They're expected to win in the mid 80s and compete for the playoffs despite going through a semi rebuild, what exactly is fucked about that? Outside of the Dodgers no team is competitive year after year any more.
Agreed that this version of the dreaded "bridge year" 2021 Red Sox will hopefully not be as bad as many rebuilding teams have been (the 50-win Astros in the early 2010s, the 2020 Red Sox, etc.).
Still, I think it's not quite true that the Dodgers are the only MLB franchise that's able to be competitive nearly every year (obviously depending on what we mean by "competitive"). If the definition is "competing for a playoff spot basically every season," I think the Yankees (ugh), Rays, and Cardinals are also examples.
Obviously Bloom's background is with the Tampa Bay Rays. Let's start with the 2008 season, when they became the "Rays" and changed their fortunes. Since then:
- The Rays have had 8 seasons with 90+ wins (or a winning % of .555+, AKA last year) and 2 seasons with fewer than 80 wins.
- The Yankees have had 7 seasons with 90/.555+ (plus two 89/.550 seasons where they made the playoffs) and none with fewer than 83 wins.
- The Cardinals have had 7 seasons with 90/.555+ (plus SIX seasons of 86/.517+) and none with fewer than 84 wins.
Meanwhile the Red Sox, with all their advantages over Tampa, have had 6 seasons with 90+/.556+ and 4 seasons of fewer than 80 wins (counting last year).
Now, of course, the Red Sox also have 2 World Series titles in that period of time, whereas the Yankees (ugh) and Cardinals each have 1 and the Rays have none.
Some of this is philosophical: is the goal to be "good" every year, or to count rings? Are those two related? Are championships somewhat random products of being good and getting lucky, or do you need to go all in and then rebuild?
Still, it sounds like Bloom's goal -- I suppose most GM's goal -- is to be "good" every year while also competing for championships.