Red Sox: Ranking the American League East's front offices by competence

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.