3 trades Chaim Bloom didn’t make that killed the Red Sox season

2. Red Sox failure to land any impact bullpen arms is on Chaim Bloom’s hands

The numbers will tell you that the Red Sox have been quite solid with their bullpen since Alex Cora made the decision to move guys like Nick Pivetta to the bullpen out of the rotation. The eye test, however, will tell you that the Boston bullpen is in an untenable position and have been putting up good performances sporadically coupled with some real disasters on the mound.

One of the big things that has hampered Boston this season has been the lack of usable starting pitching depth. With Sale, Whitlock and Houck out of the picture, they have three starting pitchers, meaning that the Red Sox have been forced to run a bullpen game two times in the five-game rotation for weeks now.

Shockingly enough, that has worked out horribly. We just saw it most recently in the crucial series against the Blue Jays this past weekend as they were shelled on Saturday and Sunday in said bullpen games, losing handily.

Admittedly, the number of bullpen arms available at the trade deadline wasn’t Bloom and the Red Sox looking at an abundance of options. At the same time, though, the bullpen need has quite literally never been more pressing than it is now — which is saying something given the shortcomings of that department in recent years — and Boston didn’t get involved.

If Bloom really looked at the market and thought that guys like Alex Lange, David Robertson, Scott Barlow, Brooks Raley and a plethora of others couldn’t help Boston right now, I don’t know what team he’s watching every day.