Chaim David Bloom (; born February 27, 1983) is an American sports executive who most recently served as Chief Baseball Officer for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB) before getting dismissed by the team on September 14, 2023. He previously worked for the Tampa Bay Rays, reaching the title of Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations.
Early and personal life
Bloom is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is Jewish and keeps kosher. His father Benjamin Bloom is an ophthalmologist, and his mother Esther Stern-Bloom is a retired Hebrew and French teacher. He attended Jewish day schools, first at Solomon Schechter Day School of Philadelphia (now known as Perelman Jewish Day School), and then at Akiba Hebrew Academy (now known as Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy) in Greater Philadelphia, graduating in 2000. In 2004, Bloom received a bachelor's degree in Latin Classics from Yale College, where he was a member of The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus.
Bloom and his wife, Aliza (née Hochman), met at Yale, where she earned a B.A. in economics and international studies. They have two sons, Isaiah and Judah. The family lived in St. Petersburg, Florida, close to Tropicana Field, in part so he could easily return on Friday nights to celebrate the sabbath with his family.
Career
Bloom's first entry into the baseball world was an article in Baseball Prospectus in 1997, and he continued writing for it until he joined the Rays. Prior to joining the Rays, he was a baseball operations intern for the San Diego Padres and a legal/corporate partnerships intern for Major League Baseball.
Tampa Bay Rays
Bloom began working for the Tampa Bay Rays in February 2005 as an intern, was hired by the Rays full-time to work in Minor League Operations in October 2005. He was promoted to Assistant Director of Minor League Operations in 2008, with responsibility for all aspects of the team's minor league system, including player evaluation and assignments, expansion of video, strength and conditioning, and mental skills initiatives, creating of the "Rays Way" player development manual, and executing individual development plans for organization's prospects. He was named Director of Baseball Operations in 2011, expanding his job to include contract negotiations, salary arbitration, budgeting, and overseeing major league support staff and international scouting. In 2014, when general manager Andrew Friedman left the Rays organization, the Rays promoted Bloom to Vice President of Baseball Operations. His responsibilities expanded to include his overseeing domestic and international player development, a newly created baseball performance science department, trade negotiations, pro, amateur, and international scouting philosophy, personnel additions and changes throughout baseball operations, and short- and long-term strategic planning. He was named Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations in 2016, second in command behind President of Baseball Operations Matthew Silverman.
Despite a low Tampa Bay payroll, Bloom consistently fielded competitive teams. The franchise had been one of the most innovative under his management; he integrated analytics into all aspects of the game. He was an early user of breakthrough strategies, now more widely used, such as a much heavier emphasis on shifts and the use of openers (starting games with relief pitchers). Bloom is also known for his prowess in developing starting pitchers. He wrote the "Rays Way" player development handbook in 2008; and during his tenure with the Rays sportswriter Tom Verducci opined that "no franchise understands better how to identify, develop and maintain quality pitchers."
In 2015, Bloom interviewed for the general manager position with the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers; in 2016 with the Minnesota Twins, and 2018 with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets; Bloom was a finalist for the Mets' position. In 2019, he interviewed for the Boston Red Sox' head of baseball operations position.