Chaim Bloom's latest Cardinals trades have enemy fanbases fuming

St. Louis Cardinals fans have been lapping up the tears of opposing fanbases in the days following the trade deadline after President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom swung two deals that appeared to net the Cardinals a treasure trove of high-upside prospects. Following the trades of Dustin May and JoJo Romero to the Milwaukee Brewers and Lars Nootbaar to the Arizona Diamondbacks, media in those respective markets weren't enthused about the price they had to pay to acquire the now-former Cardinals.

The Brewers sent Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale to the Cardinals in their deal, and Frias immediately slots in as the Cardinals' No. 4 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, while Ragsdale sits at 10th. The Brewers are gearing up for a postseason run and were in on Tarik Skubal, but they had to settle for a consolation and turned to their division rival for the first time since 2015. Many of their fans didn't appreciate how much their team sacrificed for what is likely to be just three months of May and Romero, and several expressed displeasure on social media.

Frias was the main piece that had Brewers fans up in arms. The 18-year-old outfielder is hitting .342 with a .980 OPS across Rookie ball and Low-A, and his power could turn him into a feared slugger in St. Louis' farm system. Ragsdale has also played well on the season, but his strikeout rate in Double-A is a yellow flag to this point.

The deal sending Nootbaar to the Diamondbacks also brought back some exciting talent, as Bloom was able to snatch away pitchers Daniel Eagen and Sandro Santana as well as a player to be named later. On the "Snakes Territory" Diamondbacks podcast, one of the hosts lamented about the level of talent that the Diamondbacks surrendered for Nootbaar, saying Arizona didn't need Nootbaar and could have acquired Nathaniel Lowe instead, who commanded a much less invigorating return in his trade to the Cleveland Guardians.

These trades are a continuation of Bloom's divergence from John Mozeliak

Bloom's acquisitions at the deadline were reminiscent of his adds over the offseason and at the 2025 deadline, which included several deals with the Boston Red Sox, where the Cardinals were able to snag Hunter Dobbins, Yhoiker Fajardo, Blake Aita, Blaze Jordan, Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke. Clarke and Fajardo both made their way onto MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Cardinals prospects list following the moves and remain there in 2026.

Bloom also pulled off a whopper of a trade with the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays in the offseason, where he dealt Brendan Donovan for Jurrangelo Cijntje, Tai Peete, Colton Ledbetter and two 2026 draft picks. Cijntje looks like a capable rotation piece within the next year or two, and Peete has broken out with High-A Peoria, hitting .300 and recently achieving his second cycle of the season.

Many of these players hold a high ceiling but may never sniff the major leagues if they can't translate their tools into production, which is a decidedly different angle than previous president of baseball operations John Mozeliak took, where he usually opted for MLB-ready arms with low upside.

Feelings of the deals during Mozeliak's last years in St. Louis were generally more mixed to positive on the opposing end, while Cardinals fans were rarely fully satisfied. Indeed, few of the players from the 2023 deadline, Mozeliak's first attempt at selling in his career, have panned out as useful major league contributors.

Recall the 2023 trade of Jack Flaherty to the Baltimore Orioles for César Prieto, Drew Rom and Zack Showalter. Prieto has yet to find his first major league hit in 17 career plate appearances with the Cardinals, Rom fared poorly with the big league club, and Showalter never appeared in a game with St. Louis.

That same deadline saw St. Louis trade starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery to the Texas Rangers for prospects Thomas Saggese and Tekoah Roby, as well as veteran John King. Saggese has struggled for most of his major league career; on the other hand, while Roby has dealt with a slew of injuries, he is one of the higher-upside players whom Mozeliak brought back and could still have an impact on the team.

Finally, Mozeliak's trade of Jordan Hicks saw the Cardinals bring in Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein. Toronto fans were generally ecstatic about this move, while Robberse has yet to debut and has slid off of most Cardinals top prospects lists, and Kloffenstein has pitched all of one inning in his major league career.

Mozeliak's trades for prospects usually didn't have rival fans feeling terribly uncomfortable about the players they gave up. Bloom, on the other hand, seems to be holding all of the cards in St. Louis' sell-offs. Hopefully the Cardinals don't have to spend too many more deadlines trading away their assets, but fans should take comfort in knowing that Bloom has the savviness required to obtain the players he wants for the next championship Cardinals team.

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