Red Sox reportedly interested in Phillies GM to replace Chaim Bloom

Red Sox

Fuld has been general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies since the 2021 season.

The Boston Red Sox are searching far and wide for the person who will replace Chaim Bloom. It’s still early in the hiring process, but it seems that they’ve already found at least one name that they like. 

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Philadelphia Phillies general manager Sam Fuld has become a strong candidate to sit in Bloom’s former chair. The Red Sox have been familiar with him for a while, as Fuld was reportedly a finalist to become Boston’s manager in 2020 before they gave it to Alex Cora for the second time.

Fuld spent eight seasons in MLB, playing for five teams until he retired from baseball in 2017. Upon his retirement, he accepted a position as player information director for the Phillies, a team he had not played for in his career. Ever since the Phillies hired him, he had either interviewed with or piqued the interests of several teams with vacancies at manager, but none of those opportunities came to fruition. 

The Phillies promoted Fuld to general manager in Dec. 2020, and he has been the right-hand man of former Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski ever since. Many of the Phillies’ important players first joined the club after Fuld’s promotion, including Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner. The Phillies under the Fuld and Dombrowski duo have also drafted four of their top five prospects, including MLB Pipeline’s 28th-ranked prospect Andrew Painter.

In addition, Nightengale also reports that the Red Sox will not be hiring Mike Hazen. Hazen, who currently serves as executive vice president and general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, likes Arizona and has settled there with his four sons. He lost his wife, Nicole, to brain cancer last year, and does not want another family-altering such as moving his kids to Boston and having him and his kids start a brand new life.

In fact, Hazen and the Diamondbacks have had talks about extending his contract, which, as of now, ends in 2024 but contains a club option for 2025. Nightengale wrote that if the Red Sox ask the Diamondbacks for permission to interview Hazen, Arizona president Derrick Hall will deny that request.

It’s still too early to determine who the Red Sox will hire to replace Bloom. But it looks like the pool of candidates is starting to become at least a little more clear.