Chaim Bloom and the Red Sox front office failed spectacularly trying to keep Xander Bogaerts in Boston and Bloom’s latest comments make it even worse.
Considering how insultingly low the Boston Red Sox offer to Xander Bogaerts was prior to the 2022 season, there was always an uneasy feeling about the shortstop hitting free agency this offseason and the team’s ability to re-sign one if its homegrown stars. Those fears were completely founded.
Bogaerts signed a wild 11-year, $280 million contract with the Padres late on Wednesday night, thus leaving general manager Chaim Bloom with another red X on his resumé as the shortstop joins a growing list of stars that could’ve been Red Sox for life that are now playing elsewhere because the team wouldn’t pay them.
As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, though, there was still some hope that Boston was going to be able to keep Bogaerts leading up to the Padres deal. But when Bloom was asked about the deal, he made himself look even worse.
Red Sox: Chaim Bloom admits Boston was always losing Xander Bogaerts
Bloom, when talking about the Red Sox pursuit to retain Bogaerts, essentially confirmed that Boston never had a chance and that reports of optimism about negotiations were unfounded as the front office never expected to be able to meet the shortstop’s price.
Bloom said the Red Sox pretty much knew Bogaerts was going elsewhere all day Wednesday and even had that sense Tuesday. There was no feeling within the org that they had made any progress even though reports were publicly flying saying so.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) December 10, 2022
On one hand, you can definitely look at this as Bloom being accurate in that the team should not have given Bogaerts an 11-year contract for $280 million that will pay him until he’s 41 years old. It can also be true that Bloom and the front office would’ve never had to do that if they’d simply value the shortstop properly in negotiations before he opted out and hit free agency.
It’s maddening for Red Sox fans to hear this rhetoric from the general manager of one of the richest teams in baseball. Bloom, a disciple of the Tampa Bay Rays, is operating like an executive who doesn’t have money to spend when that is just patently false. And he’s doing so at the expense of homegrown stars and making the team better.
So for him to just outright say that the team never really stood a chance to keep Bogaerts, that’s a damning indictment on himself and how he handled the entire situation.
Now all eyes will turn to two things. First, Boston needs to replace Bogaerts, though their unwillingness to spend makes it seem unlikely that they can remotely adequately do so by signing other high-priced free agents like Carlos Correa or Dansby Swanson. Secondly, though, they need to sign Rafael Devers to an extension, another homegrown star.
Because if this pattern with Bloom continues and Devers is the next player of that ilk that he loses, there might be a riot outside of Fenway Park.