I have faith in the process and in the guy executing it right now. I think about half of the sentiment right now is grief about losing Xander (which, like most Sox events, has triggered residual feelings about Mookie leaving), a quarter of it stems from understandable frustration after a bad season, and another quarter of it is histrionic nonsense.
Bloom has made a few moves (and non-moves) that look like mistakes in hindsight. I think the non-signing of Springer, the non-trades of Benintendi (in the 19-20 offseason), Verdugo or Duran are all bad moves. It's looking like a strategic error to have not anticipated that this free agent market would be bananas, headlined by several Boras clients, HoF-caliber pitchers and a superstar/franchise icon, and with a new CBA/CBT.
In hindsight, it seems clear that if you want to keep Devers, you give him a 9/$275-300-type deal last year. OTOH, Devers' last three seasons have been marred by poor conditioning (2020, with the major asterisk of a global pandemic) followed by two consecutive seasons where nagging injuries affected his performance at the plate. Combine those issues with his defense, and it's fair to have questions about his long-term productivity — though it's not something I'm particularly worried about.
But every GM has made high-profile mistakes. Preller traded a haul for Mike Clevinger in what looked like a steal at the time, but Clevinger was a dud. His franchise-altering trades for Juan Soto and Josh Bell got him a combined .214/.353/.331 line in 438 PAs, and now Bell is gone. Cashman's big gamble on Donaldson and IKF didn't really work out.
I said 0.
- if he has a plan, it's impossible to tell what it is. Or, there's a plan, but it keeps failing
- He has two seasons where the team looked bad on paper going into it, and was bad in the season. He has a third where the team looked average on paper and over achieved.
- His farm looks ordinary outside of the obvious pick
- This team had assets when he was brought on to the job, and currently doesn't.
- Their one big free agent signing, it seemed like everyone in the world knew was a bad signing ahead of time. Now we're left with a guy making $25 a year who is on the wrong side of 30 and is like a 3-4 war player, if he's healthy.
- There is not a single player on this team that I have any confidence in being on the team in 2 years.
The old Reagan saying, are you better off today than you were 4 years ago? No. And actually, I think it's worse every year since, and I think it'll be worse next year.
I didn't care for Cherington either, but at least you could see _a_ plan.
Doesn't it seem unfair to blame Bloom for 2020? Sale, E-Rod and Benintendi each had debilitating injuries, Devers came into camp out of shape and the team staffed a stopgap manager while they waited to reinstate Cora. I think Bloom deserves credit for not panicking to make that team a .500 team when all those players went down, and we're better off for it.
I also don't understand your point that "everyone knew (Trevor Story) was a bad signing ahead of time," nor does it seem like much of a problem if he's a 3-4 WAR player making $23M per year, especially playing elite defense at a premium position.
The way I see it, Bloom has had one non-season, one great season that exceeded expectations, and one injury-riddled season with a lot of bizarre external factors (lockout, Goldilocks ball situation, evolving regulations on sticky stuff, the Steve Cohen factor) that everyone would like to forget. It's been a drag that many of our 40-45 FV prospects haven't stuck (Dalbec, Duran, Downs, Jimenez, Song, Seabold, Cordero, Groome, Rosario, Potts, Bazardo, Feltman), but there are other extremely low-cost pickups that illustrate the team's knack for talent evaluation (Schreiber, Whitlock, Crawford, Pivetta, Refsnyder, Renfroe, Wacha, Pérez, Springs). I think this offseason and season is crucial, and while I would have liked to sign Correa or grab one of the mid-range pitchers who have gone elsewhere, it's still very early.
I'm not directing this at you, Seels, but everyone is focusing their ire on Bloom, but very few people seem to recognize that there are a ton of unknowns involved here. We learned early on that there are a number of players who don't prefer to come to Boston even if the money is there.
Why is that? What kinds of players is Boston unwelcoming to? We just signed an interesting player with elite plate-discipline skills during a time of historically high whiff rates and chase rates, but there's already a chorus of voices calling him overpaid and arguing that his signing is even more evidence of Bloom's incompetence.
Why? What does this accomplish? I think Red Sox fans could have a little bit more awareness of how they're helping to fuel a toxic atmosphere, and helps to facilitate a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy for our GM's failure.