Chaim Bloom has a pretty big offseason in front of him.
The Boston Red Sox’s new chief baseball officer inherited a team with a lot of work to be done this offseason. He’s been tasked with slashing payroll, while considering what to do about the uncertain situation surrounding, most notably, Mookie Betts. J.D. Martinez not exercising the opt-out clause in his contract is a good thing in many respects, but it also complicates things.
Bloom joined WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the “Bradfo Sho,” and was asked about the situation with Betts.
Here’s what he had to say, as transcribed by Bradford:
“I certainly know a lot more than I did on the day that I got here. Not just about him but about a lot of guys. Everything that surrounds his situation, but chiefly because of how excellent a player he is, that seems to be the No. 1 topic on everyone’s mind. He’s just a phenomenal player. Obviously, we saw that up close with the Rays. It’s something everyone in our industry appreciates. I’m still getting to know him but everything I know about him as a human being is also phenomenal. He’s a pretty special person.
“I did talk to him a little bit early on. Of course, there are no shortcuts to building relationships. I still have some work to do on that front with our group as a whole but I’ve tried to reach out to a number of the guys. They’ve all been great and that’s been really nice. So I know a little bit more than I did in terms of getting my arms around the situation and as a group how we’re going to address it. In that regard, I’m not sure it’s different than any situation with any player. It’s a little more visible. Obviously, it’s an elite player in a situation that is going to get a lot of attention. But it’s the same process of getting to know the situation as it would be really with anything going on in the organization.”
Betts will be a free agent after next season, and he’s been steadfast in saying that he wants to test free agency. He’ll likely received a haul in the neighborhood of $30 million in his final year of arbitration, so, again, there’s a big winter upcoming for Bloom.
