Red Sox’ Trevor Story feels a ‘shared blame’ after Chaim Bloom’s firing

Red Sox

“We didn’t get the job done on the field.”

During Chaim Bloom’s four-year tenure with the Red Sox, he wasn’t known for doling out hefty contracts.

He did make some exceptions, however. The largest free-agent deal he penned came in 2022, when Boston signed Trevor Story to a six-year, $140 million contract.

Initially slotted in as a second baseman (and later a replacement for Xander Bogaerts at short), the former All-Star was expected to bring pop at the plate and defensive fortitude to Boston.

But Story’s time in Boston has largely been marred by injuries and underperformance.

Now with Bloom shown the door en route to another last-place finish for the Red Sox, Story feels for the former baseball executive who played a key role in his arrival to Boston.

“He’s a big reason why I came here,” Story said about Bloom, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com. “Nobody cares more than Chaim. And I think it’s tough. It’s kind of a shared blame. We didn’t get the job done on the field. I think if you ask anybody on the team, on the staff, we all kind of feel a shared blame there. At the end of the day, it’s about performing.”

Story’s debut season in 2022 was limited to just 94 games, with the 30-year-old batting .238 with 16 home runs and 66 RBI.

Any hope of a bounce-back season in 2023 came to an end before spring training even began. Boston announced in January that Story needed to undergo major elbow surgery, which sidelined him until the second week of August.

Story’s defensive capabilities have been a welcome sight, given Boston’s woes in the infield this season. But entering Thursday, Story is batting .188 with two home runs and 10 RBI over 112 at-bats (30 games).

“I think for me, just inconsistent,” Story said of his time so far with Boston. “Obviously health-wise, inconsistent. So I’m looking forward to putting that behind me and having a good next four or five or six years and put these first two kind of behind us.

“ Because personally, I didn’t perform the way I want. And as a team, kind of the same way. I think we’ve really got to find a way to look at our process, look at ourselves in the mirror and see what we do right and things we can improve on. And just kind of go at it from there.”