The Boston Red Sox are falling all the way out of playoff contention and Chaim Bloom deserves the lion's share of the blame for his trade deadline dud.
The Boston Red Sox are dead. Sure, in theory, they could make up the five-game deficit that's grown in the wild card race over the remaining 50+ games and get into the playoffs. But based on what we've seen since the trade deadline, that seems wholly unlikely. And Chaim Bloom deserves every finger to be pointed at him.
Speaking with the media after the trade deadline, Bloom talked about the Red Sox being underdogs, which colored a quiet deadline in Boston where they added a pair of fringe relievers in Mauricio Llovera and Nick Robertson along with infielder Luis Urias. Yet, if this roster is an underdog, then Bloom is saying that like Tim Robinson in a hot dog costume, trying to find the guy who did this.
Let me clear up the drama: It was Chaim Bloom. He failed to adequately fix the entirety of the bullpen and constructed a pitching staff (and arguably an infield) that was unable to weather any injuries. That's what landed the Red Sox in this spot of mediocrity, disappointment and bordering on irrelevancy.
Sure, Chris Sale, Trevor Story, Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and more are coming back from injuries. But at this rate, it'll be too late when that happens for the Red Sox to truly save the season and get back in the thick of the playoff race.
That could've been remedied at the trade deadline, though. Yet, Bloom did nothing of substance to improve this roster, even with Rafael Devers pleading for help. So looking back, here are the three mistakes at the trade deadline that killed the Red Sox.
Red Sox: 3 Chaim Bloom trade deadline whiffs that killed the season
3. Failing to trade Alex Verdugo was malpractice for the Red Sox
It's become extremely clear over the past few weeks that the relationship between Alex Verdugo and manager Alex Cora (in addition to possibly the Red Sox front office) might be beyond repair.
The outfielder who was arguably the centerpiece of the Mookie Betts trade to the Dodgers — which is another Chaim Bloom failure in its own right — had been in the midst of a breakout season early in 2023, but had since leveled off. Now he's being benched for mysterious reasons that appear to be hustle or character related and he's only under team control through the end of next season.
As such, with Boston having a glut of outfield depth on this current roster thanks to the immediate impact of Masataka Yoshida and breakout of Jarren Duran, it wasn't wholly surprising to see Verdugo floated as a potential "surprise" trade candidate for the Red Sox. And with several contenders looking for left-handed outfielders and bats, it would've been easy to get a valuable haul in return for Verdugo.
Instead, Bloom and the Red Sox sat on their outfield depth and did nothing to help improve the rest of the roster. This could even be extended to someone like Adam Duvall, who would've netted a lesser return than Verdugo, but still had plenty of interest.
Boston now moves into irrelevancy with a bevy of good outfielders, too many to take the field at the same time on the same day while other parts of the roster are exceptionally weak. That includes a player in Verdugo's case who may simply want out. To not capitalize on that for a player or asset that could actually help this team is malpractice.
2. Red Sox failure to land any impact bullpen arms is on Chaim Bloom's hands
The numbers will tell you that the Red Sox have been quite solid with their bullpen since Alex Cora made the decision to move guys like Nick Pivetta to the bullpen out of the rotation. The eye test, however, will tell you that the Boston bullpen is in an untenable position and have been putting up good performances sporadically coupled with some real disasters on the mound.
One of the big things that has hampered Boston this season has been the lack of usable starting pitching depth. With Sale, Whitlock and Houck out of the picture, they have three starting pitchers, meaning that the Red Sox have been forced to run a bullpen game two times in the five-game rotation for weeks now.
Shockingly enough, that has worked out horribly. We just saw it most recently in the crucial series against the Blue Jays this past weekend as they were shelled on Saturday and Sunday in said bullpen games, losing handily.
Admittedly, the number of bullpen arms available at the trade deadline wasn't Bloom and the Red Sox looking at an abundance of options. At the same time, though, the bullpen need has quite literally never been more pressing than it is now — which is saying something given the shortcomings of that department in recent years — and Boston didn't get involved.
If Bloom really looked at the market and thought that guys like Alex Lange, David Robertson, Scott Barlow, Brooks Raley and a plethora of others couldn't help Boston right now, I don't know what team he's watching every day.
1. How in the world did Chaim Bloom not get the Red Sox a starting pitcher?
Immediately after the trade deadline, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the Red Sox were one of the teams in on Justin Verlander. Obviously, the Mets ended up trading him to Houston, but it's at least good to know that Bloom was interested in that big swing. On the other hand, it also seems like Verlander was all but forcing his way back to the Astros with his no-trade clause.
And that's where the problem lies with Chaim Bloom and how he's sunk this franchise of late.
He clearly identified that the Red Sox need help with their starting pitching. Yes, part of that is due to injuries, but part of it is just a lack of depth after whiffing one someone like Corey Kluber in free agency (a whole other can of worms to open) and needing to address that.
That's what makes it so infuriating to see an organization with a Top 5 farm system in baseball that is absolutely loaded with talent — not including the Cedanne Rafaelas, Nick Yorkes and Marcelo Mayers of the world either — that could swing a trade for someone like Michael Lorenzen or Lucas Giolito and not doing anything about it.
By doing nothing to address the starting pitching issue in Boston, this team is now simply waiting and hoping for the returns of injured players to save a season that might already be lost by the time that they return. For a front office to not recognize that and realize that they could've fixed the issue at the trade deadline is maddening and, frankly, unforgivable.