rockondlouie wrote: ↑24 Jul 2025 14:15 pm
From Bernie:
I’m sure many Cardinals fans are wondering why Bloom lost his job in Boston. Here’s my somewhat flippant answer: I don’t know but you could ask Theo Epstein, Ben Cherington and Dave Dombrowski. All were either run off (Epstein) or fired (Cherington and Dombrowski) by Boston’s tempestuous and fickle ownership group led by John Henry.
That’s quite remarkable considering that the Red Sox won multiple World Series with Epstein, Cherington and Dombrowski in charge of baseball ops. Bloom was hired to lead the baseball department in October of 2019 and lasted until his firing on Sept. 14 of the 2023 season.
Henry wanted to create the New England version of the Tampa Bay Rays – a model of superb player development, a lower payroll, and highly efficient roster construction. Bloom was the ideal choice. He had built a low-payroll hellion at Tampa Bay.
“He possesses the essential qualities to establish a sustainable baseball operation throughout the organization with an emphasis on long-term success at the major league level,” Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said at the time of Bloom’s appointment.
Bloom soon discovered that he was working for an owner who changed his mind depending on the way the wind was blowing at Fenway Park. That includes the hot air directed at him by yapping fans and media.
Bloom inherited a barren Boston farm system that ranked near the bottom of the MLB rankings and improved it to 15th by the time of his dismissal.
Ownership wanted to reduce payroll to avoid higher financial penalties in luxury-tax prison. When Bloom took over, he had to deal with a payroll clogged by some $550 million in long-term commitments to pitchers David Price, Nathan Eovaldi and Chris Sale plus designated hitter J.D. Martinez.
Bloom attempted to keep outfielder Mookie Betts in Boston with a generous contract extension, but Mookie declined. This did not go over well with the owners. Bloom traded Betts to the Dodgers in a deal that turned into an embarrassment for the Red Sox. Bloom got the blame, but it isn’t that simple.
Betts signed a 12-year, $365-million contract to stay with the Dodgers. Do we really think Boston’s owners wanted to spend that much? Bloom was hardly an independent lone wolf who made the decision all by himself.
But
Bloom constantly received mixed messages from the owner. Spend. Cut payroll. Spend. Cut payroll. Spend. No. Wait. Cut Payroll. Go spend. Make trades and go all-in. No. Hold on. Don’t do that. Don’t spend.
Esteemed baseball analyst Joe Sheehan wrote about Boston’s toxic ownership style in a recent newsletter filing.
“Boston’s four titles in 15 years have served to mask considerable instability and even chaos in how the Sox have been run under John Henry,” Sheehan wrote.
“Theo Epstein was more or less run out of town by ownership after 2011, and manager Terry Francona was let go with him, despite two World Series in eight years together. Ben Cherington inherited the GM job and lost a season to ownership’s foisting Bobby Valentine on him. In Cherington’s second year, with John Farrell managing, the Sox won the World Series. Not two years after that, though, Cherington was let go, and then Farrell followed after the 2017 season.
“Now, not a year after winning a World Series title, Dombrowski (was) gone. I understand the argument that it’s worked, given the 2013 and 2018 championships, but we don’t talk about John Henry like he’s a lost Steinbrenner cousin, and maybe we should.
“Henry moved quickly to replace Dombrowski with Bloom … in the way that swapping out Cherington for Dombrowski was a statement about what Henry wanted the Red Sox to be, swapping out Dombrowski for Bloom — after two years of $240 million competitive balance tax payrolls — was much the same.
“There are many who deem Bloom’s time in Boston to be a failure.
Not only am I not one of them, I think Henry should be embarrassed by not having the courage of his convictions.”
Sheehan added:
“Bloom inherited a team that had the highest payroll in the sport and an owner that didn’t want that to be the case any more. The Red Sox had been unable to sign Mookie Betts to an extension, leaving Bloom with an impossible task while he was still figuring out where the bathrooms were.”
R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports noted the difficulty of Bloom’s assignment at Fenway.
“League sources who have spoke to CBS Sports noted that (Bloom) had to deal with some rough circumstances, including inheriting outdated infrastructure and a cabal of tenured assistant general managers.”
(Translation: back stabbers.)