Red Sox officially announce hiring of Chaim Bloom

We’ve known for a few days now that the Red Sox were going to hire Chaim Bloom to run their baseball operations department under the title of Chief Baseball Officer. On Monday, with the World Series in a day off, they officially announced the newest member of their front office with an introductory press conference.

As is to be expected, there was not a whole hell of a lot said in this press conference. Specifically with questions directed to Bloom himself, most answers dealing in specific decisions that need to be made this winter were along the lines of him not having the information necessary to really speak to it. It’s not an unfair answer, of course, as there is a lot of internal information to which we are not privy. You can’t absorb all of that in just a day or two and confidently answer questions publicly. That said, I was left thinking of the ownership’s excuse for not having a press conference after firing Dave Dombrowski. Specifically, they said they didn’t see the point of a press conference when they don’t have any answers to give.

To be fair, there were some answers given here. Sam Kennedy, Tom Werner and John Henry spoke to some specifics regarding the search for a new leader in the front office. They said they had a list of twenty names to be reviewed internally, but they only requested an interview with Bloom. He was the only external candidate to be interviewed. Henry was also asked about what they felt the difference was between Bloom and Dombrowski. After showing what I perceived to be some annoyance with the question, Henry eventually said they were looking for a more collaborative presence. He also pointed out Dombrowski’s success with the organization.

More broadly, there were two themes in the press conference. The first was that collaborative nature mentioned above. It was something Bloom mentioned a lot throughout his comments. He continuously praised the organization, specifically Alex Cora and the four executives (Eddie Romero, Brian O’Halloran, Raquel Ferreira and Zack Scott) who collectively handled interim GM duties as they searched for a replacement. There was also a lot of talk about building a sustainable winner. There weren’t many details about what that means, but in today’s game it generally means lower payrolls and a focus on younger players. Given where the Red Sox are currently with their roster, reading between the lines could tell one that major changes are on the way.

Along with introducing Bloom, there was one other announcement made. Bloom himself made the announcement, officially naming O’Halloran as the team’s new General Manager. This had already been reported prior to today’s press conference. O’Halloran is the team’s first GM since 2016 when Mike Hazen left the organization to lead the Diamondbacks front office.