Playing nine innings while wondering whether Chaim Bloom will keep his job long enough to reap the full benefits of his rebuilt farm system …
1. Strong hunch on what happens with Xander Bogaerts, free agent shortstop: Chaim Bloom and the Red Sox will say “Bogey is our first choice” right up until he signs elsewhere — Cardinals? Phillies? Dodgers? — and then management will try to spin it like it was his decision to leave even though the only organization Bogaerts has ever known will not have made a competitive, sincere offer to retain him. Semi-reasonable, slightly desperate pathway for Bogaerts to stay in Boston: He gets lost a bit in a stacked shortstop market that includes Trea Turner and Carlos Correa and ends up coming back to the Red Sox for something like six years and $190 million.