The Boston Red Sox have fired Chaim Bloom, a move that was rumored for the last few days but came to reality far quicker than many expected. Bloom's Red Sox are in the AL East basement, and have been in that position for three of the past four years.
Despite plenty of growth in the farm system, Red Sox ownership hasn't seen the same amount of success in the major-league product. Frustration within the organization and from the fanbase forced John Henry's hand.
Bloom has made plenty of questionable decisions during his time in Boston, from trading away Mookie Betts to letting Xander Bogaerts sign elsewhere. His time had come, and now someone else will take the reigns in hopes of taking the Red Sox back to the postseason.
MLB Rumors: Who will replace Chaim Bloom with Red Sox?
The Red Sox have already ruled out two popular replacements among fans, as Theo Epstein is unlikely to take the job.
Current general manager Brian O'Halloran, meanwhile, has been reassigned to a different front office role, so he will not be Bloom's direct replacement, either.
So then where does that leave us?
ESPN's Buster Olney thinks that manager Alex Cora could be promoted to head of baseball operations, thus vacating the manager spot. Per Olney, "it'll be interesting to see if Alex Cora emerges as one of the candidates to run Boston's baseball operations. He has a broad range of experience, and others in the organization felt he increased his presence in the player development this year."
Cora is one of the best managers in the sport despite Boston's poor finishes the last two years. He tends to get the most out of his teams on the field. Now, whether he can take over actually building a major-league product and farm system from scratch remains to be seen, but it wouldn't be shocking for Red Sox ownership to at least consider him as an internal candidate.
