First things first: It’s pronounced HIGH-em.
Now that we’ve tackled the important things, what (else) is there to know about Chaim Bloom?
Well, for starters, it seems as if the Tampa Bay Rays’ senior vice president of baseball operations is poised to leave St. Pete for a job with the Boston Red Sox.
MLB Network Insider Jon Heyman reported Friday morning the Red Sox are close to hiring Bloom to run their baseball operations, a role previously filled by the recently dismissed Dave Dombrowski. The Athletic reported Thursday night Bloom interviewed for the job and was considered the favorite to be hired.
If and when Bloom is officially hired, he’ll come to Boston as one of the highest-regarded young baseball executives in the sport. It was only a matter of time before the 38-year-old Philadelphia native got a chance to sit in the big chair. He was in the running for the New York Mets’ general manager job last year, a job that ultimately went to former agent Brodie Van Wagenen.
Bloom, a Yale graduate, spent 15 seasons with the Rays, working his way up the front office after being hired as an intern in 2005. According to the Rays’ website, “Bloom’s experience spans every area of baseball operations, and among those credited for helping to develop the ‘Rays Way,’ which is described as a ‘player development manual and the execution of individual development plans for the organization’s prospects.’
With the Rays, Bloom got a look at all sides of baseball operations, at one point helping to oversee minor league operations before eventually ascending to director of baseball operations. He has experience in contract and trade negotiations as well as scouting philosophies and even oversaw the organization’s baseball science department, per his bio on the team’s website.
So, yeah. He’s had his hand in just about everything up to this point in his highly successful career.
By spending the entirety of his professional career in Tampa Bay, Bloom has worked alongside some of the brightest baseball minds in the game. Andrew Friedman, once considered a possible candidate for the Red Sox job, was Bloom’s boss for the better part of a decade. Under Friedman, the Rays were transformed from a laughingstock and perennial American League East doormat to a team that contended almost every year despite a payroll that consistently ranked among the lowest in Major League Baseball. Friedman eventually left to take a job with the Los Angeles Dodgers where he was armed with one of the sport’s biggest payrolls and quickly turned that organization into one that contends for the World Series every year.
That perhaps is the most tantalizing thing about hiring away a piece of the Rays’ braintrust. If hired, Bloom literally will go from a team that had MLB’s lowest payroll in 2019 ($54 million) to a team with the highest payroll ($166 million). Granted, the Red Sox have made it no secret they would like to dip back under the competitive balance threshold for at least one season, but it goes without saying Bloom will be afforded resources he could only dream of with the Rays. Not to mention, if there’s anyone who knows how to work around budgetary restraints, it’s someone like Bloom which undoubtedly has to be something that helped make him attractive to the Red Sox.
Oh, and most importantly — and the Red Sox know this as well as anyone — the Rays have been really, really good with Bloom in the front office. Over the last three seasons, the Rays have had an average payroll of roughly $70 million, the lowest in Major League Baseball. In those three seasons, the Rays have won 80, 90 and 96 games, respectively. Only nine teams have won more games in that span, and over the last two seasons, only the Yankees, Astros, Red Sox, Dodgers, A’s and Braves have won more games.
Bloom’s contemporaries also have a very high opinion of the executive.
Bloom certainly has his work cut out for him, but it certainly feels like he’s the perfect type of person to lead the Red Sox into the next era of the organization.
