Bloom is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is Jewish and keeps kosher. His father Benjamin Bloom is an eye doctor, and his mother Esther Stern-Bloom is a retired Hebrew and French teacher. He attended Jewish day schools, first at Solomon Schechter Day School, and then at Akiba Hebrew Academy in Philadelphia, graduating in 2000. He then graduated from Yale University in 2004, with a bachelor's degree in Latin Classics. Bloom and his wife, Aliza, met at Yale, where she earned a B.A. in economics and international studies. They have two sons, Isaiah and Judah. The family lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, close to Tropicana Field in part so he could easily return on Friday nights to make Shabbat with his family, as he is Sabbath-observant.
Career
Bloom's first entry into the baseball world was an article in Baseball Prospectus in 1997, and he continued writing for it until he joined the Rays. Prior to joining the Rays, he was a baseball operations intern for the San Diego Padres and a legal/corporate partnerships intern for Major League Baseball.
Bloom began working for the Tampa Bay Rays in February 2005 as an intern, was hired by the Rays full-time to work in Minor League Operations in October 2005. He was promoted to Assistant Director of Minor League Operations in 2008, with responsibility for all aspects of the team's minor league system, including player evaluation and assignments, expansion of video, strength and conditioning, and mental skills initiatives, creating of the "Rays Way" player development manual, and executing individual development plans for organization's prospects. He was named Director of Baseball Operations in 2011, expanding his job to include contract negotiations, salary arbitration, budgeting, and overseeing major league support staff and international scouting. In 2014, when General Manager Andrew Friedman left the Rays organization, the Rays promoted Bloom to Vice President of Baseball Operations. His responsibilities expanded to include his overseeing domestic and international player development, a newly created baseball performance science department, trade negotiations, pro, amateur, and international scouting philosophy, personnel additions and changes throughout baseball operations, and short- and long-term strategic planning. He was named Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations in 2016, second in command behind President of Baseball Operations Matthew Silverman. Despite a low Tampa Bay payroll, Bloom consistently fielded competitive teams. The franchise had been one of the most innovative under his management; he integrated analytics into all aspects of the game. He was an early user of breakthrough strategies, now more widely used, such as a much heavier emphasis on shifts and the use of openers. Bloom is also known for his prowess in developing starting pitchers. He wrote the "Rays Way" player development handbook in 2008; and during his tenure with the Rays sportswriter Tom Verducci opined that "no franchise understands better how to identify, develop and maintain quality pitchers." In 2015, he interviewed for the G.M. position with the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers; in 2016 with the Minnesota Twins, and 2018 with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets; Bloom was a finalist for the Mets' position. In 2019, he interviewed for the Boston Red Sox' head of baseball operations position.
Boston Red Sox
On October 25, 2019, the Red Sox hired the 36-year-old Bloom as Chief Baseball Officer, succeeding Dave Dombrowski as head of their baseball operations, with Brian O'Halloran to be named general manager and reporting to him. The Red Sox made an official announcement on October 28, an off-day of the 2019 World Series. In 2019, Bloom's Tampa Bay team had the lowest payroll on opening day at $49 million, while Dombrowski's Boston had the highest at $187 million. Bloom's Rays were 96–66 and made the playoffs, while the Dombrowski-led Red Sox were 84–78 and did not make the playoffs. Since the Red Sox were trying to reduce salary and get under the salary cap for the 2020 season and in the future, Bloom was hired because of his excellence at managing a low payroll on the Rays.
