I’ve been sitting on this column idea for a couple of weeks but now the timing is perfect.
With half of the 2021 season officially gone, the Red Sox are sitting pretty atop the American League East Division. Your first-place Boston Red Sox boast a robust 51-31 record on the season to date. Twenty-eight of those 51 wins (55%) are of the most exciting variety, coming from behind, a statistic the Sox lead the league in by the way. Nobody has more comeback wins.
If you thought that they would be 20 games over .500 and in first place with a 3 1/2-game lead, then you should be spending the upcoming Independence Day holiday weekend at one of New England’s luxury casinos. Keep it local.
Almost forgot to mention that the Sox are also currently riding a very impressive seven game winning streak. If you had a ticket to this last home stand, you saw a win. Perfect.
And who doesn’t love nice surprises? I thought the Red Sox would easily be significantly improved over last year’s snooze fest and pegged them for an 85 win season. I figured they would be in play for the second wildcard. Heading into April, a predictive finish like that while showing some promise for 2022 and beyond would have sat perfectly OK with me but this? This is blissfully fun. It’s pure entertainment at the ballpark, on TV and on the radio. Both broadcasts are entertaining and going to games at America’s Favorite Ballpark has that old friendly feeling again. Passion abounds.
So while the going is great, I want to flip the script on the old ‘blame pie’ topic. Today, I rather introduce you to ‘the credit pie’ as in, who should get more for this surprising Red Sox success? GM Chaim Bloom who built the team or Alex Cora who leads the troops? Both men, and the ballplayers they lead deserve tons of credit but with the success on the field so significantly outperforming pretty much everyone’s expectations, this question deserves deeper analysis.
Let’s start with the man who put the band together, Chaim Bloom.
My early analysis on Bloom since his arrival has essentially been that we haven’t yet seen the best of him. His task upon arrival was a difficult one. First, to undo the reckless financial disaster that was created over the six year period leading up to his arrival. Though the team he inherited won the 2018 World Series just one season prior, there was a massive cleanup (dare I say disinfection) that needed to be addressed. The mess left behind started with a series of chaotic financial moves after first lowballing then losing, Jon Lester in 2014. This is well chronicled in great detail here: How Jon Lester situation impacted trading of Mookie Betts (audacy.com).
Bloom had to untangle a payroll not only burdened with a luxury tax but with too many bloated contracts; some of which were tied to players no longer in a Red Sox uniform like Hanley Ramirez and Pablo the Hut. That was job one, but the need to accomplish that while maintaining competiveness on the field and the young core base of his team was an equally important task. Doing that, while having to trade his most prolific player (Betts) out of town could not have been easy. So how’s he done? I’d say pretty darn well.
First, let’s review the haul he acquired for Betts, a player we all knew was destined to cash in and leave town. I’d say the early returns on that one are pretty good. Alex Verdugo is a legitimate All-Star candidate right now and he’s still two to three years away from the early years of his prime. Recently we’ve seen Connor Wong, the young versatile catcher in his first MLB stint this past week and he looks to be a legitimate Major League Ballplayer. Wong was considered ‘a throw-in’ when the deal was made. Then there is young Jeter Downs who came to the Sox and instantly topped the ranks of their farm system. Pretty good start I’d say and that trade was easily Bloom’s toughest task.
Since then, the payroll is more manageable and suddenly flexible. They are now in much better position to add talent either at the deadline or in the upcoming offseason. Better yet, Bloom’s first real Red Sox team is postseason competitive right now. The bullpen is lights out. The lineup is formidable and the starting rotation for the most part, is doing its job. Bloom deserves a ton of credit for how he first addressed the challenges before him with aplomb. Then, for him to assemble a winner on the field within one year, while adding very little higher-end major league talent should be proof enough that the Red Sox hired a very capable man. He’s shown fiscal smarts, shrewd decision making and a keen sense to find upside in the ballplayers he brings in. Color me impressed and I still think the best of Bloom is ahead of us.
Now to the Skipper. I think the team that Bloom assembled has proven to be a very good one. As my co-worker Lou Merloni is one to say on Twitter: “The Red Sox are good.” I’ll add onto that, I think they’ve proven to be reallygood. Thing is though that they are playing great. They have been for a while now and to me, that’s all about Cora.
This team shows a collective attitude and grit that is reflective of its manager. Cora isn’t just this teams’ manager, he’s their leader and the Sox are following. The team that Chaim Bloom assembled is far better than the 85 wins I pegged them for. I’d say that even prior to Memorial Day they were looking like a 90-plus win team. As of Thursday’s win though, the 2021 Red Sox are on pace to eclipse 100 wins. That’s leadership. That’s buy in and that’s why Cora gets a bit of a bigger slice of the aforementioned credit pie.
Turning a financially burdened, below average team into a competitive one in a market that demands it was Bloom’s job, albeit a very difficult one. As mentioned above, he’s achieved that with speed and efficiency that is deserving of GM of the year honors.
Turning a solid team into a winning and contending team though, particularly at the Major League level, well let’s just say that that deserves a pretty nice slice of pie. At least a 60 percent slice. I’m cutting that back to 55 percent though because after all, Bloom hired Cora.
Fiscally handcuffed, boring and bad to financially flexible, competitive and good = 45 percent.
Good to great, while building a fun, confident and winning culture = 55 percent.
More importantly, both deserve some ice cream with that credit pie too.
