Red Sox Links: Xander’s Gone, Is Nate Eovaldi Next?

There are at least two more solid weeks of arguing about Chaim Bloom’s tenure on Red Sox Twitter. Arm yourself with this side-by-side comparison of the roster from when he started to today. (Chad Jennings, The Athletic)

Bloom gives his first interview since the day Xander walks, and states that, despite all the hysteria on Wednesday afternoon, the Sox knew they weren’t going to be bringing Xander back. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

And we might as well start arguing about other free agents, like Nate Eovaldi. Reports are that other teams are showing stronger interest that the Red Sox, though after last week, it’s not clear how much value any of these reports have. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

Remember when we were all afraid that Dave Dombrowski was going to wildly overpay and steal Xander from us? That didn’t happen, so he settled for Matt Strahm. (Boston Globe)

Poor Masataka Yoshida — his thunder got burgled in the middle of the night. But here’s some more insight from former big leaguers who know his game. (Alex Reimer, WEEI)

And here’s an even more in-depth piece on Yoshida, the “contact wizard.” (Justin Choi, Fangraphs)