Will Chaim Bloom just wait and see when it comes to the trade deadline?
Is Chaim Bloom showing enough urgency as the Trade Deadline nears?
The Boston Red Sox are what they are. They are an average baseball team. Every time they look to be out of it this season, they hustle their way back in. Every time they look like they figured it out they inexplicably lose to a bad team team or two.
The debate this time of the year is whether Chaim Bloom buys or sells?
The answer is still not clear, and at this point there is nothing this team has done, to reassure the fans what direction they’ll decide to go in. The Sox playoff picture will be more obvious in less than a month from now at the August 1st MLB Trade Deadline.
Bloom’s recent comments about trading for a starter should be very concerning. His comments were before the Garrett Whitlock’s injury on Sunday against the Blue Jays.
“So many clubs are in the hunt that it’s not something that is going to be easy to go out and get. There obviously will be guys available. But because it’s a need for everybody, they’re going to be hotly contested,” said Bloom to MassLive.
Bloom’s team is teetering on playoff contention and relevance. This is not a team he should sell the farm for, but it is a team that needs reinforcements within their rotation if they want to be serious about winning.
The quote above indicates that Bloom is not looking to get creative and set the market in anyway. It indicates that he will be passive and let another team dictate the price of the market as he does not want to take the risk to overpay.
This is not the first time this lack of aggressiveness has become a concern with Bloom. This last offseason Joon Lee had the following report:
“Some within the Red Sox front office have questioned Bloom's decision-making process, team sources told ESPN. One front-office official said Bloom's deliberate process toward making moves -- asking many people for their input before making a decision -- can put the Red Sox in a position to fall behind, reacting to other teams versus setting the market.”
The Red Sox have not made it easy on the front office to pick a direction for this current team. Given the average nature of this roster, it seems likely Bloom will have to make a tough call at the deadline.
This team will likely be hovering in the playoff picture as they have all year. Fans and media will be debating about what the approach should be. Bloom can not be debating, he must pick a direction when the time comes, he must buy or sell. A choice that Bloom was unable to make last deadline, he only traded Christian Vazquez, but kept everyone else and remained over the luxury tax.
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