Cardinals must keep adding fresh eyes to avoid falling into familiar traps

One of the messages Chaim Bloom has preached since coming to the St. Louis Cardinals is that Major League Baseball is a zero-sum game - if you let off the gas because you think you're on top, you will fall. That has driven him to bring in a variety of fresh voices to the organization, and is why he sees the opportunity to continue doing so.

"I don't have anything up my sleeve that I'm not telling you right now," Bloom said in response to adding more staff during the press conference announcing Rob Cerfolio as the Cardinals' next GM. "This is kind of the way I think it will go is that it creates an opportunity here and there in the organization to continue to add fresh eyes and people that we think can push us forward."

With Cerfolio's promotion, Randy Flores' departure for his own general manager role in Houston, the dismissal of Brant Brown as their hitting coach, and more potential staff turnover, there are natural opportunities here for the Cardinals to keep diversifying their baseball operations and field staff in order to keep attacking this rebuild with everything they've got.

Fresh eyes helped revamp the Cardinals, and they can't get away from adding more in the future

When Bloom came to the Cardinals as an advisor prior to the 2024 season, he provided John Mozeliak with a fresh set of eyes who could bring perspective and guidance to the next phase of Cardinals baseball, particularly with regard to player development. Then, after he was named Mozeliak's successor, Bloom began to bring in even more eyes.

Cefolio (first assistant GM, now GM), Larry Day (director of player development), Carl Kochan (director of performance), Matt Pierpont (director of pitching), Dalton Hurd (director of hitting), Jacob Buffa (director of international scouting), Joe Douglas (director of pro scouting), and many other names have been added to the Cardinals' baseball operations since Bloom's arrival. On the field staff, Joel McKeithan was recently added to replace Brown as their Major League hitting coach.

But the beauty of this is that Bloom did not just "clean house" in St. Louis. Flores and Moises Rodriguez remained as assistant general managers; Michael Girsch was reassigned to a new role and is still with the front office; Matt Bayer is still in analytics; Zach Mortimier was promoted to oversee amateur scouting, and many, many more names remained in their roles. On the Major League coaching staff, almost everyone has remained in their roles since Bloom arrived.

But as Bloom alluded to in this press conference, this winter affords the Cardinals more opportunity to get creative with how they add new voices. Whether that's replacing open positions, or backfilling them with new roles that report to the names who remain, continuing to bring fresh perspectives to the organization is wise to blend with the special group they have right now.

We've also seen Bloom seem to take on different challenges each offseason he's been here. Following his year as an advisor and during his "year in waiting", Bloom overhauled the Cardinals' player development and performance staffs. Last offseason, he revamped the scouting department. Maybe this is the offseason they make some additions or shake-ups to analytics, medical, baseball technology, or something else.

It will be interesting to see how this offseason unfolds for the Cardinals and what opportunities present themselves to add to their staff. It's refreshing to see the Cardinals at a place where they can blend their current model with new thoughts and opinions, and it's what can help them continue to stay on the cutting edge of baseball as they move forward.

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