6 pros and cons if Chaim Bloom does take over for Cardinals' John Mozeliak

St. Louis Cardinals' President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak has not been shy regarding the impending transition of leadership that will be coming for this organization in the near future. While there is no public succession plan in place other than Mozeliak's contract coming to a close after the 2025 season, multiple voices around the organization have shed light on how Chaim Bloom could be taking over as soon as this offseason.

Let's go through the timeline of events again, shall we? Back in November 2023, Peter Gammons first indicated that the Cardinals' may bring in Chaim Bloom in an advisory role with the club. In January, the Cardinals made the Bloom addition official, and both Mozeliak and chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. were candid about Bloom being an asset to the organization. Mozeliak, when asked about Bloom as a succession plan, pointed to his unique resume and said that he at least "strengthens their bench", while DeWitt made it clear that both he and Mozeliak wanted to pursue Bloom the moment he became available.

When talking with Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat back in June on the Dealin' the Cards podcast, Jones stated that he believed it was Bloom's job to say no to, and that he was studying the organization from top to bottom in preparation for possibly taking over in the offseason.

Just last week, I caught up with long-time St. Louis sports columnist Bernie Miklasz, and he shared the same belief as Jones. Both Jones and Miklasz are extremely plugged in with the Cardinals' organization, so for them both to feel that way based on conversations they have had should mean something to Cardinals' fans. You can check out Miklasz's thoughts on Bloom at the Cardinals' trade deadline in the episode below.

Bloom, for those who are not familiar, was with the Tampa Bay Rays from 2005-2019, reaching the title of Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations with Tampa before being named the Chief Baseball Officer for the Boston Red Sox in 2020. Bloom's tenure with the Red Sox lasted through the 2023 season, and while he was tasked with shrinking their league-high payroll, he still managed to get Boston to an ALCS in 2021. Bloom was fired by the team this past September.

Today I wanted to take a deeper dive into what I believe would be the potential pros and cons of a Chaim Bloom led Cardinals' organization, should that be the direction they go in this offseason.

Pro: Chaim Bloom has been on the cutting edge of player development for a long-time

At the time of his hiring in Boston, Bloom was called a home run hire by many in the industry, like ESPN's Jeff Passan, as he was viewed as one of the most well-regarded baseball executives who had not yet been given the chance to run an organization.

Bloom's calling card when coming up with the Rays' organization was player development. It is a major reason that Tampa Bay has been able to be so successful for so many years with one of the smallest payrolls in all of baseball. For context, even as the Rays have begun to spend more money in recent years, they still rank 28th in all of baseball according to FanGraphs with a projected payroll of about $89 million for 2024, while the Cardinals are 12th in spending at $182 million.

Bloom wrote the team's development manual titled "The Rays Way" back in 2008, and it quickly became famous among baseball circles and the gold standard for how organizations should be developing players moving forward. Think back to how successful the Cardinals were at bumping out young talent in the early 2010s which led to their success from 2011-2015. Bloom is the poster child for that kind of success among today's executives. Getting an edge is the name of the game in this business, and Bloom cracked the code.

When Andrew Friedman left the Rays to run the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bloom was elevated within the Rays' organization as one of their voices trusted with replacing his presence, and it's what ultimately led to the Red Sox choosing him to run their historic franchise.

Player development is something the Cardinals have been criticized for time and time again over the last few years, and if they can flip that into a strength, it would do wonders for their club moving forward. Player development also goes beyond just making prospects better - Bloom has been known for his ability to identify talent that is being undervalued and maximize those players with his organization. Bloom helped the Cardinals target names like Ryan Fernandez, Andrew Kittredge, Riley O'Brien, and Nick Robertson this offseason, and it has paid off in a major way.

Should the Cardinals give the reigns over to Bloom, he'd fill the exact need that Mozeliak has been stating for some time now - fresh eyes who can help the organization see where it has fallen behind the times.

Con: Things seemed to unravel on him during his time with the Boston Red Sox

It is no secret that things did not end well for Bloom in Boston. While I think many people seem to forget or leave out the fact that Bloom helped the club get to the American League Championship Series in 2021, the Red Sox did finish fifth in the American League East in three of his four seasons running the club.

First, let's acknowledge some context. When Bloom took over going into the 2020 season, the club missed the playoffs the season prior and fired Dave Dombrowski due to the mess the club was in long-term. Most publications at the Red Sox farm system ranked as the worst in all of baseball that year, while the Rays' had been regarded as a top-five system in the game. The Red Sox also had the largest payroll in baseball when they hired Bloom, and that's without an extension for superstar Mookie Betts, who was set to hit free agency after the 2020 season.

Bloom was tasked not only with winning, but also rebuilding the farm system, trading Mookie Betts after ownership decided they did not want to sign him, and figuring out ways to cut payroll while making the club better at the same time. Oh, and he had to do that in a market like Boston that was going to rip him to shreds for decreasing payroll and whatever the Betts trade would end up being.

Frankly, Bloom did not do well in the Betts trade. It's not his fault they had to trade him, and Betts' value was significantly lower with him being in a contract year and everyone knowing Boston was going to move him, but the return package was still not good enough. Plenty of people have almost pointed to Bloom's faults within roster construction, lack of deadline activity, and the free agent deals he did hand out (more on that later). Boston is now a contender in 2024 after the changes Craig Breslow made, so that's not going to look good for his resume either.

To me, a lot of the problems that Bloom had in Boston can be attributed to ownership. If you just go back and look at how the Red Sox have operated over the last 15 years, they seem to change course constantly, and while they've won some World Series doing that, they've also driven out some of the best executives in the game, such as Theo Epstein and the aforementioned Dombrowski.

Bloom ultimately was not a good fit in Boston, but I'll explain more later about why St. Louis may be the cleaner fit.

Con: Chaim Bloom's free-agent signings and trades have been a mixed bag, with some pretty big misses

Every front office makes mistakes when it comes to trades and free agent signings, but it does feel like those who follow the Red Sox were not big fans of Bloom's bigger player acquisition attempts.

We already touched on the Betts trade, where he shipped the future Hall of Famer, David Price, and cash for Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong, and Jeter Downs. Yikes. Including Price's deal in that trade hurt the return, but it was still bad. He also dealt away guys like Jeffrey Springs and Hunter Renfroe for underwhelming returns.

Free agency was not the best for him either. The Kike Hernandez extension as well as the Corey Kluber and Trevor Story signings have been mocked by Red Sox fans. The jury is still out on the Masataka Yoshida signing, but considering he's a player who profiles better as a DH, there is a good chance his five-year, $90 million deal does not age well.

These are not the worst moves by any means, but they sure would get ripped in St. Louis. Again, it is part of the business to lose on some moves, but there also are not a lot of examples of Bloom "hitting" on bigger moves while he was with Boston. It's something to be aware of at the very least.

While St. Louis has not been the spender that fans would want them to be, if Bloom's way of team building works, he will be able to replenish the roster with young, cost-controlled talent as well as moves around the edges that make a great impact on a small budget. The more he is able to do this, the more he would be able to spend and take bigger swings on bigger names. While St. Louis won't spend like Boston, they consistently spend over $100 million more than Tampa Bay does, so Bloom should be able to make things work.

Alright, I'm being too positive with this con now, let's move on to the next pro because I'm really bleeding into it.

Pro: Chaim Bloom's philosophies seem like the perfect fit for a market like St. Louis

I actually mean this is as a compliment, I promise. Let me explain why.

I'm not going to get into the debate about owners needing to be more like the Dodgers and Yankees and spend like them. We just know that is not happening in St. Louis. They should spend more though, and they really owe it to the fanbase to truly surpass that $200 million payroll threshold in the near future.

But here's why I think Bloom's way of thinking and organizational building works perfectly in St. Louis. The Cardinals historically pride themselves on consistent winning. Bloom has been the model of building that in Tampa Bay. But unlike his time with the Rays, the Cardinals do spend enough money on the roster to not only go out and get talent, but to lock-up their core players for significant time as well. In Tampa, Bloom and others who have run that team have to be quick to trade away their best talent in order to recoup value and keep building cheap contenders.

Why did that not work in Boston then? Frankly, I don't think Boston is the kind of market that can handle that kind of leadership, and I don't believe their ownership group had the patience to see it through. They are quick to make drastic, sweeping changes and totally change course. While the Cardinals could use more urgency, I do think there is strength in having a plan and seeing it through when someone like Bloom is at the helm.

Bloom should not have to worry about his owner asking him to trade a star player because they don't want to pay them. Most of the time, the DeWitt family actually looks to lock up their own players on long-term deals. Bloom should be able to forecast and build a multi-year plan for the organization, maximize the club's dollars with his value plays, but also have room to make bigger investments when they desire to.

In some ways, Bloom reminds me of Mozeliak early in his tenure with the Cardinals. No, not the Mozeliak of recent years that has not found much success since 2015, but the version of his leadership that brought the Cardinals to four straight NLCS appearances from 2011-2014, two World Series appearances, and one World Series title.

I think fans would take that kind of success if Bloom could bring it.

Con: Cardinals' ownership could use Bloom's strengths as a reason to decrease spending

Here is the shadow side of that kind of thinking though. If Bloom's strength is doing more with less, what is stopping the Cardinals' ownership from simply asking him to, well, do more with less than they already invest into the club?

It's a fair question and one that can't be answered until we are able to see it in action. It is no secret that the Cardinals' revenue continues to drop, and they have not experienced the kind of attendance resurgence they thought they would this season. I'm anticipating a drop in payroll due to that this offseason (not defending it, just anticipating it), and it'll cause fans to wonder if that is a sign of things to come.

There are some glimmers of hope against that thinking though in Cardinal history. Jeff Lunhow was brought in by DeWitt because of his cutting-edge thinking and way of running a baseball team, and the combination of Lunhow and Mozeliak was able to do great things with the Cardinals from the late-2000s into the mid-2010s.

If Bloom is able to be like what Lunhow and early Mozeliak were to this organization, I think the DeWitt family would invest in this team as it got closer and closer to that dream scenario. But again, I don't blame fans for thinking they could take advantage of his new regime and try to get by with investing less year by year, but I'm not sure they'd be able to see that to fans.

Frankly, they've already driven some fans away due to not investing more, and the club is on thin ice with countless others for similar reasons. The Cardinals need to find ways to reenergize the fanbase, and that will require continued investment to go along with winning.