{"id":375020,"date":"2025-11-13T03:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/375020\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T03:18:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:18:16","slug":"chaim-bloom-reflects-back-on-mookie-betts-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/375020\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaim Bloom reflects back on Mookie Betts trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston Red Sox\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t“That deal wasn\u2019t about the valuation of the talent. It was just about where the organization was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FILe
\n\tChaim Bloom is now with the Cardinals organization. (AP Photo\/Winslow Townson, File)\t<\/p>\n

Chaim Bloom is settling into his new role as Cardinals\u2019 president of baseball operations ahead of a busy offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the 42-year-old baseball executive will also be remembered as a central figure in an infamous chapter of Red Sox history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Appointed as Dave Dombrowski\u2019s successor as Boston\u2019s chief baseball officer in October 2019, one of Bloom\u2019s first orders of business with the Red Sox was to determine the future of franchise star Mookie Betts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bloom and the Red Sox \u2014 unable to come to terms on a long-term extension with Betts \u2014 ultimately traded him to the Dodgers in February 2020 (along with David Price) in exchange for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong.<\/p>\n

It was a disastrous move, with Betts going on to win three World Series titles, four All-Star nods, and several top-five finishes for NL MVP over his six seasons with the Dodgers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only Wong remains on Boston\u2019s roster as a backup catcher, while Verdugo was eventually traded by Boston to the Yankees after the 2023 season. Downs only appeared in 14 career games with the Red Sox, and last played in MLB in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The financial flexibility afforded by both moving Price\u2019s contract and avoiding a hefty payout for Betts also didn\u2019t yield immediate returns, as Boston\u2019s top homegrown stars in Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers later left the team via free agency or trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But speaking to MassLive\u2019s Chris Cotillo at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas<\/a>, Bloom said that his stance about trading Betts hasn\u2019t changed \u2014 even as Betts has helped established a dynasty out on the West Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never fun to take a player of that caliber in the prime of his career \u2014 that I had seen right in my face as an opponent for so many years with the Rays, then be on the same side as him very briefly \u2014 and end up moving him,\u201c Bloom told Cotillo. \u201cObviously, there was a bigger picture than that deal. That deal wasn\u2019t about the valuation of the talent. It was just about where the organization was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bloom was eventually fired in September 2023, with Boston going 267-262 over his four seasons with the team and only earning one trip to the postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Bloom still has an affinity for the Red Sox, especially with several players drafted under his tenure like Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Connelly Early emerging as key pieces for Boston in 2025 and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to see them, in a lot of cases, start turning into \u2014 and in other cases, continuing to be \u2014 the players we thought they could be,\u201c Bloom said. \u201dEven in just four years in that organization, I developed a lot of really strong relationships and friends for life. Some people that I care about that I was really happy to see enjoy pieces of that success.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u201cI\u2019m proud of a lot of the things we did in Boston. It has been exciting from afar to see that work come to fruition. Bigger things continue to be ahead for that franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n

Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Red Sox “That deal wasn\u2019t about the valuation of the talent. It was just about where the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":375021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-375020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115540231370809673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}