McAdam: At the margins, Chaim Bloom is slowly putting his stamp on Red Sox roster

For the entirety of last offseason, former president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski added exactly one (1) new player from outside the organization to the 40-man roster (reliever Colten Brewer). That was largely by design, as Dombrowski made a decision -- ill-fated, in retrospect -- to keep together very nearly the same group which had won 108 regular-season games and the World Series the previous season.

In sharp contrast, his successor, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, has already added 12 new players to the 40-man, to say nothing of the players who were given minor league deals with invitations to major league spring training.

Bloom added to the latter group Tuesday morning when the Sox agreed to terms with veteran catcher Jonathan Lucroy.

It's not a signing that will change the face of the American League East race. Lucroy is 33 and four years removed from his best season, when he slashed .292/.355/.500 with 24 homers, and is likely here, in part, because he played parts of five seasons in Milwaukee for Ron Roenicke, now the Red Sox' interim manager.

But Lucroy's signing boosts the Red Sox' organizational depth at a position that was perilously thin. Christian Vazquez, of course, is the No. 1 catcher at the big league level, with journeyman Kevin Plawecki in contention for the backup spot.



Beyond those two, the only other catcher in the system who could project to contribute at all at the major league level was, until Tuesday, Juan Centeno. But Centeno is strictly a catch-and-throw option, with a paltry career OPS of .601. At a position where a foul-tip can result in a broken finger and a month-long stint on the DL, it's particularly risky to not have alternatives at the ready.

When Bloom was with the Tampa Bay Rays, they valued two things (beyond payroll efficiency): depth and versatility. Those qualities were especially important for a team that didn't have the luxury of a star-studded roster. The Rays may not have had All-Stars at every position, but they always had multiple options.

It could be said, in fact, that Dombrowski and Bloom possess almost polar opposite philosophies when it comes to roster-building. While Dombrowski often focused on big names and established stars to construct a roster that was top-heavy, Bloom is known to greatly value a more balanced approach, intent on bolstering the bottom half of the roster to act as a safety net when injuries (or under-performance) strike.

The recent trade of Mookie Betts and David Price notwithstanding, Bloom is not operating with anywhere near the same financial restrictions imposed on him in Tampa. But that doesn't lessen the need for depth to guard against the inevitable scourge of injuries.

It's likely not a coincidence that of the five position players added to the 40-man by Bloom, all but one (Plawecki) can contribute at multiple positions. Rule 5 selection Jonathan Arauz can play multiple infield spots, and free-agent signing Jose Peraza, in addition to plenty of experience at second and short has also played 60 games in the outfield in the big leagues.

Alex Verdugo, the centerpiece of the Betts/Price deal, is an above-average defender in both center and right and recent free agent Kevin Pillar can play all three outfield spots.

That flexibility can be critical for a team over the course of a season. Thanks to the presence of the two new outfielders and Peraza, as an example, there will be little need for J.D. Martinez to play much in the outfield -- a good thing for everyone concerned.

Nor will there be a need to again start Christian Vazquez at either second base or first base, as former manager Alex Cora did last year. A deeper, more versatile roster will act as insurance against that necessity.

The majority of moves made by Bloom don't qualify as earth-shattering. But in accumulating a host of back-end rotation types (Matt Hall, Austin Brice, Jeffrey Springs) and providing some additional role players -- either for the major league bench or stashed in nearby Pawtucket, Bloom is aiming to shore up the part of the roster to which his predecessor was guilty of sometimes overlooking.