Will the Cardinals look more like the Cubs or the Brewers under Chaim Bloom?

As soon as Chaim Bloom was named the St. Louis Cardinals' successor to John Mozeliak following the 2024 season, fans and media alike began to wonder: How much will Bloom's Cardinals look like the Tampa Bay Rays or the Boston Red Sox?

Aside from the low-hanging fruit of how many former Red Sox have been acquired by Bloom, the Cardinals are a long way away from even considering making the kind of aggressive, present-oriented moves that the Red Sox have been able to do since Bloom revamped their farm system. And although the Cardinals are trading away veteran players left and right like Tampa Bay, it is hard to compare the two given the rebuild that the Cardinals are facing.

As I started to reflect on this question more, it became more and more apparent to me that, as you look at the top of the NL Central right now, the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers look very similar to the two organizations that Bloom once led at the executive level.

Milwaukee, for instance, looks like the organization Bloom's longest stint came with. In recent years, the Brewers have been able to stay at the top of the NL Central year in and year out by nailing player development, winning on the margins, raising up a whole lot of "good" players, trading away star-level talent as they near free agency, and now boasting arguably the best farm system in the game. Sounds a lot like how Tampa Bay has been doing things since Bloom's days there.

Chicago is both a big market team with a rich history and ownership group that tends to avoid pushing the chips in as much as they can financially, instead opting to build up a strong farm system, make the occasional big free agent splash, and use their assets to acquire stars through trade along the way. Again, sounds a lot like how Boston wanted to operate with Bloom at the helm.

As much as Boston and Chicago have in common and the Brewers and Rays operate similarly, St. Louis is a very unique market compared to those four franchises. Yes, the Cardinals brand carries the same kind of pedigree and history that the Red Sox and Cubs do, but the market sizes are drastically different. According to the Sports Business Journal, Chicago ranks as the third-largest media market in the United States, and Boston is slotted in at 10th. St. Louis finds itself nestled all the way down in 24th, which is also 19th among markets with a Major League Baseball team.

Yes, we also know that the Cardinals benefit from a larger "market" than just the St. Louis area due to the decades of excellence on the field and market share that KMOX carried for generations of Cardinals fans. This allows St. Louis to punch above its weight class financially, but that doesn't mean they can operate the exact same way that Chicago and Boston do.

And yet, the Cardinals do have an advantage over organizations like Milwaukee, which has arguably the smallest market in Major League Baseball, and Tampa Bay, which just does not have the same kind of fanfare and support to match the Cardinals' financial weight.

So, as the Cardinals look toward the future and dream of what kind of contender they can be under Bloom, will they end up looking more like those big-market foes? Or will they settle in for a draft and develop approach that results in far more turnover talent-wise than this city has seen before?

The Brewers and Cubs are shades of former teams that Chaim Bloom has run: Which will he replicate with the Cardinals?

Ultimately, only time will tell whether the Cardinals downshift into looking more like a true mid-market or even small market team, rather than that unique spot they've been in for decades, where they don't get up to the heights of other markets financially, but they do punch above their weight class.

When Bloom was asked back in September whether he would have the resources necessary to take the Cardinals to the next level when they are ready to contend again, he was confident that when the time comes, ownership has shown they are willing to do what it takes.

"I just don't think that's ever really been an issue here," Bloom said when asked about having resources in the future. "When you look at the long-term of their ownership, they've always reinvested back into the club, they've always done the things necessary to sustain winning. And when I look at what's gone on throughout the course of this year, some of those initial investments that I sat down with them a year and a half ago and said these are really important for us to make if we want to win and win consistently, they've backed that and they've continued to as we've talked about things that need to happen within our organization so we can get the most out of our players, so we can bring talent into the organization effectively. They've been there, and they've backed everything, and I have confidence that as we go, and as this moves forward, they'll be there for what we need to do down the road."

Since that end-of-season press conference, though, the Cardinals have seen another implosion of their TV revenue stream, and there still remains a major question mark hovering over the upcoming collective bargaining agreement as well as the future of both local and national TV rights for all franchises. When Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III were asked at Winter Warm-Up about the changing landscape and if they needed to identify new revenue streams, they did not offer much clarity there.

Again, only time will tell how those situations end up unfolding, but I do think it is fair to say they will have a major impact not only on the overall economics of baseball but also on how we should expect the Cardinals to operate in the future.

Even so, I have a hard time believing the Cardinals are going to go full Tampa Bay Rays or Milwaukee Brewers on this fanbase in their new era of winning baseball. Since purchasing the team, the DeWitt family has been steadfast in their messaging that this organization values having stars, and while they've missed the chance to put their money where their mouth is a few times (see Max Scherzer and Bryce Harper), they have made plenty of splash moves for stars since 1996, such as Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Larry Walker, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, Jason Heyward, Marcell Ozuna, Paul Goldschmidt, and Nolan Arenado.

Bloom's former colleague in Tampa Bay, Erik Neander, was bullish back in August when he talked to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch regarding Bloom's fit with St. Louis.

“He was keenly aware that the Rays needed to operate one way and that Boston was solving for something a little different,” Neander said. “As I’m going through the compliments for Chaim, ‘adaptable’ is absolutely one I would insert. You have to do the business one way here. You have to do your business another way in Boston. I’d have all the confidence in the world with him going to St. Louis without those experiences. But having those experiences can put him ahead. Having the experience in a market a little bigger and a market a little smaller — with lessons learned from both,” Neander continued. “He’s going to do an exceptional job with this one. It’s right in the middle of all of it.”

When the Cardinals are ready to contend again, they should be an organization that replicates some of what makes Milwaukee and Tampa Bay so successful, but also takes pages out of markets like Chicago and Boston's books.

Honestly, what Chicago and Boston have become are big-market versions of the Rays and Brewers. They don't have to move on from stars when they near free agency, but they are selective in whom they keep and whom they let walk or trade away for assets. When they are in their World Series window (like both are now), they are willing to make big moves to build upon their young cores.

Chicago's foundation is built upon Pete Crow-Armstrong, Michael Busch, Justin Steele, Nico Hoerner, and Ian Happ, with more young talent coming, and they have supplemented that core through big trades (Kyle Tucker and Edward Cabrera) while making big signings for players like Alex Bregman, Shota Imanaga, Dansby Swanson, and Seiya Suzuki.

Boston's foundation was built up mostly by Bloom, drafting and developing a young core of Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Marcelo Mayer, Wilyer Abreu, and Brayan Bello with a strong farm system still ready to pump out more talent. They've also used that system to make trades for players like Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Johan Oviedo, and Willson Contreras, and they've added key free agents like Trevor Story and Ranger Suarez to build upon that young core.

St. Louis may lack the same ceiling financially that Chicago and Boston have, I do think that when Bloom is ready to hit the gas and go deep in the postseason again, they'll look to make moves like the Red Sox and Cubs do, rather than being the team that trades away guys like Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes, Josh Hader, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and more. Sure, they may have to make some hard decisions like that from time to time, but I don't think they'll be the team that you always know will part with big-time talent when paydays come near. Sometimes that will be necessary, but if Bloom can truly turn this around, they should have the bandwidth to major on draft and development while retaining different members of their core, and even add some pieces from the outside.

This question will loom large over the Cardinals until we truly see how they handle their next era of baseball. For now, Bloom and his team need to set a strong foundation through this rebuild, or else it won't really matter what they could do as contenders. Their next contention window will only begin with an internal core in place, and that's what is front and center on Bloom's mind for the foreseeable future.