Source: Red Sox pick Bloom to lead baseball ops
Jeff Passan reacts to the Red Sox firing Dave Dombrowski and whether there will be a market for his services going forward. (1:32)
The Boston Red Sox have agreed to hire Tampa Bay Rays executive Chaim Bloom as their new head of baseball operations, a source confirmed to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Terms were not available. The New York Post was first to report the Red Sox would hire the Rays’ senior vice president of baseball operations.
Bloom, 36, will succeed Dave Dombrowski, whom the Red Sox fired as president of baseball operations in September, less than a year after winning the 2018 World Series. Boston failed to make the playoffs this season, finishing 84-78, 19 games behind the American League East champion Yankees.
Bloom had spent 15 years with the Rays in capacities including minor league operations, player development, contract negotiations, salary arbitration and international scouting.
He has operated in a front office unlike Boston’s in that the Rays have a low budget and remain competitive. This season, they had the lowest payroll on opening day at $49.08 million, and the Red Sox had the highest at $187.23 million.
Late in September, Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner said at a news conference that they intended to make major cuts to the payroll to get under the luxury tax threshold next season, saying they fired Dombrowski because of differing opinions on how to build for the future.
It’s a crucial offseason for the Red Sox, who need to decide what to do about 2018 MVP Mookie Betts, who will be a free agent after next season, and J.D. Martinez, who can opt out of his $23.75 million deal five days after the World Series, as well as other players on expiring contracts.
Bloom is a Philadelphia native and attended Yale University, graduating in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in classics.