The Boston Red Sox have in the past pursued Billy Beane and may now have a younger version in Chaim Bloom. The little things that Bloom does may set up big things.
The Red Sox once sought out the first ultra provocateur of advanced metrics as applied to senior baseball management in Billy Beane. Beane has never captured a World Series title but his method is now embraced and accepted with the burgeoning use of metrics as a management tool. Chaim Bloom was immersed in that philosophy while in Tampa. Will he carry it over to Boston?
Sometimes the little things give a perspective on how the big things are approached. The Red Sox recently passed on Travis Shaw coming off a brutal -0.9 bWAR season for the Brewers. Shaw’s previous two seasons for the Brewers had a combined 63 home runs and 187 RBI for the versatile left-hander. Shaw will be with the Jays for one season on a deal at $4 MM – baseball chump change and certainly worth the risk/reward option.
The Red Sox recently went down a similar path with another -0.9 bWAR player in infielder Jose Peraza who signed for the 2020 season at $3 MM. Another worthy attempt at finding possible value or bang for the baseball buck. Another lower end possible value signing. You can also toss in lefty Martin Perez (10-7, 5.12) into the search for low price additions that may maintain cost control and provide a warm body on the field.
This is a chipping away process at this point, but it is what one would expect from the new baseball poobah Bloom. A real Tampa Bay like approach with a limited budget – a budget that may soon be expanded. That expansion is linked to the possible excursion off the Red Sox reservation of David Price, Mookie Betts, and Jackie Bradley Jr. Whoever is trade vulnerable is linked to bloated contracts and service time. An Oakland and Beane approach.
That brings the little things into big things and in baseball, the big things are not Perez but a Gerrit Cole. This offseason the Red Sox are merely witnesses to a financial crime and not active participants. They are off the dance card for Scott Boras and his brethren in the land of hucksters – agents. Maybe that could change?
The Red Sox are slowly pruning the tree of contracts with possible dead branches such as Price. They have cut costs with replacement players and could be shoring up for a serious run at making Betts the proverbial offer he and his agent Steve Veltman can find irresistible. I have my doubts about that.
I fully expect Betts to be gone but the return will not be ready for action when the 2020 bell goes clang. The Red Sox return for Betts and far lesser for Bradley will be valuable as in how long can we keep them under the contractual thumb?. That will not, however, stifle a return to free agent adventurism in the near future.
Bloom’s major focus is clearing the books and somehow cobbling together a team that will not embarrass the ticket holders. His Tampa Bay days showed that the process can work rather well with astute signings, sharp drafting, and a healthy dose of luck. The biggest obstacle Tampa faced was being the unfortunates in baseball geography and locked in the cage with the Red Sox and Yankees.
The next month or so should give an insight into direction since we have seen the little things. I await the big things and they may take a long time to assess. Bloom with money, but not money to burn, maybe what the Red Sox wanted all those years ago that may have avoided the current complexities caused by contractual issues? What could Beane do with the money? We may see that with Bloom.