sk7326

you can probably argue that Bloom was dealt the worst hand an incoming GM has had since Dick O'Connell.

Law on the firing https://theathletic.com/4864258/2023/09/15/boston-red-sox-front-office-future/

Of course. And no regrets there. You have a title to win - this is what you do. Ultimately - as a fan, I wanted the Sox to take that core from the 2018 team and try to maximize it ... and ownership instead quit on it after a fairly predictable dropoff. It's not as crass as the Marlins sell off in 1997 of course - but it's some of the same vibes.

He did a prety good job managing the pitching staff all things considered. And he wasn't the one who decided to field a roster of players who couldn't field. Again, you look at 2021 - he got every drop out of that team.

He was fired for doing exactly what ownership asked him to do. That was even more true in Detroit. I mean, Detroit has struggled when they got old - but they made the World Series, an ALCS and were relevant and competitive to some degree or another. The big crime Dombrowski made (in retrospect) was not adding players in 2018/19 offseason - but clearly ownership did not have an appetite for that. The big drivers of the dropoff in 2019 were dropoffs by Sale and Porcello - and the fickle realities of middle relief pitching on Earth.

There is no way you watch the 2021 Red Sox and think that Cora left meat on the bone. Now remember, Bloom came from the outside and ALSO looked at managers and came back to Cora. That might not happen again - but multiple baseball heads think very highly of him. You can always nitpick - but Cora did a pretty good job managing the pitching staff ... the injuries and personnel just created a low floor.

I think there is a lot to this. If I were Dombrowski and my team came off of a historically great season - with a strong young positional core - I'd be trying to figure out how to win 2 or 3 more banners. But nothing they did in the 2018/19 offseason fit that mentality. Contrast it to even something like 2005. Edgar Renteria was a disaster of a result, but an excellent IDEA. Let's take a weak position on our 2004 team and add an All-Star to it. Indeed, there has not even been many instances of Boston pushing their financial muscle around to make lower hanging moves.

They absolutely would have. But the team was caught in a position of not being quite bad enough. It would have been bold to just make the deal - at least as bold as say, trading Nomar out of the blue. Now I wouldn't have done it - but I also think big money, lucrative baseball teams should not be in the business of alienating/giving away/whatever superstars entering their prime. So I am clearly a bit of a weirdo.

Some veteran loyalty - and really, what was the other obvious option. The thing with Kike of course was - if he had hit, they probably would have kept him there.

I think it's believable - but I also don't think the characterization of the talks make a ton of sense. Would it make sense for - let's use the Dodgers or Cardinals just for fun - to look at Sale and see a buy low opportunity? Yes. Would such a team trade a highly rated prospect for the privelege? No. Would it make sense for Bloom to prefer to fix a distressed asset? Yes. I mean the reporting makes it seem scandalous - but you never know how serious the discussions ever got.

Dombrowski started with a better hand.

100%. I'd go further than that ... there is no way that ANY move - such as dealing Betts or extending Sale - gets done without ownership approval. (this applies to all franchises) If this is like any normal business - I'd assume the GM had more or less total autonomy for lower $$ moves, and higher $$ moves ownership is briefed or whatever.

You are probably right. It is a weird thing. Like, I think it makes sense for them to hire somebody who has experience here ... but if ownership is going to use the dude as a human shield for any sort of downturn, word probably gets around. Bloom was probably the most justified of the sackings - though he was also dealt the worst hand by far.

Betts wanted to get into the open market - and the Sox were not interested in that. It's their prerogative - but the bottom line was a deep pocketed franchise made a panic trade of the sort of player a big pocketed franchise flat doesn't lose.

It is not the most obviously good choice out there - doesn't mean that it's wrong. What I'd say is that Cora is clearly a bright guy who has a lot of experience in baseball, and his media savviness would be a help. The other thing is that ownership trusts him - and given how flightly Henry has been, that counts for a lot.

He has a better chance at patience from ownership - simply because the press is writing more about the Red Sox' impatience. One thing we do know is that ownership sees the ticket receipts and negative press - often too much so.

Bogaerts has been a 5-6 win player each of the last 3 seasons. The thing with Bogaerts is that he has been a really good player - just in a totally different way than scouts expected!

A good piece by Kiley McDaniel at ESPN on the firing

There is a lot silly here - Bloom deserves to be held accountable. That said, ownership has been weird and shifty with its priorities.

I'd also think - with his kids grown up, and the team moving pretty soon that you might as well shoot your shot with Billy Beane again.

Olney speculates moving Cora upstairs might make sense also - he has a very broad range of experience clearly.

Duquette landed one of the greatest players in Sox history. The team was legitimately competitive - he went crazy in 2001 like everyone else apparently.

One of Bloom's important roles was as a spokesperson for the organization - for better or worse - and he was fairly poor there. His firing was not some wild miscarriage of justice - but it definitely had a lot of PR impetus behind it. Since Epstein left, ownership has lurched between extreme visions of the big league club which included creating a juggernaut built to win now vs a near Dalai Lama-like eschewing of top of the market players. They have not had that sort of near/far term view together since Epstein (and to a certain degree) Cherington were there. Bloom was hired to bring Tampa North I suppose - but "Tampa with money" is what the Dodgers do - and the Red Sox seem allergic to large aspects of that. Bloom did a nice job restocking the farm with position players - and honestly some of them might need to move to boost pitching. The cupboard is not bare for the next guy - but Henry has to trust him and not spend so much time focused on what talk radio says. Obviously former South Shore League All-Star Mike Hazen would be the top choice (I am dismissing Epstein wanting to run a team again). But Sawadye or McLeod from Arizona would be good fits also. Getting Chernoff from Cleveland is intriguing - they clearly are the role model for developing pitching industrywide.

The Dodgers are Tampa North!

The points are valid but if a guy can be a 70/80 center fielder, the threshhold for offense is not high at all. Really where the team is in so many positions, the floor doesn't concern me all that much.