Is Bloom the next Epstein – or at least something far closer to it than Ben Cherington or Dave Dombrowski? Maybe. Let’s hope so. Because while the Red Sox actually have won one more title than Epstein since his departure, they’ve lived an elevator existence that has brought their fan base to the exhaustive point of emotional detachment. At the end of the day, they’re just getting too hard to live with anymore.
Are they this bad? No. But they’re not going to be championship-caliber for a while, either. And Bloom knows it. So do Henry and everyone else in the organization. They’re just not going to say it because they still want you to pay attention. But the upcoming free agent market stinks for starting pitching and the Red Sox are in no real position to deal prospects, which leaves Bloom with decidedly few options.
The Red Sox are a mess, folks. And there are no simple fixes here. Even if Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez come back healthy next year, the Red Sox are woefully short on young talent overall and young pitching, in particular. The best way to get it is through the draft, which brings us back to the idea of tanking, whether you want to call it that or not.
