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In big but fairly expected news, the Rays Senior VP of Baseball Ops Chaim Bloom is a hot commodity for teams in need of a new GM. Last year, it seemed like Bloom was already gone to the New York Mets until the Mets pulled a LOLMets. However, we knew that the time would eventually come when the amazing duo of Erik Neander and Chaim Bloom would eventually be broken up, sooner rather than later.
- Chaim Bloom Interviewed For Red Sox GM Position - Dylan A. Chase, MLB Trade Rumors
- Rays senior VP Chaim Bloom leading candidate for Red Sox GM job - Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times: Not only did Bloom interview, but it certainly seems that he is going to be the favorite to win the job.
Text from a #Rays player on VP of baseball ops Chaim Bloom: “He’s been genuine and upfront ever since I (became part) of this organization. There was an understanding around the guys that he was destined for amazing things after this year. He deserves it forsure.”
— Josh Tolentino (@JCTSports) October 25, 2019
If Chaim does indeed get the job, it will be super un-fun to see such a brilliant young mind go to Boston and help them bounce back again. But Bloom has earned his opportunity to be the person in charge and on top of an organizational ladder. Of course when he does go, it will be interesting to see if any of his colleagues from the Rays FO will be granted permission to travel with him (but to an in-division rival? Probably not!).
These are the high class problems you have when you have a great organization and top tier front office. While losing Bloom will certainly be a big, massive loss, it also means room for more of the talent in house throughout the Rays organization to move up and gain new opportunities with the team.
Rays News
- Kevin Kiermaier is again a finalist to win the Gold Glove for CF
- Rays have already gotten some award love, both with Kevin Cash and Erik Neander
- In case you missed it:
Rays’ Erik Neander voted 2019 Sporting News MLB Executive of the Year - Jason Foster, Sporting News
Rays’ Kevin Cash voted 2019 Sporting News AL Manager of the Year - Ryan Fagan, Sporting News
Around the League
- Umpire Rob Drake issued an apology for his wildly inappropriate (and incorrectly spelled) threat tweet, and honestly it’s refreshing to read. If the Umpire gig doesn’t work out, I think Drake should try his hand at PR because he’s already world’s ahead of the Houston Astros.
- After a few days of utterly horrific handling of this situation, the Houston Astros have finally acted, and have fired Assistant GM Brandon Taubman and issued a statement (partially) apologizing to both Sports Illustrated and Stephanie Apstein.
It's good that the Astros fired Taubman. It's also v. bad that they first released a statement supporting him and smearing @stephapstein's accurate reporting and then allowed Taubman to lie again via press release, in addition to Jeff Luhnow saying “we may never know” his intent.
— Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) October 24, 2019
- Astros still not done stepping on rakes though!
- As usual, the Rays Jeff Sullivan sums things up well:
one of the things I appreciate about our current era is the rabid, irrepressible determination of the worst people in society to reveal themselves
— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) October 24, 2019