The Boston Red Sox, who boast a 37-35 record and are fresh off sweeping their dreaded rival in the New York Yankees, seem to be in a pretty good spot right now, all things considered. Despite that, there's always been a sense of frustration surrounding this team, and that has apparently made its way into the dugout, with reports surfacing that suggest that manager Alex Cora and general manager Chaim Bloom are not on good terms with each other.

Given the state of the Red Sox roster, the fact that they have a record above .500 is something of a miracle. Bloom entered as the team's GM and immediately tore down the framework of their 2018 World Series squad, and while they managed to make it back to the ALCS in 2021, it has never felt like the front office has been invested in building a winner during Bloom's reign.

The frustration surrounding this team has been palpable for awhile now, and even as they are exceeding expectations currently, you can't help but feel like this team is capable of so much more. Cora is doing his best to milk everything he can out of this team, which is why in the battle of Cora vs. Bloom, it is Bloom who the Sox must let go of.

Why Red Sox must fire Chaim Bloom rather than Alex Cora

After moving on from Dave Dombrowski shortly after the conclusion of the 2019 season, the hiring of Bloom was met with some skepticism. Bloom, whose has a background with the penny-pinching Tampa Bay Rays, was now given the key to build the roster of one of the biggest market teams in the MLB. Would he be able to make that jump, or would he try to build the Red Sox like the Rays?

Typically such concerns aren't warranted, and are just topics for talk show hosts to bring up in an effort to hate on the home team as much as possible, but in this case, they actually ended up being spot on. The Red Sox went from throwing everything at the wall to win under Dombrowski's lead, to being run like a small-market team under Bloom.

In some ways, Bloom has done what's been asked of him. He's rebuilt Boston's farm system, although that's largely been due to the fact they have had some high first-round draft picks to work with in recent seasons. But after watching Dombrowkski gut their farm system, Bloom has gotten it back to a respectable spot.

Unfortunately, that's come at the expense of winning at the major league level, aside from the 2021 season. Bloom's first massive move involved trading Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and fans have never really let him live that down. Bloom has rarely invested in Boston's major league roster, letting Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, and Kyle Schwarber all leave in free agency for nothing over the past two offseasons.

On the other hand, Alex Cora has proven time and again that he's the manager the Red Sox need. He immediately led Boston to a championship in his first season, and it wasn't a surprise to see them completely fall apart in the shortened 2020 season while he was suspended for his role in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal. Cora returned in 2021 and nearly guided the Sox all the way back to the World Series.

Even in seasons like this one, Cora is finding ways to get everything possible out of his team. If Boston weren't playing in the American League East, chances are they would be a legit postseason contender. How that's possible, though, remains a mystery. Their starting rotation is arguably the worst in the league, their fielding is atrocious, and their lineup is either extremely hot or extremely cold.

Cora can only do so much with the subpar rosters Bloom is giving him. The replacements Bloom brought in for their recently departed stars have been awful. Corey Kluber got exiled to the bullpen after struggling mightily as a starter, Enrique Hernandez has been removed as the team's starting shortstop after committing a league-high 14 errors, and the supposed savior at first base in Triston Casas has just a .210 batting average, despite playing on an almost everyday basis.

Bloom deserves pretty much all of the blame for the position the Red Sox find themselves in, which is why if one of him or Cora has to get fired, Bloom is the obvious choice. He simply hasn't built Boston to be the winner that they very well could have been on a handful of occasions during his time leading the front office.

The Red Sox managed to lock up their star in Rafael Devers, and have pieces alongside him, such as Masataka Yoshida, Alex Verdugo, and Brayan Bello, worth building around. But to this point, Bloom has not proven himself to be the guy capable of getting Boston to their next level. Bloom may have been great working with the Rays, but in the big market of Boston, Bloom has been a mess, and his time with the team should be coming to an end soon.