Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom met face-to-face with fans for the first time since the offseason began, during the start of Boston Red Sox Winter Weekend.
And with looming questions centering on the front office’s response following a dead-last finish in the American League East, Bloom reiterated the team’s stance on one move. Perhaps the biggest trade thus far under Bloom’s tenure, the Mookie Betts deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, resurfaced during the discussion.
Bloom referred to a hypothetical Betts extension in Boston as a “bet” and emphasized the risk surrounding said bet. He mentioned how an organization would need to surround that bet with talent, otherwise winning wouldn’t be possible.
“Those bets are much better up front,” Bloom told reporters, per The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams. “We know that every team knows that when they’re those bets. When you make that type of bet, you better be ready to back it up. You better be ready to surround that bet with a whole lot of talent, a whole lot of young talent, or you’re not going to win.”
In 2020, Boston dealt Betts and starting pitcher David Price to Los Angeles in exchange for Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong and ex-Red Sox Jeter Downs — who was designated for assignment this offseason and later claimed by the Washington Nationals.
Like Betts, Bloom then highlighted the Rafael Devers extension as a bet. The Red Sox began the new year with the blockbuster to retain Devers on a 10-year, $313.5 million extension. And Bloom did so to ensure fans that the organization intends to follow through by surrounding Devers with the necessary talent needed to compete for a World Series title.
“We’re going to be ready to back up that bet,” Bloom told reporters, per The Globe.
Now Red Sox fans will wait and see if that bet indeed pays off.
