By Tim Ryder

The Boston Red Sox made a direction-changing addition on Friday in the hire of former Tampa Bay Rays vice president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom, as the organization’s chief baseball officer.

Bloom, 36, took over as the Rays’ director of baseball operations in 2011, moving into the vice president position in 2014 following Andrew Friedman’s departure for Los Angeles.

Since 2012, Tampa Bay has averaged 84 wins per season while not ranking above 28th in payroll since 2013 (25th in 2012). In 2019, the Rays won 96 games with an active payroll of $60.6 million.

For many in Flushing, the question of ‘what if?’ lingers heavily.

Not necessarily what if the Mets had hired Bloom last autumn when he and agent Brodie Van Wagenen were named finalists for the team’s vacant general manager opening, but what if current ownership would have allowed such an against-the-grain move to take place.

Seemingly, this organization has continued to bring in easily malleable, complicit parties to lead their team, on-field and off.

The recently relieved Mickey Callaway could be a prime example. Even former general manager Sandy Alderson insinuated the Mets had turned him down when requests for an expanded analytics department were submitted.

For those missteps, and many more, the New York Mets are in the situation they’re in. There’s no escaping that. The future is all that really matters in this equation.

Concerning ourselves with how prosperous Bloom will likely be in Boston would be futile. Even if he had come to New York, chances are slim that he’d have the creative freedom he had in Tampa or that he’ll be receiving with the Red Sox.

We can only hope the man the Wilpons thought was best suited for the job last offseason, Van Wagenen, has the freedom this offseason to improve the Mets to suitable levels.

The elite pitching, the exciting progression of the positional core, and the upped level of confidence in Queens after a strong second half in 2019 have left the Mets closer to the ultimate goal than most anticipated heading into 2020.

With a green light to make the necessary moves, bringing this team to championship levels, Van Wagenen can erase any lasting doubt his hiring — and how last season played out — may have induced.