RED SOX MAGAZINE
“So in this case, I think we were so
enamored with the job the four people in
our leadership group were doing that we
thought the best thing we could do is find a
candidate who supplements them and can
lead and who we feel has the same sort of
mindset that they do. Chaim was the right
guy for the job.”
That was how the Gang of Four became the
Gang of Five. The first thing Bloom did when
he got his job was promote O’Halloran to the
position of general manager. Romero and
Scott maintained their titles as assistant
general managers while taking on added
responsibilities. And Ferreira was elevated
to assistant general manager, allowing her
to join the Yankees’ Jean Afterman as the
only women in baseball to hold that title.
When you consider everything the Red Sox
went through this offseason, the timing
could not have been more perfect to have
a group that worked as a unit in the truest
sense. From the stunning departure of Alex
Cora as manager to the blockbuster trade
that sent Mookie Betts and David Price to
the Dodgers for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs
and Connor Wong, to the eventual hiring
of Ron Roenicke as manager on the eve
of spring training, there was never a dull
moment.
The chaotic nature of this particular
offseason left no choice but for the Gang
of Five to spend more hours together than
they did with their own families.
“I think that going through some of the
challenges we did, I think it enabled me to
integrate with the organization a little bit
better and whenever you go through some
difficult times with people together, you all
learn about each other and you all break
down some of those barriers that inevitably
are going to exist when you’re new to a
group, so I think we took that out of it,”
Bloom said.
Bloom came in with a glowing outlook of
his new co-workers, but the reality even
exceeded his expectations after spending
time with them in the trenches.
“From my perspective, it has been
awesome. They are top shelf,” Bloom said.
“I couldn’t say enough good things about
them. They deserve all the praise I could
possibly give them and more and I hope
they’re having as much fun working with
me as I am with them.”
Through an offseason that brought
enormous challenges, the unity of the front
office helped the Red Sox emerge in a state
where they felt good about the direction of
the organization going forward.
“It’s been sort of an unprecedented
offseason, very different and unique,” said
O’Halloran. “We’ve been able to get through
it because of the relationships that we all
have. And Chaim’s such a collaborative
person and collaborative leader, we’ve
quickly developed a similar relationship
with him and just through the collaboration
and strength of those relationships, as well
as the support of ownership and the other
folks in our department, we’ve been able to
get through it and tackle all the issues that
have come up.”
All five bring unique skillsets to the table.
Chaim
For someone who majored in Latin classics
at Yale, it might have been hard at one
point for Bloom to imagine he would lead
one of the most storied franchises in sports.
But he has always been an overachiever.
Bloom got his start in the sport as a writer
for Baseball Prospectus. His break came in
2005, when the short-staffed Tampa Bay
Devil Rays (yes, that’s what they were
called back then) quickly promoted him
from intern to a full-time position in minor
league operations. For the next 14 years,
Bloom would keep climbing the ladder
with Tampa Bay all the way to senior vice
president of baseball operations. With the
Rays, he basically shared leadership of
the department with Erik Neander. The
next logical step forward would to be to run
a baseball ops department. And that’s the
opportunity the Red Sox presented him with.
It was striking when Bloom took the podium
for his introductory press conference that
he never said “I” when talking about his
goals. It was always, “We.” Here is a sample.
“Let me say a few words of what we’re
here to accomplish. To build as strong of
an organization as possible in all aspects
so that we can have sustained, long-term
success and compete for championships
year in and year out,” said Bloom. “All
successful organizations in this game are
committed to a strong foundation. That
means not only the depth of our 40-man
roster or our minor league system, but the
processes, programs and people that we
have in all aspects of baseball operations.
“The game is changing faster than
ever before and a mindset of constant
improvement, of innovating, of learning
and asking questions will allow us to be
leaders in every area that can impact
the success of our on-field product. The
backbone of our department will always be
our people. Our staff and players. How we
collaborate, how openly and honestly we
communicate will determine how much we
can accomplish.”
The mission statement was impressive and
inspiring and his collaborators are having fun
watching it play out. O’Halloran was asked
what impresses him most about Bloom.
“Just that he lives up to his reputation and
even exceeds it in terms of collaboration and
in terms of desire to have a good process, a
good thorough process to think through all
decisions in a very thorough way,” O’Halloran
said. “And also, he’s just a great guy to
work with. We had a great culture when he
came in and he’s adding to it and just the
honest conversations and the building of
the relationship among our group has even
exceeded my already high expectations.”
BOH
Much like Bloom, O’Halloran literally
worked from the ground up in baseball.
He started as an unpaid intern with the
Padres, where he first got to know Epstein
and eventual Red Sox president/CEO Sam
Kennedy. And once Epstein moved to the
Red Sox – first as assistant GM in 2002 –
O’Halloran called him looking for work.
Epstein didn’t have an official opening, but
he gave O’Halloran – a native of Weymouth,
Mass. - the chance to work overnight shifts
in the office charting PawSox games. The
reason it had to be overnight is because
there was no space in the office for
O’Halloran to set up shop during the day.
Once Epstein became the club’s GM,
O’Halloran was hired with a real-paying
job during daylight hours as a baseball
operations assistant. He just kept getting
promoted, culminating with landing the
GM job under Bloom. O’Halloran’s
diversified set of skills includes contract
negotiations, roster management, financial
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