Cardinals fans' standards for Chaim Bloom can't mirror those for John Mozeliak

If there's one word the St. Louis Cardinals attempted to hammer home over the past season, it's "runway." Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman received runway to see if they could succeed as major league players. Matthew Liberatore earned runway to see if he could stick in the Cardinals rotation. Victor Scott had runway to see if he could be the Cardinals' everyday center fielder.

Some of these questions were answered in the affirmative and others in the negative, and still more remain up in the air. In 2026, the Cardinals will roll out the runway once again — except instead of the players, it will be the man in charge of assembling the roster whom the team will provide extensive leeway as the Cardinals look to get back on track from everything that went awry during John Mozeliak's final years directing the club. And just as it was the Cardinals' job to exercise patience with their players in 2025 as they attempted to figure everything out, now it's the fans' turn to be patient with the new man in the driver's seat.

Cardinals fans must give Chaim Bloom plenty of grace as he molds the team back into contention.

"Patience" has become another dreaded word in St. Louis, and it's not without reason: Mozeliak used it often as one of his buzzwords, but as his tenure as the Cardinals' president of baseball operations wound down, it was becoming clear that all the patience wasn't paying off in the form of results on the field. Mozeliak and his superiors, the DeWitts, continued to push the narrative that the team would look to remain competitive, so fans understandably became frustrated when the Cardinals couldn't reach those stated heights.

Now, under Bloom, there's no obfuscation of the Cardinals' goals: The front office will embark on a full roster teardown, which has already begun with several of the team's top players headed elsewhere. The fact that the Cardinals now appear to be dedicated to a specific direction rather than treading water against a current should relieve fans, and many have already latched onto Bloom as a potential organizational savior, with his direct and honest communication earning rave reviews across Cardinals Nation.

The current "Era of Good Feelings" that Bloom is enjoying will not last, but because of the team's current state, Cardinals fans will not be able to judge Bloom accurately for several years. Unlike Mozeliak, Bloom is not trading players with the intention of winning now, so deals where he is trading away pieces that would otherwise benefit the roster (Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, etc.) should be seen as part of the process instead of as gaffes the way many view Mozeliak's jettisoning of Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen and Randy Arozarena.

Bloom has carried out a few promising moves that could help the team in the short term, though. The acquisitions of Dustin May, Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins might already strengthen a rotation from what the Cardinals possessed in 2025, especially with Miles Mikolas off of the books. The team could flip May at the trade deadline if he displays any of his past success, and Fitts and Dobbins could earn valuable major league experience while younger prospects continue developing at the lower levels.

The Cardinals aren't set to turn things around overnight. and with significantly different aspirations in 2026 than the front office has had in decades, Bloom shouldn't be held to the same expectations that Mozeliak was. Compared with his predecessor, Bloom deserves a much longer leash from fans before they reach for the choke chain.