Red Sox's Sam Kennedy Backs Chaim Bloom: 'We Do Not Anticipate Any Changes'

Boston Red Sox president Sam Kennedy affirmed the organization's commitment to chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Monday.

"Chaim is our chief baseball officer and we do not anticipate any changes there," Kennedy said.

The Red Sox are coming off a last-place finish in the American League East in 2022, which has heaped pressure on Bloom and the front office.

It was the second time in Bloom's three seasons in charge that Boston missed the postseason.

Asked by BostonSportsJournal.com's Sean McAdam about Bloom's performance, Red Sox principal owner John Henry hedged a bit while acknowledging the expectations haven't been met:

"As I said, we haven't gotten the kind of results you would have expected for the amount of resources deployed over the last four years with the exception of 2021. We've been building depth, but we saw little depth last year in the major leagues. You should see some depth this year and improvement. We have had setbacks with injuries already this season, but we expect to be competitive. We are at a different stage than the Yankees are, than Toronto this season. But we are in much better shape than we were after 2021. It will be interesting."

To some degree, you'd think Bloom is on solid footing because he has done well to follow through on one of ownership's biggest priorities: trimming payroll.

The 39-year-old took over in October 2019, and his first major piece of business months later was trading Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Since then, the Red Sox have steadily seen their player costs decline. Boston has just $167.5 million committed for 2023, which ranks 14th in MLB.

However, the level of internal scrutiny toward Bloom may be growing.

In December, ESPN's Joon Lee reported that "some within the Red Sox front office have questioned Bloom's decision-making process." Per Lee, others around the league also "question if Bloom can be decisive enough to make big moves to satisfy a rabid, impatient fan base."

Opening Day for the Red Sox is on March 30. They're obviously not going to fire him right now, so publicly casting any doubt over his job security would achieve little. Even a midseason reshuffle in the front office may not change much if Boston gets off to a slow start.

That's not to say Bloom is bulletproof. He might need to show something in the way of progress to guarantee himself another year beyond 2023.