The Tampa Bay Rays have been a team that managed to tally up wins while making their way to the playoffs time and time again. They’re doing so with some of the lowest payroll in the league, also.
So how do they do it?
Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom had his thoughts.
“It’s probably not my place to talk too much about them because I’m not there anymore, but I will say that none of what has happened since I left is a surprise to me,” Bloom said on WEEI. “Obviously, there was a lot of hard work that went into setting the stage for that, and a ton of hard work to keep it going. I would point to the say thing that is underneath almost any consistent success in this business or probably any business – it starts with people and culture.”
Bloom began his career with the Rays in 2005 as an intern. He was hired full-time in the minor league operations department. He eventually found his way to being named the vice president of operations.
It was there he put together competitive teams with little monetary means and became well-known for putting out quality starters. It ultimately was what the Red Sox hoped would happen when he took the Boston job in 2019. That, and the fact that the team also wanted to reduce the payroll. Bloom was perfect for the gig.
The Red Sox sit in last place in a tough AL East with a 30-28 record. The Rays lead the division with 41 wins on the season.
Bloom credited the people in the Rays organization that help make the team what it is. An important part of it all, he said.
“The caliber of the people there is incredible. They work together exceptionally well,” Bloom said “The tone from top to bottom is set the right way. The alignment is good. Everybody is pulling on the same end of the rope. These are actually not sophisticated concepts. They are really simple things that that organization tends to do really well. That’s a credit to all the people there. From top to bottom, everybody is pulling on the same end of the rope.”
Baseball remains a humbling game, of course.
“My time I was there, we went through some highs and lows and sometimes when it felt like we had it all figured out and then there were sometimes the game humbled us and we had to readjust,” Bloom added.
