Red Sox: Ranking the American League East's front offices by competence
The Boston Red Sox front office is not particularly well liked by fans, but how do they stack up against the rest of the AL East?
![Feb 27, 2020; Fort Myers, Florida, USA; Boston Red Sox general manager Chaim Bloom takes questions](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3000,h_1687,x_0,y_42/c_fill,w_752,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/14/01h9g2z3pegsfby1k727.jpg)
If you want to see Boston Red Sox fans get mad, one need only ask their thoughts on the Red Sox front office led by Chaim Bloom. It is hard to blame them as Bloom's decisions ultimately resulted in Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts leaving town and the Red Sox standing pat at the trade deadline. While there is some logic to these moves, the optics sure aren't great and they hasn't endeared Bloom to understandably impatient Red Sox fans.
However, not everything has been bad for Boston under Bloom. The minor league system is miles ahead of where it was after getting gutted by Dave Dombrowski and the Red Sox do have some really talented players already in the big leagues in Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran, Brayan Bello, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Triston Casas. Even with the 2023 season seeming like a missed opportunity, it is hard not to be excited for what could be in store for the Red Sox in the coming years.
So where does that leave the Red Sox front office? Well, to get a better sense of that, a comparison against their peers in the American League East is in order.
Here is a ranking of the American League East's front offices by competence
There isn't any hard hitting science to these rankings, although a data-centric deep dive into this sort of thing could be really useful. The problem is that with so much incomplete data and information that is decidedly not public, a more subjective look makes more sense for our purposes here. As the months and years go by, the details could change radically and that obviously means teams could move up and down pretty fluidly. This is just where things stand right now and nothing more.
Let's take a look at how the front offices of the American League East stack up against each other.
5.) New York Yankees
The Yankees' front office led by Brian Cashman comes in last place here and frankly, you love to see it. The fact that no one, including the Yankees, understood what New York did at the trade deadline is a microcosm of how the Yankees have been run in recent years. They have found some success in recent years to be sure, but it feels like that has happened despite Cashman's moves instead of being a result of them.
The Yankees have a lot of money tied up in past their prime players like Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, and DJ LeMahieu and that has been indicative of the Yankees' method of "throw money at guys with name recognition" when it comes to roster construction. They do have some young promising players finally getting a chance now, but this is a team that still looks like it is going to continue to get old and require a full reset at some point.
4.) Boston Red Sox
The Chaim Bloom fans out there are going to be upset at this ranking, but again...this is just where things stand right now. Boston has culled popular (and good) players Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts with the return for Betts being particularly rough. The Red Sox haven't been as aggressive as fans would have liked and frankly, the results on the field have left a lot to be desired as Boston has finished at or near the bottom of the AL East in three of the past four seasons including this one.
There is some hope with this impending wave of youth for the Red Sox, but Bloom and co. are betting heavily on these young guys being impact players. One thing to keep an eye on this offseason is whether or not Boston throws their weight around in free agency or the trade market. Theoretically, Boston will have room to add some significant payroll and if they add some impact players this offseason, the narrative around the front office could change significantly.
3.) Toronto Blue Jays
The middle of the pack belongs to the Toronto Blue Jays. A lot of what goes right or wrong depends on how well their young duo of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette are playing. However, Toronto deserves a lot of credit for their willingness to add impact players from outside the organization to supplement their player development successes.
In recent years, the Blue Jays have traded for Matt Chapman and Robbie Ray and signed free agents Kevin Gausman, George Springer, and Chris Bassitt among others. Toronto could have easily tried to just make their talent pipeline work and hope to hit the lottery. Instead, they have remained aggressive in trying to compete in the division. It hasn't worked out the way they hoped just yet, but they remain a dangerous team and should be commended for swinging big and trying to improve each season.
2.) Baltimore Orioles
Coming in at #2 is the Baltimore Orioles, although there is an argument to ranking them a bit lower for the moment. The Orioles have been both fun and awesome this season, but Mike Elias has only been on the job for a few years as Elias was brought in back in 2018. While the amount of young talent he has assembled speaks for itself, Baltimore has yet to find an impact player in free agency or the trade market under this front office. Some of that is on ownership to be sure, but it is a noticeable omission from their resume at the moment.
However, the sheer amount of talent that the Orioles have been able to accumulate in the last few years is staggering. A huge chunk of their lineup is guys with a year or two of big league experience that are already among the better players in the league at their positions. On top of that, they still have Jackson Holliday, Colton Cowser, and Heston Kjerstad among others on the way. Baltimore just has an embarrassment of riches and a big reason why is the work of the front office and player development team.
1.) Tampa Bay Rays
As good as the Orioles have looked this year, the Rays remain the gold standard when it comes to the front offices in the AL East. Sure, they are basically never going to even try to sign a big name free agent as long as they are in Tampa, but what the Rays have done and continue to do with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball is nothing short of amazing.
Each and every year, the Rays compete near the top of one of the hardest divisions in baseball thanks to a talent pipeline that never seems to end. They are one of the best teams at finding talent on the international market, draft very well, and are notorious for making trades for seemingly minor prospects and turning them into stars. If Tampa is interested in one of your prospects, you should probably never trade that guy. If the Rays could actually spend real money, they would probably become a dynasty in short order and that speaks to how good the Rays are at their jobs as annoying as it may be for Boston fans.
More Red Sox News from BoSox Injection
manual