Tuesday represented the first full day of the annual General Managers meetings in Las Vegas, and as is customary, executives met with the media to answer questions.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is entering a critical offseason and sorely needs to improve his roster -- if for no other reason than to save his own job.
But despite the fact that the Sox are coming off a last-place finish in 2022, Bloom told reporters he was pleased with where the Red Sox sit.
"I'm optimistic,'' he said. "We had a rough year, But if you had said a few years ago, that three years out, we'd be in a position, where, yeah, we're entering a big offseason where we need a lot of questions answered, but we have a dramatically improved farm system. We have an organizational talent base that's getting stronger and stronger. That, looking ahead, we have a lot of guys coming and we also have more flexibility than we have in the past and while not everything's gone perfect along the way -- see 2022 -- we still almost got to the World Series along the way.
''I would say a lot of good things. Now, we've still work to do. We're not satisfied. The goal is to be in the hunt every year for a championship and to win a few of them. We still have a lot of things to prove in that department.''
Asked if the performance of the recently crowned Houston Astros -- who've been to the ALCS six straight seasons and have reached the World Series in four of those seasons and won twice -- would be a franchise for the Sox to model themselves after, Bloom equivocated some.
"I think we should be learning from everything around us,'' he said. "You can learn from the examples of other people's success and you can learn from some struggles that other people have had and what not to do. But ultimately, the only way to really have a tremendous amount of success is to do the right thing for your organization, do the right thing in your situation that you need to succeed.
"We ultimately need to be our best and that's what we're most focused on.
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Bloom has made it known that re-signing free agent shortstop Xander Bogaerts remains the Red Sox' top priority. He downplayed a report on MLB.com that said the Sox were contacting other teams about second basemen, with the idea that if Bogaerts signs elsewhere, the Sox could move Trevor Story back to short and obtain a second baseman.
"I would say that report is overblown,'' Bloom told reporters. "We're looking into a lot of different guys right now, some of whom intersect with our shortstop situations and some of whom don't. I wouldn't read too much into that.''
In addition to Story, the Sox also have Kiké Hernandez, who could play short.
"We'll look at different options,'' he said. " It's not something we wanted to think about, but we knew we might have to think about it. And we feel good about both of those guys being able to play there. So I think it allows us to look at different options to add impact to the club. Bottom line is that we need to make sure we use every avenue to put a really good club out there in 2023, so that's what we're doing.''
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The team announced this week that it would not be picking up the two-year, $26 million option it had on lefty James Paxton. Paxton, who was recovering from 2021 Tommy John surgery, did not pitch for the Sox this season and pitched less than an inning in a rehab assignment in the Florida Complex League.
Paxton now has a $4 million player option that he could still exercise, but has yet to inform the club of his decision.
The Sox could also try to re-sign him on a negotiated contract that is less than the two-year, $26 million figure.
"We have enjoyed having him here,'' said Bloom. "\We signed him with the hope that he'd be pitching postseason baseball for us at Fenway and we'd still love to see that happen.''
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Immediately after the season, Bloom said the team would be interested in upgrading the catching position. On Tuesday, he was asked what he would prioritize in such a search.
"I would say increasingly in the game, the ability to handle a pitching staff is so important,'' he said. "It's certainly something we value. And I think we have a staff that really can take advantage of someone who's invested in that part of the game. specifically with (game planning coordinator Jason Varitek). It's a hard spot to find one guy you can trust, let alone more than one. In any given winter, there's only a handful of players on the free agent market that are really good fits for that position so the trade market is another (option). There's some possibilities.''
Bloom added, "if we end up in a situation where (Connor Wong and Reese McGuire) are our two catchers, I don't right now know if I would label either one of them the primary catcher. They'll both be really important to us in that case.''
He added that while Wong has the versatility to play a few infield spots, the team sees him first and foremost as a receiver.
"Since going behind the plate full-time,' said Bloom of Wong, "he's shown so much in terms of how he can work with pitchers and handle the position. Teams that win tend to have guys back there who are really engaged and he's wired right to be that type of guy.''
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Two Japanese stars could be headed to free agency soon -- lefthanded-hitting outfielder Masataka Yoshida and righthanded starter Kodai Senga.
Bloom wouldn't comment specifically on either, but noted the Japanese market "is a market where we're very engaged. I think we've shown, over the years, well before I was here, that this organization, for a lot of reasons, is very well positioned to support Japanese players, both from a staff standpoint, environment, and (Japanese) players who have played here who will speak to that and have been allies for us.''