Chaim Bloom doesn't care for the negative outside noise centering the Boston Red Sox ahead of their 2023 season.
Boston's chief baseball officer is well aware that 2022 didn't end as planned. The Red Sox finished dead last in the American League East at 78-84, endured an abundance of injured list blows throughout the year and never managed to find their stride.
Yet, Bloom has remained optimistic looking ahead. With spring training just around the corner, Bloom acknowledged that outsiders might not view this Red Sox team in the same high regard as they've viewed past. However, that hasn't altered his outlook. After several roster members, staff and alumni gathered for Boston's annual Winter Weekend, Bloom offered an optimistic view ahead of 2023.
"People are gonna pick us where they're gonna pick us," Bloom told Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman on New York Post's "The Show" podcast. "We like our team, we recognize we're not expecting anybody to pick us to go out there and steamroll anybody. But we have a lot of talent on the team, we have a club that should fit together a lot better than last year's team did and we have the ability to go out there, if we play well, if we throw strikes, if we grind at-bats, we have the ability to get to the postseason and that's really what we're focused on."
While the Red Sox fell short in 2022, they aren't too far removed from their last deep playoff run. In 2021, Boston came just two wins shy of a World Series appearance against the defending champion Houston Astros. That campaign was also a follow-up to Boston's bottom-of-the-barrel finish (24-36) in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Bloom reiterated that despite how outsiders may view his approach to lead Boston's front office, the goal hasn't changed.
"We want it to be perfect, that is what we're shooting for," Bloom said. "But we can't really worry about all the noise that accompanies this other stuff. But I can tell you I do think, being around our group at Winter Weekend, certainly having all of our staff in last week for organizational meetings, how it feels inside the house is very different from the perception."
So far, with over two months ahead of Opening Day, Bloom has made an abundance of offseason additions to reshape the roster. He's added to the lineup, rotation and bullpen through free agency and trade. Bloom also emphasized that various others players were pursued that didn't end up in Boston.
"There were some players we pursued that, for various reasons, just ended up with other clubs," Bloom said. "Maybe there was a little more of that this offseason than there usually is. But that's not a-typical. I think that gets back to the visibility of operating here, especially in the way that the landscape of the industry -- the media landscape -- is now. ... At the end of the day, you're not going to sign 300 players, you may get linked to 300 players."
