Rival GM's Chaim Bloom quote proves he's the man for Cardinals' trade challenge

After spending the vast majority of his career in baseball navigating the American League East, Chaim Bloom made the trip over to the National League, looking to conquer the NL Central as the new head decision maker for the St. Louis Cardinals.

While he had vastly different experiences, resources, and expectations between Tampa Bay and Boston, the environment that the AL East brings is unlike any other division in baseball. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Blue Jays are major spenders, the Orioles built one of the best farm systems in baseball in recent years, and the Rays have to find a way to compete with a fraction of the resources.

The NL Central looks far more like a division full of Orioles or Rays-type teams, giving Bloom a different challenge, one that a rival general manager thinks he is going to thrive in.

Divison rival GM thinks Cardinals' Chaim Bloom is going to thrive in the NL Central

At the GM Meetings this past week, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch captured a very interesting quote from Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, who had extremely high praise for Bloom and the opportunity ahead of him.

“I think the one difference that I see in the NL Central is there are star players in the NL Central and occasionally a team in the NL Central will make a big move,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. “The Cubs have the bigger payroll. But a lot of the teams in the NL Central are successful less through the biggest player acquisition and more through just a lot of really smart decisions, building a good culture, and winning on the margins. That stuff is fun. That is the stuff that Chaim is good at. He’s really going to enjoy the job.

Again, that's pretty high praise from a rival GM. Ownership controls how much a front office is able to spend, but it is up to a front office to be the kind of decision-making group that builds culture, wins on the margins, and just makes smart decisions. And doing those things over and over again will put teams in positions to compete at a high level.

Bloom has a track record of that kind of leadership, and that will be crucial for a club in a rebuild. And if Bloom is able to get the team into a healthy position over the next few years with those shrewd moves, then the club can optimize those decisions with spending to put them in an even stronger position.

Expect Bloom to make a lot of those kinds of moves this offseason, looking to flip players on the Major League roster for future value in order to get back into true contention in the National League.