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The St Louis Cardinals are one of the most disappointing teams in Major League Baseball this year. They have missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons and appear to be trending in the wrong direction. Katie Woo of The Athletic reported that former Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox general manager Chaim Bloom will oversee the Cardinals' rebuild.
“Chaim Bloom…joined the Cardinals earlier this year as a consultant to audit the club’s minor-league operations,” Woo wrote. “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. His first and most pressing task: hiring a new director of player development.”
This is considered the most important position in the front office for the Cardinals. They have proven that free agents want to join the historic franchise on big contracts. That strategy, however, has not worked to get them a championship in the past decade. While Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt were fantastic players in their primes, St Louis is now paying prime money for post-prime years.
They have developed one excellent prospect in Masyn Winn. The shortstop hit .265 with 15 home runs and 55 RBIs at just 22 years old. While there is a long way to go before he joins the Bobby Witt class of young shortstop, he is a great piece to build around.
What is the future of the St Louis Cardinals?
The Cardinals do not have a great pipeline and have a lot of tax space tied up in aging stars. While the NL Central usually allows them to rebuild on the fly and still make the playoffs, that is not the case anymore. The Brewers have turned into a small-market powerhouse, Craig Counsell should lead the Cubs to better seasons, and the Pirates and Reds have exciting cores.
Part of Woo's reporting is that winning will be on the back burner for the foreseeable future. When Bloom went to the Red Sox, he was tasked with shepherding the team out of the 2018 title. He traded Mookie Betts, on ownership's request, and immediately became public enemy number one. Developing players is a skill that he has from his days with the Rays.
Bloom was the general manager of the Rays starting in 2014 when Andrew Friedman left for the Dodgers. He continued the “Rays Way” of developing players and turned it into a powerhouse in the AL East. After he left, many of the players he scouted helped Tampa win the pennant in 2020. The Cardinals hope he can recreate that magic in St Louis.
