A pattern is emerging in the trade habits of the Cardinals' new head honcho

The St. Louis Cardinals fire sale is in full swing as Chaim Bloom razes the major league roster of its veteran talent. Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras were the first dominos to fall, and Brendan Donovan, JoJo Romero, Nolan Arenado and perhaps others are likely to follow.

After overhauling the Cardinals' player development system last season, Bloom is now in full control of the team with John Mozeliak out the door, and although Bloom has only carried out two trades to this point in the offseason, his vision of how he wants to mold the team is beginning to take shape. 

A theme is setting in regarding Bloom's trade strategies.

Bloom's first offseason deal had him trading the Cardinals' top starter, Sonny Gray, to the Boston Red Sox for pitchers Richard Fitts, Brandon Clarke and a player to be named later. Fitts has made 14 starts over his big-league career, amassing 65.2 innings with a 3.97 ERA. Clarke is the prospect in the swap, a 22-year-old left-hander who throws hard and features an excellent slider.

The other trade of the offseason so far was also with Bloom's former stomping grounds in Boston, as the Cardinals dealt first baseman Willson Contreras for pitchers Hunter Dobbins, Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita. Dobbins, a right-hander coming off a torn ACL, could serve as depth for the Cardinals rotation, while Fajardo is an 18-year-old right-hander who is more polished than most teenage pitching prospects and already owns a solid changeup and good fastball command. Aita is a more of a throw-in whom the Cardinals will hope to unlock.

Fitts is likely to take one of the Cardinals' final rotation spots, joining free agent addition Dustin May, with Dobbins competing for a spot or waiting in the wings should an injury strike. Fitts and Dobbins are pitchers with lower ceilings who could help the Cardinals now as they look to draft and develop their way into future contention. Barring injury, Fitts will likely pitch the most innings yet in his career, giving Bloom a strong idea on whether Fitts will sink or swim at the major league level and can help the Cardinals in future seasons.

While Fitts and Dobbins are the most MLB-ready of the trade pieces, Bloom has also been targeting high-upside pitching that is years away. Unlike Mozeliak's tendency to grab players who are nearly locks to play in the major leagues but possess minimal upside, Bloom is shooting for the moon with his acquisitions of Clarke and Fajardo.

These moves suggest that Bloom sees issues throughout all levels of the Cardinals' system. At the major league level, the newest acqusitions may push Andre Pallante out of a rotation spot. Pallante is a poster child for the previous regime's love of pitch-to-contact ground ball specialists, and it may relegate him to a long relief role as the Cardinals pivot from that fascination.

At the highest rungs of the minors, Dobbins adds reinforcements to a level that held Quinn Mathews and little else. Mathews took a step back last season from his exceptional 2024, struggling with walks and dealing with shoulder impingements, and while Bloom mentioned that Mathews' issues may have been the best scenario for the southpaw, his long-term vision for Mathews remains opaque. The lower levels were where Bloom really got to work, as those are the players who will optimally be ready for the big time when the Cardinals' next window of contention opens.

These two trades with Boston weren't Bloom's first deals at the helm of the Cardinals, as he also acquired prospects at the 2025 trade deadline, but these moves were the most telling of what he sees in the team and what he hopes to put into effect at different levels of the organization. If the Cardinals' new development staff can work its magic, Bloom could emerge as the long-awaited savior for the Cardinals fanbase.