Cardinals' farm system sweeps Baseball America's most improved awards

When Chaim Bloom was officially named the St. Louis Cardinals' president of baseball operations in waiting last year, he was given the task of spending 2025 implementing changes to the Cardinals' player development and performance departments, especially focusing on revamping the farm system before he took the reins from John Mozeliak.

If you ask Baseball America, I don't think he could have done a better job with turning around the Cardinals' system in just one year of work, and his moves this offseason have added to that incredible work.

Baseball America named the Cardinals as the most improved farm system in baseball in 2025, and Joshua Baez as the most improved prospect

In a recent podcast from JJ Cooper and Geoff Pontes over at Baseball America, the two broke down who they believed were the most improved farm system and prospect of the 2025 season, and both awards went to the Cardinals organization.

First, Bloom received a ton of praise for the work he has been doing behind the scenes for the last two years. In 2024, Bloom was did an audit of the Cardinals minor league system and player development deparment, and came to ownership toward the end of the year with his findings and a plan to revamp it. Going into 2025, former director of player development, Gary LaRoque, retired, and Bloom went to work on implementing the first wave of changes. This included hiring assistant general manager Rob Cerfolio and his new staff to oversee player development and performance.

In 2025, under Bloom's leadership, the Cardinals saw JJ Wetherholt rise to a consensus top-five prospect in the sport, Rainiel Rodriguez skyrocket into one of the most exciting hitting prospects in all of minor league baseball, and steps forward from a number of pitching prospects, despite a number of injuries from their top arms. On top of that, outfielder Joshua Baez, who Baseball America named as the most improved prospect of 2025, went from a failed prospect who didn't even make their top 30 entering the year to a surefire top 100 prospect in the sport.

Between High-A and Double-A in 2025, Baez slashed .287/.384/.500 with 20 home runs and 54 stolen bases in 117 games while playing great corner outfield defense. Baez made huge strides in his profile by drastically cutting down on his swing and miss, and now looks like a legit future impact bat for the Cardinals with 20-20 or even 30-30 potential.

Considering we are entering year one of the Cardinals' official rebuild, this is an awesome place for the Cardinals to be. Chaim Bloom turned the Red Sox's league-worst farm system into the best in the game during his time there, and now, before even taking on the president of baseball operations role, he was able to turn the Cardinals' farm system into one of the best in the game.