As they battle the New York Yankees to stay over 0.500 and out of the basement in the AL East, the Boston Red Sox made the shocking decision Thursday to fire chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
Bloom, who was hired in October 2019, helped transform the Red Sox farm system but at the cost of some beloved fan favorites and the results on the field. He was ultimately responsible for the trade that sent Mookie Betts to the Dodgers and plenty of fans blamed him for creating a situation where Xander Bogaerts felt unappreciated and chose to leave in free agency and sign with the San Diego Padres.
The Red Sox are almost certainly missing the playoffs this season, making it the third time in Bloom's four seasons in which they would miss out on the postseason. Over the entire four-season era, they were just three games over 0.500.
The Yankees and the Red Sox are one of the most long-running and deep-seated rivalries in all of sports and it's no surprise that Yankees fans were happy to celebrate dysfunction bubbling up in Boston.
At least a few Yankees fans were both delighting in the chaos of the Red Sox AND perhaps saw an opportunity for their team to shed their own front office problem and make an upgrade.
But Yankees' fans weren't the only ones indulging in a little schadenfreude today. A few Red Sox seemed happy to have Bloom out of their lives too.
At this point, it's not clear who will replace Bloom but it seems likely the Red Sox may take their time to find the right fit for their new era.
