When the Boston Red Sox acquired Hunter Renfroe, not many anticipated he'd be one of their most consistent contributors this season.
Chaim Bloom had an idea, though.
The Red Sox's chief baseball officer came to Boston after the 2019 season after working his way up in the Tampa Bay Rays front office. After the abbreviated 2020 season, he signed the former Rays outfielder in free agency on a one-year, $3.1 million contract, despite not overlapping with Renfroe in Tampa.
"Everything we've seen from Hunter is stuff he’s shown in the past," Bloom told MassLive's Chris Smith. "I think it's just coming together this year in a more complete way than it ever has. The approach, the willingness to use the whole field has been there. He has responded really well to everything that comes with playing in Boston. And he put in the work to learn the most unique right field in baseball. And he plays it really well. All the pieces have been there. He had a down year in a short season last year. But we believed in the track record and the different things that we saw. We're just fortunate that we had the opportunity for him that he wanted to come here. He's been a huge part of our success. We're not here without him."
Renfroe hit .259 for the Red Sox this season with 96 RBI and 31 home runs -- just two short of his career-high. In 18 games against his former team, he's posted a .338 average with four homers, 16 runs and 18 RBI.
And that's not mentioning his 16 outfield assists -- which were tied for the most in Major League Baseball.
Renfroe will look to keep that up against the Rays in Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Sunday at 4:07 p.m. ET.
