8 offseason targets for Chaim Bloom to shore up the Cardinals rotation

Zack Littell

A former Tampa Bay Ray, Zack Littell, actually only had brief exposure with Chaim Bloom during the 2023 season with the Boston Red Sox, and by brief, I mean only five days. After that, the Rays picked him up on waivers, converted him to a starter, and Littell revived his career in Tampa.

From 2023 to 2025, Little made 75 starts and 14 relief appearances, posting a 3.80 ERA in 433 innings of work. Like the Rays have done so many times, they take pitchers whom other organizations gave up on, even an arm that their former player development guru, Bloom, let go of, and they find a way to maximize what they do best and get the most out of them. Tampa Bay isn't successful every time, but stories like Littell are more common with the Rays than any other organization these days.

You know that has to stick with Bloom, who, although I am sure he loves his former colleagues in Tampa, probably has a hard time with the idea that he missed on Littell while they figured him out. To be fair, every organization misses on guys, even the Rays. We are talking about the team that traded Joe Ryan to the Minnesota Twins for an old Nelson Cruz here. So Bloom knows as well as anybody not to dwell on that too long.

Anyways, Littell will likely draw interest from a number of teams due to his success over the years as a starter, but he did stumble a bit down the stretch after being dealt to the Cincinnati Reds. In 22 starts with the Rays prior to the deal, Littell had a 3.58 ERA, but his 4.92 FIP did indicate that regression was coming. When he got to the Reds, he posted a 4.39 ERA in 10 starts.

The Cardinals are going to need at least one or two arms this offseason who they can depend on to make starts for them. Littell will turn 30 in a few days, so he's not as old as other starters the Cardinals have targeted as stopgaps have been, and he honestly could still have a bright future ahead of him. There's a good chance Littell gets a multi-year deal from someone, which is not something I would expect the Cardinals to consider. But if Littell does take a one-year deal, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the Cardinals in on him.