Chaim Bloom expected to lead sweeping changes to Cardinals organization

Change is necessary.

The St. Louis Cardinals, once known for being one of the most innovative and efficient organizations in baseball, have become stale and outdated with their methods. For years, the organization has shown an inability to develop major-league players, sign viable free agents, and they've been behind the curve from an analytical perspective for nearly a decade now. That's about to change.

While players like Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen, Lane Thomas, and Juan Yepez have found success elsewhere, the front office has mishandled their best prospects who are left like Jordan Walker, Ivan Herrera, and Victor Scott II.

When the Cardinals brought on Chaim Bloom last offseason, his job was clear: he was tasked with analyzing the organization and identifying its flaws and inefficiencies. He's done just that.

In a groundbreaking and eye-opening report, Katie Woo of The Athletic shed light on what's wrong in the organization and how Bloom will remake it from top to bottom. It's a fantastic story, and I would highly recommend you read it in its entirety. She was able to garner insight from club officials that is rarely seen in such a transitory time period for a historic organization.

One thing that Katie made clear is that Chaim Bloom will be the architect this offseason. He won't be signing free agents, making trades, or deciding on which players to promote. Rather, Bloom will restructure the core and skeleton of the organization.

Chaim Bloom, who helped shape the Tampa Bay Rays into a player development powerhouse before enduring a turbulent stint as general manager of the Boston Red Sox, joined the Cardinals earlier this year as a consultant to audit the club’s minor-league operations. Bloom has since joined the front office full-time. He will be charged with making changes in the Cardinals’ farm system based on his findings.

The Rays have consistently been one of the best organizations when it comes to producing major-league talent. Bloom was with the Rays from 2005 until 2019, and he built the organization into a factory for producing good players, particularly pitchers. The hope is that Chaim Bloom can replicate those successes in St. Louis.

Bloom's first task this offseason will be finding a director of player development, a role once held by Gary LaRocque, who is retiring at year's end.

Ever since Jeff Luhnow and Sig Mejdal left the organization in the 2010s, the Cardinals haven't been able to draft and develop major-league players. Joe Kelly, Matt Carpenter, Kolten Wong, Jaime Garcia, Michael Wacha, and Lance Lynn were just a few of the players the Cardinals could consistently draft and develop. Now, with those leaders gone for a decade, the Cardinals have been scraping by in terms of player production.

This has forced them to sign expensive and sometimes ineffective players via free agency. This is not a model that can last forever, and those cracks are now becoming chasms.

The last two years of baseball in St. Louis have been tough to watch; a below-.500 season followed by another absence in the postseason has made fans become apathetic toward the once-heralded franchise. 2025 is likely to be another year of transition as the front office and coaching staff are remade. Things will probably get worse before they get better. But with Chaim Bloom at the helm this offseason, we can be assured that the future is bright for the Birds on the Bat.