After getting swept by the Blue Jays at Fenway Park this weekend, the Red Sox have now lost five of six games since the trade deadline, when chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom stood pat aside from a couple minor moves. In the span of 10 days, Boston’s chances to make the playoffs, according to Fangraphs, have dropped from 39% to now just 11%.
Who’s to blame for this collapse? While the reality is that there’s plenty to go around, The Greg Hill Show crew had some ideas about who’s most to blame Monday morning. Listen to the full segment below.
Bloom might be the obvious scapegoat, but Jermaine Wiggins argued that manager Alex Cora and the players deserve plenty of blame as well.
“I do blame Chaim, but I also blame Alex Cora and the players,” Wiggy said. “So you're upset that they don't make any moves, and then you're gonna cry about it and basically quit? … I know Chaim didn’t make moves to make the team better, but you as a player have to have more pride and as a manager have to have more pride. Isn't it starting to seem like Alex has lost the clubhouse? The second year in a row your team doesn't do anything and basically gives up.”
Greg Hill disagreed and put it all on Bloom.
“I don't put it on the players,” he said. “I normally would, but they overperformed in the month of July. They did better than anybody thought that roster should. Then you have an opportunity for the front office in the form of Chaim Bloom to get you some help when it comes to an arm. Supposedly he was in on [Justin] Verlander, and then wouldn't do the deal. He did the exact same thing that he did last year. He's like trying to half buy, half sell. At the same time that you're pursuing Verlander, you're talking about trading [Justin] Turner, you're talking about trading [James] Paxton. Like they're just asking you for a little bit of help and you gave them nothing.
“I put it all on Chaim Bloom,” Hill added. “It's all on him. He did the exact same thing that he did last year, which was nothing, and basically told those guys we don't think you're good enough to be a wild card team. Sorry, but that's what he did.”
Chris Curtis acknowledged that everyone deserves some blame, but mostly sided with Greg in pinpointing Bloom’s inaction as the root cause.
“Of course you blame everybody,” Curtis said. “The players were awful this weekend. The way Reese McGuire ended the game on Saturday [getting caught way too far off the base on a flyout] was embarrassing. You don't do that in Little League. But I like the cause more than the effect. And the cause was the trade deadline, once again this team having a team that is competing, had the best record in baseball for over a month, and the management group decided to do nothing.”
Red Sox fans clearly agree. In a poll posted to The Greg Hill Show Twitter account, 65.8% of more than 3,000 responses said they blame Bloom for the collapse. The players get 28.7% of the blame pie, while just 5.5% blame Cora.
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