Just imagine if Mets had picked Bloom over Van Wagenen

NEW YORK — It is rather ironic that at a time the Mets are again conducting another search for a general manager, the man they could’ve hired three years ago — who everyone said they should’ve hired at the time — is now presiding over a team that nobody envisioned being in a league championship series.

We speak of Chaim Bloom, the unassuming Chief Baseball Officer of the Red Sox whose series of low budget trades, freeagent signings and waiver claims helped transform the Olde Towne Team. It has been anything but an easy road for Bloom, who was dealt a losing hand to begin with when the Red Sox hired him in October 2019 and gave him a mandate to (1) trade his best player, Mookie Betts, (2) drastically reduce the highest payroll in baseball of $230 million, and

(3) revitalize the farm system that had been largely gutted of premier prospects by his predecessor Dave Dombrowski.

But before getting into how Bloom went about that mission, it is important to re-visit his Mets experience the year before. Like now, the Mets were searching for a new GM to replace Sandy Alderson who’d decided to step down from the job after eight seasons. One of the first people they interviewed was Bloom, who along with Erik Neander, headed up the highly successful Tampa Bay baseball operations. And it seemed like a natural since the universally respected Bloom was said to really want the Mets job. But Jeff Wilpon had other ideas and instead of hiring the guy most qualified for GM, he made what he called the “out-of-the-box” choice of former agent Brodie

Van Wagenen, and we now know how that worked out.

So the 36-year-old Bloom had to wait another year to get his big chance, but when it did come, with the Red Sox, it came with serious restrictions. He had barely settled in as GM, when he was forced to fire Red Sox world championship manager Alex Cora after his role as one of the ringleaders in the Houston Astros cheating scandal was revealed. In addition, after fruitless discussion with Betts on a longterm contract extension, Red Sox owner John Henry essentially told his new GM to make the best deal he could for the superstar outfielder.

But after having satisfied Red Sox ownership’s first two criteria, Bloom set about trying to improve his Betts-less team that finished last in 2020 under Ron Roenicke. In August of last year he claimed Christian Arroyo, who’s become the Sox’s primary second baseman, off waivers from the Indians, and acquired right-hander Nick Pivetta, their No. 2 starter most of this season, in a trade with the Phillies for a couple of marginal relievers. In November, Bloom signed Hunter Renfroe, cut loose by the Rays, and he proceeded to have a career season with 31 homers, 96 RBI and superior defensive work in right field. Then at the winter meetings last December, Bloom claimed Garrett Whitlock, left unprotected by the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft, and he emerged as a dominant back-end reliever.

In January, Bloom got another big break when ownership decided it was OK to re-hire

Cora after his year in exile and a winning management team was created. A month later, Bloom signed veteran utilityman Kike Hernandez as a free agent to a two-year, $14 million contract and he, too, has wound up having a career season — not to mention a so-far off-the-charts postseason — after being installed by Cora as the Sox’s everyday center fielder.

While it remains to be seen how much further this pieced-together Red Sox team can go, Bloom has quickly established himself as one of the savviest execs in the game. Meanwhile, the Mets GM search goes on.