It’s been over one month since the Boston Red Sox fired Chaim Bloom and they’re still looking for the next person who will head the team’s baseball operations.
Among the names who are reportedly being considered by the Red Sox is James Click, who joined the Blue Jays last winter as their Vice President of Baseball Strategy.
Click graduated from Yale University in 2000 and joined analytics website Baseball Prospectus in a role working with their PECOTA player projection algorithm. He joined the Tampa Bay Rays as an intern in 2005 and moved into their front office the following year.
After over a decade working with the Rays, Click was hired by the Houston Astros in January of 2020 to replace Jeff Luhnow, the general manager who was fired for the team’s sign-stealing scandal. The Astros won the World Series in Click’s first season as general manager but he was let go by the organization after declining a one-year contract.
Click has been viewed by many as an internal option available if the Blue Jays want to move on from Ross Atkins as their general manager, though CEO Mark Shapiro gave Atkins and the value of continuity a significant vote of confidence.
It was the same case a few years ago when former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington was working in Toronto’s front office. He wound up getting hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Click hired for one of this winter’s vacant GM jobs.
That said, the Red Sox position might not be appealing for somebody like Click given how things went for Bloom, who he worked with at Baseball Prospectus and in Tampa Bay. A handful of names have already declined interviews for Boston’s head of baseball operations, including Philadelphia Phillies GM Sam Fuld, and L.A. Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes. There might be better jobs on the horizon than one in a high-pressure market with ownership that likes to be hands-on when it comes to roster and strategy.
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