McAdam: Contrast between Dombrowski and Bloom could not be greater

It used to happen all the time with managers.

Teams would hire someone who had a reputation as being a player-friendly manager, only to find, after several years, that the club lacked discipline and players were openly taking advantage of the manager's easy-going ways.

As a reaction to that, invariably, a tougher, more authoritarian leader would be hired as the replacement, vowing to create a more orderly environment with more attention paid to details.

And, eventually, the pendulum would swing the other way.

In the current game, those managerial contrasts no longer exists. Every prospective manager is judged to be player-friendly -- the better to foster better communication and allow for the building of strong relationships. The days of Dick Williams - an unapologetic hard-ass who wouldn't think twice about offending a player and whose profane tirades could peel wallpaper -- are long gone.

But in the front office, where at least some evolution still exists, there are still some contrasts. In fact, few could be greater than the one between Dave Dombrowski, fired last month by the Red Sox, and Chaim Bloom, the man who was officially hired to replace him Friday afternoon.

That shouldn't come as much of a surprise. When Red Sox ownership finally, in the final week of the season, got around to offering a rationale for dismissing Dombrowski, they noted that Dombrowski had been the right man for the job when he was hired in 2015, but added that the same skill-set wasn't best suited for the Red Sox in 2020 and going forward.

How different are Dombrowski and Bloom? Let us count the ways:



1-Age

This one is obvious, but worth pointing out. Dombrowski is 63, and was one of the oldest general managers/president of baseball operations in the game. Bloom, meanwhile, is just 36 and would be one of the youngest.

Bloom won't qualify as the youngest GM in Red Sox history (Theo Epstein was just 28 when he took over in 2002), but even after 15 years in the game, he would be among the youngest in either league.

That's part of a generational sea change that has taken place across the sport, with younger and younger executives entrusted to run organizations.

2-Background and experience

Dombrowski followed a path that was typical for executives at a time, working his way up through various scouting and administrative roles. By the time he was 32 -- four years younger than Bloom now -- he had already been GM of two teams (Montreal, Florida). When Dombrowski was hired by the Red Sox, he had spent time with four organizations, leading three of them.

Meanwhile, Bloom, other than a brief internship with the San Diego Padres, has spent the last 15 years with the Rays. And while he has held a variety of titles and responsibilities, his main expertise lies chiefly in analytics. That's more typical of the modern career path for executives.

3-Track record on personnel

This is a difficult comparison to make, since Dombrowski has nearly 30 years as a chief baseball executive upon which to judge his skills while Bloom only two years ago was placed in a decision-making capacity with the Rays. In fact, Bloom has yet to be bestowed a title of GM or president of baseball operations, though, in his role as vice president of baseball operations, he was given plenty of responsibility and in the eyes of some, was very nearly co-GM with the Rays.

Dombrowski's MO -- especially in his last two stops in Detroit and Boston -- was to have a "win now'' philosophy, predicated on big-name free agent signings (David Price, J.D. Martinez, Prince Fielder) and blockbuster trades for stars (Chris Sale, Craig Kimbrel, Miguel Cabrera). Dombrowski had little regard for building a farm system and instead viewed prospects as a means to an end, utilized to land established players.

Bloom, limited in resources by the small-budget Rays, hasn't had the luxury of bidding for the game's premier free agents. Starting pitcher Charlie Morton was the closest thing to an exception, and even that deal (two years, $30 million) was limited in term and exposure.

Instead, Bloom -- and Erik Neander -- have had to find bargains, uncover undervalued assets and generally, make do with less.

Toward that end, Bloom has been quite successful. The Rays unequivocally won trades that landed them, among others, Tommy Pham, Nick Anderson, Emilio Pagan, Ji-Man Choi and Yandy Diaz.