Red Sox hire Sabbath-observant Chaim Bloom as head of baseball operations

The Boston Red Sox have hired Chaim Bloom, a Sabbath observer and Jewish day school graduate, as the team’s head of baseball operations.

Bloom, the senior vice president of baseball operations for the Tampa Bay Rays since 2016, agreed to a contract on Friday and was introduced on Monday, timed for an offday during the World Series.

“Having competed against them for 15 years, I know how strong this baseball operations staff is, I think the world of them and look forward to building relationships throughout the department. We will have each other’s backs and what we do, we will do together,” said Bloom.

Bloom, his wife and two sons had lived close to the Rays Tropicana Field so that Bloom, 36, could walk to home games on Friday night and Saturday.

He attended Solomon Schechter and Akiba Academy Jewish day schools while growing up in Philadelphia.

The Red Sox finished the recently completed season with a record of 84-78 after winning the World Series in 2018. The club missed the postseason for the first time since 2015.

Bloom frequently has to explain that his name is pronounced “High-em,” telling Tablet Magazine in an interview in April that he has given up on people pronouncing the guttural “ch” sound.

He graduated from Yale University in 2004 and was an intern with Major League Baseball and the San Diego

Padres before joining the Rays, where he has worked for the past 15 years.

The New York Mets reportedly considered Bloom for their general manager position last fall. ( JTA)