In October 2019, less than a year after fielding a 108-win World Series champion, the Boston Red Sox hired Chaim Bloom as “chief baseball officer” to essentially walk back the work of former top decision-maker Dave Dombrowski.

The Mookie Betts trade, which sent one of the game’s elite players out the door in exchange for a pittance later that offseason, made Bloom’s marching orders from team owner John Henry crystal clear, but really, they were right there in the news release. A quote attributed to team chairman Tom Werner heralded Bloom, an alumnus of the Tampa Bay Rays front office, by saying he “possesses the essential qualities to establish a sustainable baseball operation throughout the organization with an emphasis on long-term success at the major league level.”

Sustainable. Read that as you will. It meant building a better farm system, certainly. And most transparently, it meant shedding money.