Red Sox hire Chaim Bloom as new head of baseball ops

After the Red Sox let Dave Dombrowski go in September, they made it clear they were not in any rush to replace him. The team was more than comfortable with their four-headed interim GM tandem. By the way the search was going publicly, there was no reason to believe that wasn’t the case. Since the Dombrowski firing, we’ve heard next to nothing about the search. Given the lack of rumors it seemed about certain that they would head into the offseason still searching for a leader. That changed on Friday, when they made their hire. Chaim Bloom is going to be running the front office for the Red Sox. An official announcement is expected after the World Series.

Bloom was hired from Tampa Bay, where he most recently served as their number two as the vice president of baseball operations. He started with the organization as a in 2005 as an intern. Bloom first emerged as a strong possibility for the Red Sox job on Thursday, according to a report from Chad Jennings and Ken Rosenthal.

Bloom’s reputation around the league is strong, and he is seen as one of the biggest reasons the Rays organization has been able to remain so competitive despite constantly running out such low payrolls. Bloom has experience working with major-league rosters and minor-league, having served as the Rays’ director of minor league operations earlier in his executive career. He will serve as Chief Baseball Officer with the Red Sox, while Brian O’Halloran has been promoted to General Manager. The rest of the four-headed interim group’s titles are unknown as of now.

Bloom has a lot on his plate in his first offseason with the Red Sox, and is going to have to get started right away. He inherits a farm system that, while improving, still needs a lot of work. He has an unclear situation with J.D. Martinez. He’ll be feeling pressure to do something with Mookie Betts. He has questions in his rotation. Bloom has excelled with the small payroll in Tampa Bay, and it will be fascinating to see how he changed (and how he doesn’t) with bigger pockets in Boston.

We’ll have more on this hiring and the decisions that now need to be made next week after I’m done with vacation.