McAdam: Chaim Bloom assesses the current damage and prepares for the trade deadline

His job as chief baseball officer requires some multi-tasking for Chaim Bloom.

In the here and now, Bloom is watching a train-wreck of a Red Sox season unfold and figuring out ways to stabilize the current roster.

But Bloom is also charged with planning and preparing for the future, and as such, the approaching Aug. 31 trade deadline also is consuming a fair bit of his attention.

For now, however, it's difficult to look away from a team which has managed to lose a breathtaking 18 times in its first 25 games. Bloom may have suspected that this year would present its challenges, but never did he think it would historically bad.

"It's extremely disappointing,'' confessed Bloom. "These are about as bad a result as you could possibly imagine. A lot of things have not gone well. That's just a fact of the matter. It's extremely disappointing. We're all competitive. We like to win and we hate losing.''

The key, Bloom added, is to have a clear-eyed view of what's the underlying issues here and not overreact and create additional problems.

Bloom threw his support behind beleaguered manager Ron Roenicke, whom Bloom hired in February.



"It's easy to be your best self when things are going well,'' he said. "I think you learn more about people sometimes when things aren't. And what really stands out is the consistency. I think that's something that's important to players. He's authentic to who he is, he's consistent and I think that sets a good tone. It's a consistent environment, it's an environment where guys come in and they're ready to work. It's a productive atmosphere and I think a lot of that is due to the emotional cues that our group is getting from Ron.''

Much of the team's struggles have been related to a pitching staff that has been decimated by pre-season injuries and includes a cast of journeymen thrust into roles for which they're not capable. The degree to which that's handcuffed Roenicke and pitching coach Dave Bush has not gone unnoticed by Baseball Operations.

'"Our entire front office, I think, we've tried to be as clear as we can with those guys -- that there's only so much that they have the ability to control,'' Bloom said.

Still, there may be a silver lining to the losses piling up. At the very least, Bloom can hardly be lulled into thinking that the season can be salvaged, and he can proceed directly toward his goal of building the Sox into contenders again in future years.

"The big picture, the long-term objectives of this organization, I think, we had to prioritize from Day One, those are still important,'' he said. "Those need to be at the top of the priority list if we're going to get to where we want to go. Because of our start, the needle might move a little bit more in that direction and maybe there will be things we will contemplate that we wouldn't otherwise have contemplated.

"But we're trying to do this so we can compete a lot, we're trying to sustain it so that we can compete for championships every year and anything that builds toward that goal is something that we have to consider, regardless of what our record is right now.''

Then again, Bloom said he views the deadline as a chance to improve and maybe even accelerate the roster rebuild that's obviously necessary.

"I think regardless of where our record stood, it would always in a vacuum be our preference to be active,'' he said, "because when you are, it means you have opportunities to upgrade your organization and advance your goals. And you're always looking for those opportunities, regardless of where you stand.''

Getting a read on how the trade market will be is particularly difficult this season, given the novelty of the shorter season, the introduction of expanded playoffs and the persistent, looming threat of a shutdown because of the pandemic.

"There's a lot of things you have to factor in,'' he said. "Everybody is going to respond differently, but I think overall, there is a lot of optimism about how this is going to go the rest of the way and hopefully will make the deadline as close to normal as it possibly could be.''

Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy noted in a radio interview last week that the team is unlikely to identify any players as untouchables, a point amplified by Bloom Wednesday. But he did suggest it would almost be impossible to envision a scenario in which the team parted with its left side of the infield building blocks -- shortstop Xander Bogaerts and third baseman Rafael Devers.

"That's simple-- those guys are core players for us, they're incredibly important to our future,'' said Bloom. "Philosophically, I don't like to think in terms of absolute 'no's.' But those guys are key players for us and we are very hopeful that they're going to be part of our next championship.''

In the meantime, the Sox have to make sure that the chronic losing doesn't negatively impact the atmosphere around the major league club.

"It can be a concern,'' confirmed Bloom. "That's one of the toughest things about going through a stretch like this is what it can do to culture and what it can do to the environment. Talking to people who have been in the organization a long time, and have seen functional and dysfunctional environments, considering what we've been going through, everyone feels pretty good about the work environment. (But) it's something we're going to have to keep monitoring.''