C’mon, Chaim Bloom. Do something.
The resources are there. The desire is there. It's time to go big.
COMMENTARY
Will these be the final days of Chaim Bloom, penny pincher? Doesn’t it feel like it has to be?
Pretty please?
New Englanders have come to understand how little weight offseason fireworks carry once the games start. Spending big in free agency or making blockbuster deals always provides that dopamine hit. Often, that’s all the good it does.
Still, that dopamine, though. It’s not real hard to make an argument we need it.
The Yankees have a new left side of their infield, adding former MVP Josh Donaldson and Gold Glover Isiah Kiner-Falefa while ridding themselves of Gary Sánchez. (Anthony Rizzo also reupped on Tuesday night.)
The Blue Jays have overhauled their starting rotation, replacing Cy Young winner Robbie Ray and Steven Matz with Kevin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi, and extending José Berríos. That’s three first-rounders out of five, including whiff machine Alek Manoah, and that was before Wednesday morning’s news about acquiring third baseman Matt Chapman.
The White Sox bolstered their bullpen with Seattle’s Kendall Graveman and old pal Joe Kelly — making it even easier to trade fellow old pal Craig Kimbrel — and got Josh Harrison in Oakland’s fire sale. The Mariners added Ray.
The Tigers and Rangers are less imminent contenders, but each went big this winter, and would’ve gone even bigger had Carlos Correa taken that reported 10-year offer from Detroit.
The Red Sox? A usual array of depth and scratch tickets, the latest relievers Matt Strahm and Jake Diekman. Which, given the pivotal addition last winter was a Rule 5 pick, I am hardly dismissing. Strahm doesn’t walk anybody — it’d be a major bonus if his knee healed and do that while pitching. And Diekman, thanks largely to a slider he learned on the internet, gets swings and misses at an almost unparalleled rate.
Yet because it’s the Red Sox, it always feels like there’s something brewing, even when Bloom — two-and-a-half years into his tenure — still hasn’t committed more than $18.75 million (Matt Barnes) to anybody. The man himself said the reacquisition of Jackie Bradley Jr. tipped the lineup toward needing a right-handed bat, and the mind races at the mere confirmation of what we already knew.
Nick Castellanos, who could be a 40-homer guy playing half the year at Fenway. Jorge Soler. Trevor Story or Correa, a transition prior to Xander Bogaerts — eager to stay at shortstop long-term — opting out after the season.
Freddie Freeman, whom Atlanta has made such a transition from, a Betts-esque decision with Matt Olson playing The New Guy.
(Another of the outfield options long rumored for the Sox, Japanese star Seiya Suzuki, is reportedly headed to the Cubs on a five-year, $70 million deal. He hit 38 homers as a 26-year-old last season.)
Even ignoring the Red Sox have the ability to essentially spend whatever, whenever, the books look great. Approximately $20 million in room under the new $230 million luxury-tax line for 2022, and some $100 million coming off after the year between J.D. Martinez, Nate Eovaldi, Bradley Jr., Barnes, Michael Wacha, Kiké Hernández, Christian Vázquez, and the $16 million they still owe David Price. (Bogaerts opting out would be another $20 million.)
Bloom could wait a year, of course. But given we’re operating under basically the same CBT tax structure in baseball’s new bargaining agreement, the Red Sox could also spend over the “cap” this winter and easily reset their penalties in 2022-23.
“It opens more options for us maybe than we’ve been working with the last couple of years,” Bloom said of all this payroll pliability. “I don’t think we should worry about the size or the Q-factor or the splashiness of the move. We should be trying to use all our resources to be as great as we can every year, whatever that means.
“But especially looking ahead, the more flexibility you have, the more options you can consider.”
We get that here. NESN’s urging toward making a splash brought us Carl Crawford, and so much good building by Ben Cherington was subsumed by Pablo Sandoval. Major signings aren’t quick fixes, and they define administrations in both directions.
It could be one of the names mentioned above. It could be the long-sought, long-term pact with Rafael Devers. (It won’t be a reunion with Kyle Schwarber, who’s off to Philadelphia.) It could be something we don’t see coming.
It just needs to be something.
There’s a school of thought that the Red Sox can take it easy this year, having just gotten within two games of the World Series. They can take another year to let their farm mature, with prospects looking up and a fan base satiated by hope and last year’s surprise.
I hate it, just as I hate how logical tax resets and service-time manipulation and tanking are.
The Red Sox overachieved last year. Their finish was likely the best that array of players ever could’ve expected, and it stands as something that needs to be added to if it is going to be built on.
The rotation was spongy even before Wednesday’s revelation that Chris Sale has a cracked rib, the bottom a mix of Rich Hill, Wacha, Garrett Whitlock, and Tanner Houck. An outfield setup of Alex Verdugo, Hernández, and Bradley Jr. is fine, but not more than that.
Whitlock starting means Matt Barnes closing with no clear prime setup option. The right side of the infield is muddled.
The resources are there. The desire is there. And Bloom’s hit on nearly every move he’s made to date. (Nick Pivetta looks better by the day.)
It’s time to go big.
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