Just for what it's worth (as someone who certainly has criticized Bloom's choice of players for the MLB roster) I don't think any of us (or at least most of us) thought "he has no plan", which is why even if the vote was for very little confidence in one of the off-season polls, most of us said that it didn't mean there was no plan. It was more a question of belief if he was the right guy to execute the plan or if his plan would lead to championships. Those are both much different arguments than saying "he has no plan." Even the dumbest GM in MLB history probably had a plan. Hell, I'm sure that the GM of the Rockies has "a plan" it just can't possibly be working.
Anyway, I think it's great to hear that Bloom is (actively, I hope) trying to add to the 2023 team by finding guys that have term and would be part of the "contending core" that you can look at and say there are some really good pieces (Casas, Devers, Story, Yoshida, Duran, Verdugo, Bello, Houck, Whitlock and Crawford.) I for one think that is an excellent plan, and I'll be very interested to see how he does trying to execute said plan in the coming week.
Hopefully it ends up with the Red Sox landing an MLB starting pitcher with top half of the rotation potential to pair with Bello for the 2023 and 2024 seasons (at minimum, though out to 2025 would be better) but admittedly that would cost some pretty good prospects. Which I think would be a worthwhile cost to pay due to the lack of a similar pitcher anywhere in the system that is reasonably projected to be in Boston by, lets say, the beginning of the 2025 season (Gonzalez could maybe be mid 2025; Perales possibly in early 2026, but those are both a long way off). I'd let
@JM3 or others that really closely follow the minor leagues address if Gonzalez has top half of the rotation potential now or not.
I'd admittedly given up on the hope of acquiring said pitcher recently (because that would cost really good prospects), but hearing it expressed publicly at least gives me a glimmer of hope it'll happen.