That's a fair point. Like I say, I'm putting all the blame on ownership. Unfortunately, under the circumstances it's hard to judge Bloom at all, because they gave him such a s***** hand to work with.
I believe Henry lowballed Betts all along. And it's worth noting that the recent statements by Betts clearly suggest that he did get a final offer after Bloom took over. He even said, if you want to know more about contract negotiations, you'll have to talk to Chaim about it.
Sale seems healthy and effective right now. I get what you're saying, but you can only work with the information you have right now. Pencillng him in as a #5 seems logical.
Things do get silly whenever we jump in the Wayback Machine, but...
What I'm arguing is that it was ownership who made all these mistakes-cutting loose Betts and Dombrowski AND slashing payroll. So in the Wayback Machine they would have kept Dombrowski AND NOT slashed payroll.
Modern management theory is that you don't "chase wins", you don't use your best relievers when you're losing (unless it's a must-win game).
I do understand why this approach can be frustrating.
You're being gentle, really. The Bloom years have been a disaster. Maybe someday we'll look back on his work more kindly - maybe.
To me it's all on ownership. They have screwed up royally since the moments they decided to part ways with Betts and then Dombrowski. They thought they were being smart. Maybe they have learned a lesson - maybe.
At this moment in time I feel somewhat pessimistic about 2024, because I don't think our core is as strong as some other folks seem to think it is. Here are the fWAR's for position players:
Devers 3.3
Duran 2.4
Verdugo 2.2
Duvall 1.9
Casas 1.7
Turner 1.3
Wong 0.7
Yoshida 0.5
The only way this team is going to be good in 2024 is with additions from outside and advances from inside.
The 2019 team was the 2018 team, one year removed in time. It wasn't a bad team, it was a team that had a bad year. Many things went wrong. I do think there are reasons no team has won it back to back this century.