FORT MYERS, FL --- As he enters his fourth season as the Red Sox chief baseball officer, Chaim Bloom is on the clock.
In Bloom's first three seasons, the Red Sox have finished in last place twice. Attendance and TV ratings have dipped, and fan interest in the franchise has plateaued. Two homegrown stars have left town after the team failed to secure contract extensions.
In all likelihood, Bloom will need the Red Sox to -- at minimum -- have his team playing meaningful games in September in order to retain his job. The Red Sox moved on quickly from his two predecessors -- each of whom won a World Series -- when club performance cratered.
But as the Red Sox begin the 2023 season Thursday at Fenway against the Baltimore Orioles, Bloom isn't the only one in the spotlight. He's merely the most powerful and highest-paid. If Bloom has come under fire for his roster composition and failure to strike big in the offseason, there are also heightened expectations for manager Alex Cora, now entering his fifth season in the Boston dugout.
The fortunes of the two are inexorably linked. Bloom inherited Cora as his manager in the fall of 2019, only to lose him months later when Cora was suspended for the 2020 season for his involvement in the 2017 Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal. Following a year in which Ron Roenicke essentially served as interim manager, Bloom could have moved on from Cora permanently when it came to hire a manager for 2021.
Instead, Bloom re-hired Cora, convinced that Cora had put the Astros' mess behind him and equally assured that a contrite Cora was his best option. When Cora directed the Red Sox to within two games of the 2021 AL pennant, it seemed as though the union was a successful one.
The 2022 season, however, suggested otherwise. Privately, Cora was frustrated at times that Bloom didn't move more aggressively in the first half of the season when cracks became apparent in the roster. At the deadline, Bloom's scatter-shot approach -- dealing or releasing some veterans while acquiring others -- left the team unsettled with some small fires of discontent raged in the clubhouse.
Over the winter, Kiké Hernandez, one of the players closest to Cora, raised eyebrows when he said the Sox needed an improved clubhouse culture, charging that too many players had grown comfortable in a losing environment. While he didn't mean it as such, Hernandez's remarks didn't reflect positively on Cora.
Expectations are modest for the 2023 Red Sox. Many would regard a winning season as progress, even if it didn't result in a postseason appearance.
There are no hints whatsoever that Cora's job security is an issue. He's signed through the end of 2024, and both inside and outside the organization, he's regarded as one of the game's better managers.
Still, it will aid Cora's reputation and legacy if he can steer the Red Sox back into contention.
Cora seems driven to re-establish his credentials, perhaps owing to the recent publication of Evan Drellich's book, "Winning Fixes Everything,'' a chronicle of the Astros' scandal. Cora is not treated kindly in the book and the revisiting of the cheating, Cora's role in it and his alleged lack of contrition do not put him a favorable light.
Though he made no explicit references to Drellich's book, it seemed to be serving as motivation for the upcoming season as he spoke on the final day of spring training.
"I've got a lot of reasons to go out there and guide this team to where we want to go,'' said Cora. "I always have the same expectations as the fan base and the organization. There's a lot of things that happened in the offseason that...I took personal. It's not baseball-related; I think it's life-related. If I needed a chip on my shoulder, I just got another one. I don't want to say that I'm more locked in than in previous years, but people (lit) a fire under me in the offseason, personally. I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go. I'm really locked in on what I want to do.
"Some things you take personal and others you just brush away. I think there's a lot of things that happened in the offseason (that made think), 'OK, this is how it goes? Well, let me go out there and do my thing. (I can't say) much, not much. I'll reserve that one, But yeah, there's a lot of reasons out there. I'm going to go out there and do my job the way I know I can do it. It's not that last year I didn't do it, but plain and simple, we sucked. But if I needed a reminder that you have to keep pushing the same way you've always done it, there were a few reminders in the offseason.''
Though he's no longer a player, Cora remains as competitive as ever. He may not directly impact the outcome on the field, but he can put people in place who can, and that opportunity to compete and lead is intoxicating to him. Results matter and beyond external expectations, Cora feels the need to constantly prove himself.
"Always, always,'' he said. "Every year, every year. Where I'm at, what I do, the way I go about my business...some people like it, some people don't. I've just to get locked in on my group and keep pushing them. We finished last last year and that's not acceptable. I'm not here to finish last; I'm here to win championships. That's what I said in November 2017 and I still live by that. On a personal note, yeah, I'm very prepared for this one.''
As he readies for his fifth season on the job, Cora's style and demeanor have changed some.
"I'm more comfortable to have the tough conversations, more comfortable calling people out when I have to,'' he said. "Your'e not always friends with your players. But the more you manage, the more prepared you are to have those tough conversations without crossing the line. You still respect them, but we expect certain things (from players) and I think I'm more comfortable now, having those tough conversations one-on-one.''