autocrat, for instance, kind of a one-man show."

Bloom's press conference sounded more like the event held two years ago when Alex Cora was introduced as a young, inexperienced, open-minded manager. He arrived looking for information rather than assuming he had all the solutions. Cora himself noticed the parallel.

"I like the fact that he said a few words that I said here on this same stage a few years ago: genuine, transparent and responsible," Cora said. ... That's no coincidence.

"[Bloom] reminds me a lot of Alex in that he's incredibly intellectually curious," team president Sam Kennedy said. "Alex is always texting me during the year: 'Bro, I heard they're doing this in Cleveland! What do you know about Oakland? What do you know about this [or that]?' So, Alex's mind goes at a really, really, really, really high speed. And Chaim's does as well. So, I think they're going to be really incredible teammates in terms of knowing that they don't have all the answers."

Not having all the answers requires asking all the right questions, and understanding that represents the true evolution in Red Sox decision-making. ...

During his time with the Rays, Bloom worked in a front office that often had two or three people on nearly equal footing atop the decision-making hierarchy. It's easy to credit the Rays with being innovative, especially in their use of the opener, but they also developed well, made a handful of savvy free-agent signings and pulled off key trades at the right times. It was not one thing that kept the Rays competitive despite a low payroll, and it was not one person who made all the key decisions.

Henry and chairman Tom Werner said their interviews with Bloom were not so much about specific ideas ... but rather were more general and philosophical. Kennedy specifically said he liked Bloom's sense of humor. Asked whether he's going to fill out the manager's lineup card each day — a common dismissal used against analytic front offices — Bloom said that's not the way it's supposed to work, and it's not the way the Red Sox will work under his leadership.

"To me, a lot of really good organizations, including the one I just came from, there is a lot of conversation and collaboration, but nothing is handed down," he said. "Things are talked through. Ideas are bounced around. It's all with the goal of getting better."

Sean McAdam, Boston Sports Journal:

Since the beginning of this century, the Red Sox have been arguably the most successful franchise in the game with four World Series championships ... But outcomes aside, the process may have gone off course somewhat in recent years.

No longer were the Red Sox on the cutting edge when it came to analytics. No longer was there evidence of the creativity that had marked the franchise in the first decade or so under this current ownership. And perhaps most notably, gone was the notion of collaboration which had marked their operation. ...

[T]he free-flowing exchange of ideas that had typified the team's front office workings had been done away with, as Dombrowski largely withdrew and leaned on only longtime associates Frank Wren and Tony La Russa for input.

When the Red Sox went searching for Dombrowski's replacement, it was with the idea that they needed to return to what had made them successful under Theo Epstein, and his successor and protege, Ben Cherington.

In Chaim Bloom, they think they found their man. ... In 15 seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays, Bloom was known for his creativity and his ability to work well with others. ...

The game is now too complex, too detailed, to rely on just a couple of familiar faces. Teamwork is needed, pushback is encouraged. And the more qualified voices involved in the discussion, the better. That's how the Sox operated under Epstein, and apparently, will again under Bloom.

"Frankly, I talked to Theo a lot during the process — as did Tom at one point — just to do some digging on Chaim," Kennedy told BSJ, "and he couldn't have been more supportive [of Bloom]. He said, 'If you're going to look at someone outside the organization, Chaim is someone you should target and you shouldn't waste time. You should go and get him.'" ...

[Kennedy:] "Something that was very important throughout the process was to identify a leader to come in and supplement the group that we have. What we thought we knew about Chaim ended up being exactly what he is and that's someone who wants to be collaborative with the department. But, to be clear, he's had a successful track record in Tampa and we really did want to hear some new ideas and a new approach that could sort of blend with what we have. ... [I]t's incredible how baseball ops departments are advancing and new tools that folds are using to move forward. I do think Chaim represents the future of the game, which is using new and different ways to look at the game, using creativity. But at his core, he's a relationship-builder and that's really important."

Ian Browne, mlb.com:

Welcome to Boston, Chaim Bloom. Now it's time to get cracking on helping to determine the futures of stars Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez. ...

"I would say generally, our top priority is going to be sustainability and competitiveness over the long term," Bloom said. "And that could take many forms, but that's really going to be the top priority as we think about moves. With respect to those two guys, I'm just coming in here and there's a lot that I don't know, and I'm looking forward to building relationships with them and learning a little bit more about them from everybody here."

Steve Buckley, The Athletic:

Can Bloom clean up the mess that was the 2019 Red Sox and produce a World Series contender for 2020? ...

1. No, he can't.

2. Common sense tells me he does not have a mandate from ownership to win the World Series right now ...

The instant conundrum facing Bloom ... is how to to keep Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez on the roster while addressing Henry's sort-of mandate to keep next year's payroll under the $208 million competitive balance threshold. ...

Chaim Bloom isn't coming to Boston to build a team. He's coming to Boston to build an organization, which means having a farm system whose players routinely get the glossy, front-page treatment in those "Top Prospects" editions of Baseball America.

The tricky part is going to be convincing an anxious fan base that the Red Sox are going to be fun and exciting in 2020 while not necessarily being looked upon as the team to beat. ...

What made the 2019 Red Sox so enormously disappointing as they brought needless swaggerer to spring training and then couldn't back it up. ...

Put another way, after Opening Day there was nothing, nothing, to embrace about the 2019 Red Sox.

Nonsense. ... Does anyone reading this believe this? I'm genuinely curious. ... For me, Rafael Devers's breakout is enough of a counterpoint to categorically regard Buckley's statement as ignorant and asinine. (That's a strange note on which to end this long post, but I wanted to include it because I was so surprised to read it. 2019 was far from an ideal season, but to claim there was "nothing, nothing to embrace" about the club tells me that Buckley watched no games and read nothing about the team (which makes him completely unqualified to write about the Red Sox in any capacity) (or that he hates baseball like the CHB).)

I am very excited about what Bloom and his team will do and how the younger Red Sox players adapt and respond to the challenges. I hope that group of players includes Mookie Betts — for many years.