Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom has been very successful in plenty of moves. From Garrett Whitlock to Nick Pivetta, Christian Arroyo to Kyle Schwarber, it’s been a successful tenure at the head of the realm for him.
Say what you want about the Mookie Betts trade. While the return turned out to be somewhat underwhelming, it’s very uncertain whether he would have re-signed or not — even taking into consideration that he’s personally said that he’d sign for what the Dodgers paid him. It also got rid of the overpaid David Price — something many also don’t consider in the trade.
And the Andrew Benintendi deal is still another question mark with the to-be-determined label on it. Josh Winckowski has been a major help to injury-wrecked Boston this year, even if he hasn’t done all that well, and it’d be tough to argue Franchy Cordero hasn’t helped at least a bit — even with the bloopers. Both likely haven’t reached their full potential yet, too.
But the Jackie Bradley Jr. deal didn’t exactly pan out though, as Boston dealt Hunter Renfroe for the old friend as well as two prospects, Alex Binelas and David Hamilton. Those haven’t been all that exciting, as while they started out strong, the only bright spot really is Hamilton’s 50 stolen bases this season.
Other than that, Hamilton is hitting just .231 with eight homers and an 89 wRC+ in 84 games for Double-A Portland at the age of 24, while Binelas, at 22, has hit just .139 with seven homers and a 66 wRC+ across 22 appearances since being called up to Double-A. He did post a 14-homer, 125-wRC+ performance in 58 games for High-A, though the start with the Sea Dogs has been rather underwhelming.
And the elephant in the room? Bradley was released by the Sox this afternoon.
It was a more reasonable trade than many give him credit for, though. It was a last-minute deal right before the lockout, which seemingly replaced Renfroe’s lackluster, 12-error defense in right field and swapped it with a perennial Gold Glover. And, Bradley’s bat seemed to get back on track at first in 2022 after hitting .163 in 134 games with Milwaukee in 2021, though quickly began to fall off.
And this also isn’t a shame on Bloom either. It’s noting the fact that with the galore of moves really only one of them has turned out to be unsuccessful more than anything.
Nick Pivetta was practically acquired for free along with Connor Seabold, Adam Ottavino was basically traded for a bag of Cheetos, Arroyo was picked up as some random scrub on waivers that turned out to be legit, Whitlock was a Rule 5 selection; Schwarber and Austin Davis were acquired for not much, Hansel Robles had a Linsanity run of his own that was pretty heroic, and John Schreiber was someone with a career ERA nearing 7 before 2022 — and look at him now.
The list goes on and on, and it includes a lot more minor moves in the minutiae of it all. The one most impressive of all though? Him taking a bottom-tier farm system — ranked in the bottom five on practically every list in the late Dave Dombrowski days — and in less than three years, it sprouted up to what’s debatably a top five system; it’s No. 5 on FanGraphs currently.
It’s the long-term sustained success that Bloom is shooting for, which often leaves many impatient fans — who demand the win-now model — unreasonably and confusingly calling for the firing of Bloom.
It simply doesn’t make sense, especially since the Sox are ahead of schedule.
More thoughts below.
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- The Sox direction does make sense at the deadline, believe it or not. They get prospects back for Christian Vazquez, they can re-sign him next year, and there are plenty of catchers available in free agency this offseason if they don’t. Eric Hosmer and Tommy Pham then fill voids at positions of need for cheap prices, and adding Reese McGuire doesn’t hurt at all. They can sell and compete for a playoff spot at the same time — and it makes a lot of sense.
- Vazquez walking right across the hall to the other locker room must have been a little awkward — it’s probably something like when you’re the new kid at school.
- The Padres are quite simply overpowered.
- Juan Soto is going to be the player we all tell our grandkids about.
- How long will it be until it’s a general agreement that Soto is better than Mike Trout?
- Speaking of Trout, will the Angels ever get out of mediocrity?
- The Red Sox have a lot of middle-infield prospect depth — most definitely more than enough if the Red Sox were in a position to buy at this deadline.
- Wonder what it was like in the Orioles clubhouse when you’re finally half decent again only for the organization to trade your best assets.
- What do players think of Bloom?
- Brayan Bello just isn’t ready for the majors. Doubt he would have been called up if it wasn’t for injuries.
- Take away half of the injuries, where would Boston be right now?
- Are the Mets legit or are they the Mets?
- If the Sox can’t take at least two from Kansas City, that’s a very bad look. Aim for at least three with the upcoming schedule.
- Do not rush Ceddanne Rafaela. Needs both work and time.
- The Triple-A division the WooSox are in, the International League, is a very exciting league. Teams jump around all over the standings, and it’s a very tight race. Rochester, the Nats affiliate, was at first for a lot of the season and now they’re all the way down in seventh. Scranton/WB started out the season very slow, well behind .500, and are now ahead of Worcester.
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