Chaim Bloom adding a new, much-needed position to Cardinals front office

In an era where teams are doubling down on data and projection models at the cost of traditional scouting methods, Chaim Bloom wants to give the St. Louis Cardinals an edge on the industry by doubling down on both methods for talent evaluation.

During Bloom's introductory press conference, he forecasted how the organization plans to add roles to their front office and coaching departments, not subtract. While the organization has already cut ties with one coordinator and could make a few more changes in that department, Bloom's goal is to add more voices and expertise to their baseball operations, rather than overhaul their current regime or subtract from it.

Katie Woo of The Athletic is reporting that one of the major changes that Bloom is making in his first offseason as president of baseball operations is creating a brand new position for the Cardinals' front office, someone to oversee professional scouting, and make it their own department, rather than being lumped in with amateur scouting. Much like when Bloom hired Rob Cerfolio and began to overhaul the player development department, they are expected to add more roles to their professional scouting department once the lead position is filled.

Why is this important? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Chaim Bloom is looking to add a professional scouting director to oversee Cardinals' new department

One of the areas the Cardinals have rightfully been critiqued over the last number of years has been their ability to identify talent in other organizations. Now, I'm not suggesting their current professional scouts aren't doing a good job, and clearly Bloom isn't of that opinion since he has retained that entire staff, but their clearly needs to be more investment into that area, and Bloom is making sure of that.

Back during the pandemic, the Cardinals scaled back in a number of areas within their organization to cut costs, and it took them until really the last two years to begin to rehire some of those positions. When Bloom was hired as an advisor to John Mozeliak, he quickly noticed how thin the Cardinals were in a number of key areas, with professional scouting being one of those.

While every organization misses on trades, it really does feel like the Cardinals have done that too often in recent years. While they seem to have gotten nice returns for players like Jordan Montgomery and Paul DeJong, their trades of Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks, Tyler O'Neill, Dylan Carlson, and others have fallen flat. Professional scouts will help the Cardinals' front office identify talent that they believe could help them in the future, and then target them in trades, the Rule 5 draft, waivers, or eventually free agency.

While the Cardinals continue to state that homegrown players are where they need to build their foundation, that doesn't just mean drafting their own guys or signing international amateurs. That includes trading for prospects in other organizations or young players who didn't pan out with their current teams, who could thrive with St. Louis. Adam Wainwright, for example, is a player the Cardinals acquired as a prospect back in the early 2000s in the J.D. Drew trade, and ended up being a core piece for them long-term.

The Cardinals haven't had a ton of success in that area of roster building in recent years. O'Neill and Matthew Liberatore are two of the biggest examples the Cardinals have of higher-level prospects they sought to acquire via trade, and both have had their highs and lows with the team. Matt Svanson, Tekoah Roby, and Thomas Saggese could all be really positive examples moving forward, but outside of Svanson's awesome rookie season in their bullpen this year, the jury is still out.

I get it, moves like this are not nearly as flashy as if they signed a big free agent, but I winning on the margins in areas like this, especially when other organizations are actually cutting those departments, could give the Cardinals an advantage over rival clubs.

For example, let's look at the Matt Svanson acquisition. He was seen as a throw-in piece just to get Paul DeJong off the Cardinals roster, but this year provided the Cardinals with $7.9 million of value according to FanGraphs while making just $760,000. That's $7,140,000 if surplus value this year alone, and he'll make just $760,000 the next two seasons as well. Even if Svanson is only worth about $5 million each of the next two seasons, the Cardinals would have a player who provides them with $15.62 million more value than what they are paying him during that time frame.

Instead of going out and spending $7 million per year to find a reliever like Svanson, they save that money and can use that to bring in an additional reliever, put that money toward an extension, or invest in another area of the roster. Scouts make far less than the amount of money the Cardinals are saving here, and if they keep hitting on players like Svanson, that adds up over time.

But where the huge payoff could come is if the Cardinals strike gold on a player from another organization who ends up breaking out for them. Think about the Rays' acquisition of Randy Arozarena from the Cardinals. During his first four seasons with the Rays, Arozarena was worth an estimated $83.3 million, and was only paid about $6 million total by Tampa Bay in those years. Yes, they had to give up Matthew Liberatore, but he only produced about $6.4 million in value over that stretch, so the Rays ended up receiving about $71 million in surplus value from Arozarena in that stretch compared to what they paid him and had to give up to acquire him.

For an organization like Tampa Bay, that's their true path toward acquiring high-level production. For the Cardinals, that is a way for them to maximize value on their roster, find as many value plays as they can, and then use their surplus resources to bring in that top-end pitcher they are missing or a big bat to take their lineup to the next level.

Bloom is looking to get the Cardinals back to being an organization that beats other teams behind the scenes, and in turn results in a better on the field product. This is a great step in that direction.