Chaim Bloom has given Cardinals fans a nice change of pace

The Winter Meetings are coming up. They'll begin on Sunday in Orlando, and the Cardinals have a lot of work ahead of them. What's different this year, however, is that somebody else is running the show. After 18 mostly successful years under John Mozeliak, it's Chaim Bloom calling the shots. He's been with the organization for two years now and is setting the stage for a new era in St. Louis.

He has already traded Sonny Gray to the Red Sox and jump-started the Cardinals' rebuild. More moves will follow next week, as the Cardinals could be saying goodbye to Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, JoJo Romero and Willson Contreras.

The Cardinals are expected to be very active in the trade market, which is quite the opposite of last winter, when they held onto all of their trade chips and only signed one free agent, Phil Maton.

Most of the work will likely be done in trades, but we might also see the Cardinals sign a few free agents, albeit not high-dollar players. This is one of those times where that is okay. They're rebuilding and trying to set themselves up for the future. Even signing Pete Alonso or Kyle Schwarber wouldn't make them World Series contenders.

But Bloom has already done things a lot differently from Mozeliak. The offseason is still young, but you don't have to look all that hard to see some vast differences between Bloom and Mozeliak's styles, and it has been quite refreshing for Cardinals fans.

Chaim Bloom's philosophy is a breath of fresh air for the Cardinals.

Right off the bat, Cardinals fans are responding much better to the way Bloom does things. There's a good reason for that, and it all has to do with Bloom's messaging. After the Gray trade, he came out and made a definitive statement about why it was done so quickly.

“Nobody who gets in this game has any guarantees, but the more fully that we commit to what we need to do, the better it will go and the quicker we will get there,” Bloom said. “I don’t view this as something that’s about patience. I view it as something that we have to attack with purpose, attack with urgency and we have to do that every day.”

Bloom has proven to be much more aggressive and more willing to take risks than Mozeliak was. Mozeliak would often preach patience, and he had been doing that for the past several years. Fans understandably grew tired of it and were ready to see action rather than just talk.

Bloom has been very open and honest about what's next for the Cardinals, and the messaging is clear. Mozeliak was careful to not tip his hand too much, but while executives should be careful of that, it unfortunately led to less transparency and mixed messaging, which frustrated fans.

A perfect example is how at the beginning of last offseason, Mozeliak stated there would be a "reset." However, two months later, he chose to hold onto Ryan Helsley and missed a chance to capitalize on his value, even going as far as to say he intended for the Cardinals to be competitive.

That talk wasn't backed up with any action. The Cardinals went until mid-March without doing anything to the big-league roster. Meanwhile, Bloom has been honest about the Cardinals needing to take a step back, and he has backed that up with his actions.

Trading Gray is not a move a contending team would make more often than not, but while the rebuild is going to be painful, it's nice to at least have a good idea of what to expect.

We've also seen Bloom target players with higher upside. When Mozeliak sold at the 2023 and 2025 trade deadlines, he didn't acquire any top prospects and instead did a soft sell. But Bloom brought back some very intriguing young pitchers from the Red Sox, Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke.

The Gray trade is the exact kind of move the Cardinals have needed to make for several years. Bloom understood that things needed to change, and so he did things differently and also stayed true to his word. The Cardinals should have traded Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado while their value was high in 2023, but Mozeliak stayed the course and continued to try and thread the needle with a lackluster team.

This has all been refreshing for fans, who wanted honesty and bold action for so many years. Now, the Cardinals are finally acting in such a manner, and while it's going to take a while for them to contend again, it's better to have a front office that is candid with the fanbase, keeps their promises and doesn't try to beat around the bush.