Poll of best front offices in sports kills Cardinals' regime, optimistic on future

It wasn't all that long ago that the St. Louis Cardinals were viewed as not just one of the best organizations in baseball, but one of the best organizations in all of sports.

Not anymore. And I'm not just talking about public perception or the growing frustration among Cardinals' fans, I'm talking about the opinion of their peers.

The Athletic (subscription required) just ran a poll of 40 front-office executives and coaches asking them to rank the top five front offices, in order, in their respective sport. The respect of peers tends to tell you who is truly at the top of their game, and the results of these surveys were not kind to the current perception of the Cardinals.

78 front offices from organizations in the "big four" leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL) received votes from their peers, but the Cardinals did not receive a single one. In fact, 16 MLB front offices received votes, including two NL Central rivals in the Brewers and the Reds, leaving the Cardinals in at least the bottom half of the game.

There's actually two major storylines I believe we can glean from the Cardinals' omission from this list.

Cardinals' front office ranking is an indictment on the outgoing regime, but there are seeds of optimism for the future

The results of this poll fall squarely on the shoulders of John Mozeliak and the front office he has constructed leading up to this past offseason. While Chaim Bloom and his new hires are beginning to plant roots in the front office, teams around the league were not voting on what Bloom's regime will be like since it's not truly in place yet.

But, if you take a closer look at these front office rankings, the fingerprints of the Cardinals' future is all over that list.

Bloom made a new for himself and developed as a baseball executive with the Tampa Bay Rays, the second-ranked front office among MLB teams and fourth-ranked among the big four leagues. In fact, Bloom was even name-dropped in The Athletic's piece as evidence of how good the Rays' front office has been. The only MLB organization that ranked above the Rays, the Los Angeles Dodgers, is led by Bloom's former boss and key in his development, Andrew Friedman.

Bloom's first major hire for the front office he is building was Rob Cerfolio, who now serves as the Cardinals' Assistant General Manager, Player Development & Performance, and will help reshape the Cardinals' front office and player development system. Cerfolio was hired from the Cleveland Guardians front office after working a number of roles for them for the past decade, most recently as the Director of Player Development.

The Guardians were the fourth-ranked organization among all baseball teams and 15th among the four major sports leagues. Bloom and Cerfolio have since hired more members for their player development department, coming from organizations like the Guardians, Dodgers, and the Mariners. Seattle also received votes, ranking 12th among baseball organizations and 57th among the four major sports leagues. Matt Pierpont, who came over from Seattle, will be the Cardinals' Director of Pitching, which is the true strength of the Mariners' front office.

While the Cardinals' current regime seems to have grown stale and lost its luster amongst its peers, there are plenty of signs of life on the horizon. Bloom has been intentional so far in plucking new leaders from organizations on the cutting edge, and the hope is that over the next few years, the Cardinals regain their status as one of the best front offices in the game.