I agree with this part completely. He should have looked at an 0-11-1 mark against teams in your division, all of whom you'd have to overtake somehow to make the playoffs and say "this team isn't good" and sell. To not get under the tax / acquire whatever prospects you could was mind-bogglingly short sighted. I think we certainly could have gotten "Valdez or Seabold" level prospects for guys like Eovaldi, Wacha, Martinez and possibly even Strahm, and I believe that gets you under the tax.
To be fair, we couldn't trade Bogaerts (I didn't know this
@SouthernBoSox, so hopefully my bringing up his NTC is helpful to you and others like it was to me). He wanted to be here, and made that very clear. Bloom is the one whom didn't want him, not the other way around.
I'm not going to lie, I also put the blame 99% on Bloom. I trust Speier A LOT more than Rosenthal or anyone else. He basically said (in the KLaw Podcast someone else posted for us recently) that ownership gives its front office $Luxury Tax Threshold budget each year, and then gets out of the way, and honestly, it's seemed to be that way a great deal since Lucchino took on different roles in the organization. Sure, the front office has to convince FSG of the validity of it's plan, but they hire a baseball operations department and let them run it. They also hold said front office accountable - and I trust they'll do the same with Bloom.
If someone wants to blame them for not completely ignoring the luxury tax and allowing the front office to spend it's way out of any mess it creates fine, that's their choice. But I really do have a hard time pinning any significant portion of blame on an ownership group that is willing to shell out $Luxury Tax Threshold money each year (and go above when the team looks poised to contend) and expects someone to succeed with that. It's Bloom's choice how to use that budget, and I think he's using it in a terrible manner.
There is a difference between being cheap and disagreeing with how someone spends their money. Neither FSG nor Bloom are cheap. I absolutely disagree with how Bloom is electing to allocate his $233m in budget. As an example, Bogaerts received an AAV of (I believe) $25.5m. Bloom elected to spend the same amount (roughly speaking) to have Chris Martin, Joely Rodriguez, Justin Turner, Rob Refsnyder and Christian Arroyo. I'd FAR rather have Bogaerts (yes, at 11 years and I understand that) for $25.5m and then having about $24m left to fill those roles. But it's the same amount of money - not cheap - but strongly disagreeing on how money is spent.
I think you're more likely to win titles with top of the roster talent paid like top of the roster talent and cycling in and out MLB minimum guys for the "non closer" relievers and "bench / platoon players" as opposed to having 25 guys whom are "good value." Bloom obviously disagrees, the scoreboard will show if he's right or wrong. But our 4 titles have been largely based on having star players and finding guys like Turner for dirt cheap. Bloom is trying the Tampa Bay / Oakland approach. We'll see if it ever wins a title, but I'm do not believe Bloom's model will win a title in Boston.
Just to add a "rumor" (
https://marlinmaniac.com/2022/12/17/miami-marlins-rejected-bostons-trade-offer/) SI / Fansided mentioned that the Marlins turned down a Hosmer for Miguel Rojas trade from the Sox. Ties in with the "interest" in Rojas mentioned earlier in the thread.
