In February, Sam Kennedy said Chaim Bloom's job was safe.
“Chaim is our chief baseball officer and I do not anticipate any changes there,” Kennedy told reporters in Fort Myers during spring training.
But a lot can change in seven months.
The Red Sox are staring down their third last-place finish in four seasons, currently tied with the Yankees at 73-72 in the basement of the American League East. With that, the organization correctly made the call to fire Bloom.
In a statement, John Henry said: “While parting ways is not taken lightly, today signals a new direction for our club. Our organization has significant expectations on the field and while Chaim’s efforts in revitalizing our baseball infrastructure have helped set the stage for the future, we will today begin a search for new leadership. Everyone who knows Chaim has a deep appreciation and respect for the kind of person he is. His time with us will always be marked by his professionalism, integrity, and an unwavering respect for our club and its legacy.”
Fielding questions from the media before Thursday's doubleheader against New York was Kennedy, the usual suspect in place of Henry and Tom Werner.
“We need to be competitive, we need to be playing for a postseason spot, playing meaningful games in September and playing baseball in October,” Kennedy told reporters in a press conference. “This is a really painful day for a lot of reasons, especially the personal side of it. And there’s blame to go around. There’s blame on me, our ownership. The on-field staff deserves blame. I’m sure some of the players would say they haven’t performed up to expectations. We all fell short of our collective goals.
"There’s a lot of blame to go around. It’s a really tough business. We felt we needed to make significant changes with these two positions, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Along with Bloom's exodus, general manager Brian O'Halloran has been offered a new senior leadership position within baseball ops. He and assistant general managers Eddie Romero, Raquel Ferreira, and Michael Groopman will oversee baseball ops until Boston hires a replacement.
The search will begin immediately, and Kennedy ruled out a return of Theo Epstein. He did not comment on the possibility of Alex Cora taking on a role in the front office.
Kennedy also said the search will be much more extensive this time around after Bloom was the first and only candidate ownership interviewed after letting Dave Dombrowski go over "philosophical differences."
Ownership's philosophy was clearly to cut payroll and rebuild the farm. In that regard, Bloom succeeded.
Boston went from the worst-ranked prospect pool in baseball to the fifth-best, per Baseball America. The club's payroll went from $243.6 million to $179.2 million, successfully falling below the CBT in three of four seasons.
But outside of an anomaly in 2021 that saw a trip to the ALCS, Bloom couldn't walk the line between competing while also having an eye toward the future, even if it is a near-impossible task.
There was the Mookie Betts trade, which continues to be a debacle for the organization as Betts remains one of the game's top players. Meanwhile, Jeter Downs is out of the organization. As strong as he can look for stretches, Alex Verdugo's future is in question. Connor Wong is just a fine defensive catcher.
Outside of Josh Winckowski, the Sox have nothing to show for the Andrew Benintendi trade.
The Jackie Bradley Jr. redux in place of Hunter Renfroe was a calamity.
Negotiations with Xander Bogaerts were all for show. His $140 million replacement, Trevor Story, has dealt with injury and plenty of struggles at the plate.
Rather than paying Nathan Eovaldi or Michael Wacha in the offseason, who both have had strong seasons elsewhere, Bloom only added to his patchwork rotation by adding Corey Kluber, who was an unmitigated disaster before going down with injury.
For the second straight season, Boston has played sub-.500 baseball after Bloom found himself too deep into the business of green bananas (prospects), unable to pull the trigger on anything, be it buying or selling. At this season's deadline, the Sox were firmly in the Wild Card hunt. After doing nothing, an overworked pitching staff has fallen apart, despite the returns of internal additions like Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock. James Paxton, who could have fetched a return in a trade if Bloom did indeed feel the Sox were "underdogs," is now shut down for the season.
The fanbase has responded with frequent patches of vacant seats at Fenway down the stretch.
But Bloom was just doing what he was supposed to, right?
Payroll is down, currently 11th in baseball, according to Jeff Passan, which is a far cry from the top-three ranking they held when they were winning championships. The farm is healthy with headliners like Marcelo Mayer and Kyle Teal, among others.
That, however, is no longer good enough in ownership's eyes.
“We see ourselves as relentless and aggressive every single year,” Kennedy said. “I know there’s been a lot of talk about a change in philosophy or pivoting. But from where I sit, the commitment to continue to invest at the highest levels of baseball operations will continue. That will not change. The resources are there thanks to our fans, period.
“The best organizations challenge, push, question. That goes on all the time here. I believe there’s alignment around what our ultimate goal is and what our North Star is. Our North Star is winning championships and is playing baseball in October and has been since the day we got here in February of 2002 and that will never change as long as this ownership is in place. I assure you... If [it's not clear], then shame on me and shame on us.”
But the fact of the matter is, that hasn't been clear in some time.
As payroll has fallen, so have the results. Since winning their fifth World Series since 2000 in 2018, the Red Sox have made the playoffs just once. They are about to miss the postseason for the fourth time in five seasons. Again, last place is staring them down. Henry has not spoken to reporters since 2020 as questions about ownership's commitment grow louder from a frustrated fanbase. On the occasions Bloom was allowed to bust open the checkbook, the money was not spent wisely – Story and Sale serve as primary examples.
Kennedy's repeated emphasis on the Red Sox' "relentless and aggressive" pursuit of being a "championship-caliber club, year in and year out" is all well and good.
But unless ownership puts its money where its mouth is, in more ways than one, Kennedy's promises are nothing more than empty words.