With August winding down, the Red Sox still aren’t in great shape in terms of playoff positioning. They remain behind the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners for the final Wild Card berth, and with little more than a month remaining in the regular season, they are running out of time.
Of course, Boston probably wouldn’t be in this predicament if Chaim Bloom had acquired real reinforcements at the trade deadline. Instead, he mostly stood pat, trading away Enrique Hernandez and bringing in Luis Urias but not doing much to address the pitching staff.
Considering that big names like Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Michael Lorenzen, Aaron Civale and Jordan Montgomery changed teams, there were certainly moves to be made. Bloom just wasn’t the one making them.
Looking back now, it’s easy to see where Bloom went wrong this summer, and it could end up costing him his job. Here are three of his midseason decisions that doomed the 2023 Red Sox.
3 Chaim Bloom Decisions That Killed Red Sox
1. The Trade Deadline
We already covered Bloom’s failures at the trade deadline earlier in the month, but the whole thing still makes my blood boil.
At the time, the Red Sox were coming off their best month of the season after going 15-8 in July. That they managed to do so despite the mounting injuries in their starting rotation was nothing short of miraculous.
The Sox were only a couple of games behind the Blue Jays for a playoff spot, too, so Bloom’s trade deadline strategy should’ve been pretty obvious: acquire a starting pitcher to shore up the rotation, and maybe add a reliever as well. Even Rafael Devers — the face of the franchise himself — requested a starter.
Instead, Bloom did nothing of the sort. He tinkered with the infield in an effort to improve the team’s terrible defense, but did nothing substantial to upgrade the rotation, the bullpen or the lineup.
Bloom’s inactivity immediately backfired, as the Sox were swept at home by the Blue Jays the weekend after the trade deadline. They’re still trying to dig themselves out of that hole, and at this point they may never recover.
If only Bloom had been more aggressive and actually made a helpful move or two, perhaps that wouldn’t be the case.
2. Never Adequately Addressing the Shortstop Situation
Shortstop has been a mess for Boston all year, and it’s entirely Bloom’s fault.
First, he brutally botched the Xander Bogaerts negotiations last winter. His final offer was nowhere near the Padres’ offer, and Bogaerts walked. This came, of course, after Bloom and co. failed to extend Bogaerts in 2022 before he ever reached free agency.
Trevor Story was set to replace Bogaerts at short, until it was revealed in January that he needed modified Tommy John surgery and would miss the first half of the season. A tough blow, but there was still time to replace him. Carlos Correa was still available, for instance, as were some lower-tier free agents like Elvis Andrus and Jose Iglesias.
Instead, Bloom’s bright idea was to replace Story with an outfielder, specifically Enrique Hernandez. Hernandez had never been an everyday shortstop in the big leagues before, but apparently that didn’t bother Bloom.
Sure enough, Hernandez was a disaster. It was painfully obvious from the start that he couldn’t handle the position, and his offense cratered as well. Bloom did nothing substantial, however, and Hernandez wasn’t moved off the position until June, by which point he was completely broken and had cost Boston several wins with his bat and his glove.
Pablo Reyes has proven to be a decent pickup, but Hernandez never should’ve been asked to play shortstop in the first place, or at least should’ve been switched out much sooner. When Bloom finally did trade Hernandez, his value was at an all-time low, limiting the return.
3. Waiting For Injured Players to Return
A big reason why Bloom didn’t do much at the deadline was because Boston had a number of key players on the injured list that were set to return in August, including Story, Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck.
The problem is that the Red Sox needed help before then. The team lost seven out of eight in late July and early August, which significantly damaged their playoff odds. If Bloom had been more proactive about bringing in help rather than passively waiting for players to come back, Boston might have survived that stretch.
Instead, he let the team run on fumes longer than necessary and made their job even harder in August and September. Now they have less time to make up more ground. They also need the aforementioned injured players to a) contribute immediately (no time for rust!) and b) stay healthy the rest of the way.
Not surprisingly, none of those players have had the impact that was hoped for yet. They’ve all battled some struggles and are still getting back to 100% as they try to find their groove during the heat of a pennant race.
Players get hurt in baseball all the time — it’s just part of the game. Good general managers find ways to effectively replace them, either internally or externally. Bloom, on the other hand, simply waits for them to replace themselves.
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