Chaim Bloom says Red Sox are looking into additional offensive posts by pitcher Matt Dermody

"It happened and we really regret it. I really regret it because it caused pain."

Chaim Bloom expressed regret for the Red Sox' decision to call up Matt Dermody. Jim Davis/Globe Staff

June 14, 2023

2 minutes to read

The Red Sox are still feeling the fallout from their decision to call up pitcher Matt Dermody despite the homophobic views he posted on social media back in 2021.

And even though Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told MassLive last week he personally spoke with Dermody about the since-deleted tweet, he is now expressing regret over the organization’s handling of the situation, especially in light of new information.

In an interview with The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, Bloom said that the Red Sox are looking into additional offensive posts on Dermody’s social media accounts.

“We pride ourselves on doing the right due diligence so that we can have the right conversations around these things. We realized as this was unfolding [after the call-up] that a process that is normally pretty robust missed some things,” Bloom told Speier. “There were other concerning things on social media. We usually don’t miss these types of things. In this case, we did.”

During his initial interview with MassLive’s Sean McAdam, Bloom stated that the Red Sox were unaware of Dermody’s 2021 tweet when Boston initially signed him to a minor-league deal in January.

Even though Bloom acknowledged that the Red Sox considered terminating Dermody’s contract, they opted not to after meeting with him during spring training.

With Boston uncovering more offensive posts from Dermody, Bloom said that the team is evaluating its next steps.

“We’re getting our arms around what the right steps are with respect to the new info, or at least the info that’s new to us,” Bloom said. “That’s obviously a process that we’ll need to go through to figure out the best way to address it and take it into account. We certainly take it very seriously.”

Boston drew plenty of criticism for their decision to call up Dermody for a spot start in Cleveland last week. Despite the news of Dermody’s past tweet, Boston went ahead with Dermody’s start, with the left-handed pitcher getting knocked for three runs over four innings of work.

Dermody was designated for assignment that same night after Boston fell to the Guardians, 10-3. Dermody is still on the roster with Triple-A Worcester.

After failing to do their due diligence vetting Dermody’s previous social media posts, Bloom expressed regret over how this entire situation has played out since the initial call-up.

“We didn’t have all the conversations we should have here,” Bloom said. “That’s something we can’t undo. It happened and we really regret it. I really regret it because it caused pain. I do believe people can learn and grow and forgiveness should be possible. But that requires having the right conversations and in this particular case, we just didn’t put ourselves in a position to have them.”