Chaim Bloom is taking a measured approach to restructuring the Red Sox, knowing that knee-jerk reactions will only hinder Boston’s goal of achieving long-term, sustainable success.
Still, that doesn’t make the team’s ongoing struggles any easier to digest. The Red Sox chief baseball officer’s patience has and might continue to be tested.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Bloom told reporters Wednesday during a video conference before Boston snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Fenway Park. “These are about as bad of results as you can possibly imagine. A lot of things have not gone well. That’s just the fact of the matter. It’s extremely disappointing. We’re all competitive. We like to win and we hate losing.”
The Red Sox begin a four-game series against the Orioles in Baltimore on Thursday with a 7-18 record, the worst mark in the American League.
The Sox haven’t pitched well. They haven’t hit well. And their defense has been very shaky at times. Not exactly a winning formula.
“It’s extremely disappointing.”
Chaim Bloom, On Red Sox’s Struggles To Begin 2020 Season
There are, of course, reasons to be optimistic that brighter days are ahead, whether that’s this season, next season or in 2022. The first month of the 2020 campaign — a 60-game sprint to the finish line due to the COVID-19 pandemic — sure hasn’t been kind to the Red Sox, though, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Bloom sells off a few pieces before the Aug. 31 Major League Baseball trade deadline in order to obtain assets that might help Boston down the road.
“When a ballgame starts, I’d always rather win than lose. I think we can find ways to achieve our objectives regardless,” Bloom said. “The big picture, the long-term objectives of this organization, I think we had to prioritize from day one when I got here. I think those are still important. Those need to be at the top of our priority list if we’re going to get where we want to go. Because of our start (to this season), the needle might move a little bit more in that direction (of being sellers at the trade deadline) and maybe there will be things that we contemplate that we maybe wouldn’t have otherwise contemplated.”
It’s apparent Bloom has a long-term vision. And stomaching the troubles of today for the betterment of tomorrow might be the biggest challenge in seeing that vision through.
