2025 St. Louis Cardinals New Year's Resolutions: Fan Edition

Resolution #3: Trust in Chaim

Ownership and current front office leadership have continuously announced that this upcoming season is going to be a transition on both the payroll and operations front, with money being allocated towards player development and Chaim Bloom expected to take over for longtime decision maker John Mozeliak. As mentioned previously, Mo's tenure with the Cardinals was positive for the team and fans with consistent success and millions of fans coming to Busch Stadium. The past two seasons have been filled with frustrations towards Mo for his choices or non-decisions and being seen as owner Bill DeWitt Jr.'s voice for trimming payroll.

With Mozeliak's contract expiring being a talking point during the recent seasons, the Cardinals hired Chaim Bloom as an advisor to Mozeliak going into the 2024 season. Bloom began with the Tampa Bay Rays and raised his way through the ranks before eventually becoming the team's VP or Baseball Operations. Despite payroll limitations, the Rays were consistently contending in the difficult AL East leading him to be poached by the rival Boston Red Sox in 2019 as a team looking to trim payroll while staying competitive.

Unfortunately for Bloom, Red Sox owner Dave Dombrowski needed the team to move on from future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts and other popular, expensive players like Xander Bogaerts. The Betts decision is one that is continuously held over Bloom's head but done so unfairly. While it was indeed his name on the transaction, the order from above to trim ownership is one that Bloom had to fall in line with before eventually being fired in 2023.

In what was an applauded move among the baseball world, the Cardinals then hired Bloom to his role under Mozeliak. At the time, the common thought was that Bloom would take over once Mo's contract expired and that has since been confirmed by the organization. With Mozeliak moving on after the season, it would be hard to believe that Mo would make any franchise-altering decisions without consulting Bloom or thinking of the Cardinals' future sans Mozeliak. Bloom is going to be taking over a team that is hopefully going to have more answers after a 2025 season that is going to see many players experience make-or-break years. That could make his 2025 offseason easier to navigate as he could potentially see a team with long-term answers at key positions that could then turn to an offseason of extension negotiations rather than with free agents.

Bloom will still be tasked with overhauling the pitching development as that change already seems to be taking place with the discussion of pitching labs and training systems. If the team is able to get the answers they need offensively in 2025, the next season will truly be the one where Bloom can make his mark on the pitching side.

Yes, 2025 has the potential to be a pain but the reality is that fans want to see their team succeed and the Cardinals are no exception. With the past 25 years being filled with winning seasons, the fans owe it to the organization to prove their commitment to winning after an offseason of changes.