New Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom Teases 2020 Offseason Strategy

Though they're at a bit of a crossroads, Boston Red Sox fans have good reason to be excited about the future of the club. Their talent is evident and they made a fantastic front office hire in appointing Chaim Bloom as their Chief Baseball Officer.

Bloom has been relatively quiet in terms of making roster transactions as we approach mid-December, but on Monday, the former Rays VP of Baseball Operations hinted that he isn't looking to spend big at the first and second base positions.

In fact, Bloom might look to prospects inside Boston's farm system to man those positions in 2020.

"Could we? Sure," Bloom said at the Winter Meetings on Monday via Mass Live. "But I don’t think we necessarily look at it that way...It simply means here we are on Dec. 9, and this is kind of a fluid picture. Those are certain positions on our club that just based on players’ track records and what they’ve accomplished, I think are easier to account for concretely than others."

Bloom certainly has a lot to sort out this winter at first base, as both Steve Pearce and Mitch Moreland are free agents.

That would leave young slugger Michael Chavis, who could be ready to make the leap to an everyday role after playing in 95 games in 2019, as an obvious replacement candidate.

The Red Sox, however, would probably rather deploy Chavis at second base so that the team is strong up the middle. Brock Holt, a reliable defender who started over 50 games at second for Boston last season, is also a free agent.

To say that Bloom has his work cut out for him this winter would be underselling the task ahead of him, but he probably knew that would be the case when he took the job.