The Cardinals can set Chaim Bloom up for success by embracing a rebuild

Right before I submitted this piece, news dropped that the St. Louis Cardinals "plan to shop" Sonny Gray while reducing their payroll. If that along with other recent reports doesn't scream rebuild coming, I don't know what else will.

From the outside looking in, the Cardinals are an organization in need of an overhaul. And according to an anonymous team employee in Katie Woo's piece for The Athletic (subscription required), it turns out people on the inside agree.

“We’re in trouble,” one team employee said. “This is not easily fixable within the next year, or year after. This is going to take some time."

This one pristine organization is now the center of criticism from fans, local and national media, and their own employees. Their issues run deep. While the organization could try and get back into October next year while working on these issues, they would be best served focusing in on rebuilding things from the ground up, setting themselves up for long-term success once again.

Sure, their failures this year at the Major League level were not as disastrous as in 2023. And it is true that the Cardinals turned around a 71-win team from last year and got back above .500 in 2024. It's also worth noting that their expected record by Pythagorean win-loss projections was to be a 75-win team this year.

The Cardinals have spent the last number of years trying to fix things on the fly, but what made this organization so great for so long was their long-term plan and vision for outclassing the rest of baseball. Their ability to draft, develop, and maximize talent allowed them to consistently get to October and win in October. That is the kind of baseball team the city of St. Louis wants to root for again.

Chaim Bloom is expected to grow in prominence with the organization this offseason, first having a major emphasis on overhauling their player development in the minor leagues. Bloom is famous for developing "The Rays Way", a player development manual used by Tampa Bay to become one of the cutting-edge organizations in that area. Even though his time in Boston ended unceremoniously, he was able to transform the Red Sox's farm system from one of the worst in baseball to top-3 in the game in just a few short years.

While Bloom shouldn't be absolved from the issues during his stint with the Red Sox, many within the industry see Bloom as an excellent baseball executive who entered into a chaotic situation in Boston. Ownership essentially asked Bloom to come in and cut their league-high payroll down significantly, trade a future Hall of Famer in Mookie Betts, rebuild their league-worst farm system, and manage to win at a high rate so fans will stay happy.

Bloom did manage to get the Red Sox to an ALCS in 2021, so the Red Sox's lack of success during his time there seems to be overstated. What ownership really wanted him to do was get them to embrace a lot of what made the Rays so successful, an organization built upon elite player development and maximizing their payroll. But when fan pressure came, ownership folded and sent Bloom on his way.

The Cardinals need a renewed vision from their front office. They need to give someone like Bloom time to implement changes and to fix the operation from the ground up, knowing that if they get that right, they start to look more like the Atlanta Braves than the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If ownership tries to ask too much of Bloom, this whole organizational overhaul is going to get messy real quick. I am not saying there should not be accountability for how the Major League club performs, but with how much of a mess ownership and the front office have allowed their minor league infrastructure to get, they are going to need to be patient in order to see things turn around.

Patience is a work fans are sick of hearing in St. Louis, and I totally get it. But this kind of patience is different than John Mozeliak asking you to be patient with their hitters in their slumps or be patient with a below-average pitching staff. The kind of patience needed now is that these fresh decision-makers need time to implement the new way of doing things, rather than expecting them to be a contender again in 2025.

I can see multiple scenarios where this time next year, the Cardinals are slightly above .500 or even competing for a playoff spot while also not "prioritizing" winning next season. While I don't think we should bank on that, it's entirely possible that letting the likes of Paul Goldschmidt, Lance Lynn, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, and other veterans go while allowing young arms and bats to have significant roles could actually produce better results in the near future.

But here's the thing - I don't think most fans just want this team to be a playoff-hopeful team every year again. I think this fanbase wants to see this organization return to being a true World Series contender again, and that will take time.

So instead of trying to patch together a potential playoff team for 2025, allow veterans to walk in free agency. Trade away someone like Ryan Helsley to get maximum value for the farm system. Entertain the idea of deals for Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contreras if they don't see themselves as being a part of this "rebuild". Every move they make right now should be with the club's best interests for 2026 and beyond in mind, as taking a moment to "reset" the organization is the best path toward high-level success once again.

We are not talking about the Cardinals embracing a tank job here. They should not be in the business of trading everything away and embracing years of losing for top draft picks in hopes of replicating what the Astros or Cubs did. Think more Atlanta Braves in the mid-2010s, when they realized their model was in decline, they took a step back, and are now positioned for high-level success for years to come.

The Cardinals have young talent on their big league roster. They have prospects on the way as well. What they really need to figure out is how good can these players be, and how can they get back to setting them up for success at the Major League level.

In St. Louis, 2025 should be about seeing what you have in Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Masyn Winn, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, Ivan Herrera, Thomas Saggese, Victor Scott II, Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, and other young pieces on your roster. They should get a good look at prospects like Quinn Mathews and Tink Hence as well. There is some kind of young core already in play, we just don't really know how good it can actually be yet.

In all of their minor league affiliates starting now and for the years to come, Bloom's initiative to revamp how they develop the talent that Randy Flores drafts or that they acquire through other avenues is paramount. The development of Mathews and Hence is of vital importance. Setting the likes of JJ Wetherholt, Chase Davis, Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal, Tekoah Roby, Chen-Wei Lin, Cooper Hjerpe and others will move the organization from wondering why prospects flame out and instead celebrating success stories of how their drafting, developing, and launching of young talent has benefited the big league club.

It sounds like a rebuild is coming for St. Louis. Not full-blown tanking, but taking a step back for a year or two in order to become a powerhouse once again. It's painful, but it's also necessary, and it is what will best set up Bloom for success with the Cardinals long-term.