7 areas of investments the Cardinals must make this winter

Whether it is time or money, the St. Louis Cardinals must make some serious investments this offseason.

If the organization goes into this offseason remaining status quo, the fan base will be even more upset than it already is and the rest of the league will question just how serious the Cardinals are for the future.

The Cardinals have a very important offseason ahead of them. And that's an understatement. Let's discuss what investments the Cardinals should make this winter.

Player Development

The organization has announced Gary LaRocque, director of player development, is retiring effective at the end of this season. He has been the head of player development since 2008. This appears to be the first of many anticipated changes this offseason.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak will enter the final year of his contract. It is expected he will step back some, giving way for Chaim Bloom to show off his vision for the organization going forward. However, the retirement of LaRocque also raises the question of Bloom becoming a factor in the equation for the new director of player development. Bloom's background with the Tampa Bay Rays was in player development.

According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch regarding Bloom and player development:

A lot will depend on the role that Chaim Bloom wants to play. That doesn't get mentioned enough in questions about him. What role does he want to have? This year, he did not want to be part of the day-to-day grind of ops and roster management. ... Is his calling more in the minor-league development role? That is a question the Cardinals will ask before moving forward with how their leadership looks through this offseason and into it. ... There is a chance if that is what Bloom prefers, what he seeks for his return to full-time baseball operations.

It would appear how the Cardinals proceed with Bloom should be taken care of early in the offseason as it seems many of their other plans could fall into place once he establishes the role he wants to take on.

Randy Flores is an assistant general manager within the organization and has played a huge role in the MLB Draft for the Cardinals. He could be another name in the hunt for the player development director.