Since the All-Star break, the Red Sox are 1-5. They've now dipped below .500 for the first time since June 4, and the second-half features a slew of games against AL East opponents, against whom the Sox are currently 12-29.
So, with the trade deadline looming, it seems smart for the team to put up the "For Sale'' sign over the clubhouse. Maybe not quite, "Everything Must Go,'' but at the very least, a willingness to trade off parts of the major league roster.
In the face of all the available evidence, however, Chaim Bloom isn't giving up. Not yet anyway. And that's not likely to change based on how things go between now and Tuesday, the arrival of the deadline.
"We would be silly to pretend that (the standings don't) exist,'' said Bloom. "We're not too happy with how it looks right now. We have to factor that in. But to really dictate the course of the organization over a handful of games is usually not the right course. So we're going to factor in, obviously, where we are. It makes sense to do that at some level.
"But in the big picture, when you look at what we're trying to do, and when you thinking about winning this year and winning for a long time, that's bigger than any one week of games.... Obviously, we haven't played well lately. We've been banged up and we haven't been playing well. I do think we have a good team. I think we have a very talented team. It's not a perfect club, no question, and at times we haven't played as well as we could.... But I'd stack our talent up with just against just about any team -- at full strength obviously.''
As the Sox approach the trade deadline, Bloom doesn't see his approach as binary. It doesn't have to be about buying or selling, or even, as some teams around the game anticipation, a mixture of the two, with the Red Sox perhaps auctioning off a player headed for free agency, but at the same time, acquiring talent that they can control well beyond this year.
And if Bloom has a master plan for the next week, he's not tipping his hand, anyway.
"I don't really like the label of 'buy' or 'sell.' In theory,'' he said. "Any move you make, you're doing both regardless of where you are. You're looking at, 'How does this move gonna help the club, help the organization, help you win?' We have spent time exploring a lot of different possibilities -- some of them for shorter-term possibilities, some of them as longer-term possibilities. I think we're not doing our jobs if we're don't try to look at everything.''
However, as he did Tuesday, Bloom went out of his way to note that both Xander Bogaerts (with an opt-out this fall) and Rafael Devers (eligible for free agency after 2023) were off-limits. He felt it necessary to make that thinking public.
"Just the stature that those guys have -- not just for our fans, but also for what it means for what we're trying to accomplish -- and trying to minimize whatever potential distraction that could cause. So I just said the truth -- we haven't discussed them with anybody and we're not planning to.''
The fact that the Red Sox, under Bloom, have greatly increased their prospect inventory could impact what they do by next Tuesday. Bloom isn't eager to peck away at the supply of talented young players he's busily accumulated in the last few years, but he can now deal from a position of more strength. One or two deals, should those be made, won't strip the system down to the bare bones again.
But at the same time, Bloom is adamant in his quest to keep stockpiling prospects.
"Having a good talent pipeline is not a hobby,'' he said. "It's not something we do in your spare time. It's how you win. It's how everybody win consistently in baseball today. Every single team in our division is doing that right now, and it's why it's so tough because everyone is trying to do build it the right way. So we have to always be doing that, but some of that is taking advantage to make good trades for established players.''
Whether Bloom soon dips into his stash to help the team, sells off a veteran or does a little of both remains to be seen.