With the trade deadline just 2+ days away, it’s worth looking at Chaim Bloom’s history with trades this time of year. Beginning with Bloom’s promotion to Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations (2nd in command) in late 2016, he has been quite active leading up to the deadline. Overall, he has a decent track record of success over the past 4 years, even when the Rays were sellers in 2018. Although he wasn’t the only one calling the shots during his time in Tampa, he was a major voice in the decision-making. What will the 2021 trade deadline bring for Bloom and the Red Sox?
Let’s look, year-by-year, at the deals Bloom has made leading up to the trade deadline.
2017 – Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays made some small acquisitions in 2017, including bolstering their bullpen and attempting to improve at 1B.
Acquired
Traded Away
Analysis: This was a decent deadline with P Chaz Roe and P Sergio Romo having extremely strong remainders to 2017 despite the Rays missing the playoffs (Roe – 9 appearances – 8.2 IP, 1.04 ERA, 12 Ks, 3 BBs and Romo – 25 appearances – 30.2 IP, 1.47 ERA, 28 Ks, 7 BBs). While neither repeated their miniscule ERAs going forward, Roe is still with the team and Romo had a good 2018 before heading to the Miami Marlins. 1B Lucas Duda and P Dan Jennings were mostly irrelevant the remainder of 2017 before leaving the Rays. P Drew Smith has had minimal impact for the New York Mets since making his debut in 2018 and 1B Casey Gillaspie, at 28, has not risen above AA.
2018 – Tampa Bay Rays
This was a classic seller-minded trade deadline for the Rays. With more than a half-dozen transactions, they completely re-made their roster, mostly by trading away their pitching rotation.
Acquired
Traded Away
- P Nathan Eovaldi
- P Matt Andriese
- P Jonny Venters
- P Hunter Schryver
- OF Justin Williams
- P Genesis Cabrera
- P Roel Ramirez
- C Wilson Ramos
- P Chris Archer
Analysis: While the Rays certainly traded away some serious assets at the deadline, it wasn’t a complete blow-up and restart. They traded away some big pitching names in Archer and Eovaldi but acquired a few players with some big upside. The biggest future impacts came from P Tyler Glasnow, OF Austin Meadows, and OF Tommy Pham. All three had a major impact in clinching the 2019 2nd Wild Card spot and beating the Oakland Athletics in the ALWC game and Glasnow and Meadows were on the 2020 roster that reached the World Series. P Jalen Beeks was performing well in 2020 before needing Tommy John surgery in August 2020. Since the trade, Archer’s ERA has grown from 3.70 to 4.92 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, which is a check in Bloom’s column.
2019 – Tampa Bay Rays
In his last year with the Rays, the trade deadline was much quieter for Bloom than 2018.
Acquired
Traded Away
Analysis: Overall this is a decent trade deadline. While 1B Jesus Aguilar was only on the roster for the remainder of 2019 before heading to Miami, P Nick Anderson and P Trevor Richards are still with the Rays. Anderson had a strong 2020 before ending up with an elbow tear and has yet to appear in 2021. Richards is 4-1 with a 3.72 ERA in 27 games (38.2 IP) for the Rays this year. OF Jesus Sanchez has been solid for the Marlins, but Stanek (HOU), Kolarek (OAK), and Faria (MIL) haven’t been anything to write home about.
2020 – Boston Red Sox
In his first year at the Red Sox helm, it was one of the oddest seasons in MLB history. The shortened year, sign-stealing scandal leading to the firing of Alex Cora, and the COVID pandemic, it was difficult to truly judge Bloom’s effectiveness at the deadline.
Acquired
Traded Away
Analysis: The 2020 deadline was an opportunity for Bloom to begin rebuilding the farm system that was cleaned out by his predecessor Dave Dombrowski. Bloom brought in 4 prospects: P Connor Seabold (#6 prospect), OF Jeisson Rosario (#24 prospect), 3B Hudson Potts (#26 prospect), and Jacob Wallace (#48 prospect – was #28, but the UConn product has struggled in 2021). Along with the prospects, Bloom brought in P Nick Pivetta, who has had a solid impact on the AL East leading 2021 Red Sox. While it was sad to see 1B Mitch Moreland go and frankly, they could use him right now, overall it was successful deadline for Bloom.
*As of July 2021, rankings by SoxProspects.com