Bloom to take over as Cardinals president of baseball ops in '26

ST. LOUIS – While acknowledging that their player development pipeline -- one that was the envy of all MLB teams a decade ago -- had fallen into disrepair, the Cardinals pledged a recommitment to that side of their organization which will be led by advisor Chaim Bloom, who will then become the successor to the retiring John Mozeliak as president of baseball operations in 2026.

While announcing that manager Oliver Marmol and Mozeliak will return in 2025 despite the club missing the playoffs for the second straight season, the Cardinals also declared that Bloom, 41, had signed a five-year deal to take over baseball operations in 2026.

Bloom, the former baseball chief with the Red Sox and Rays who has been working for the Cardinals since January, will retain the title of advisor and that his five-year contract won’t begin until the 2026 season, per the Cards.

Mozeliak, who noted that he will also take on the day-to-day general manager duties with Michael Girsch reassigned, admitted that an “8-to-12 percent increase” in investment in adding more player development staff and improved technology will lead to a decrease in payroll at the MLB level. As the Cardinals commit to a young core that includes Masyn Winn, Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy, it could lead to a purging of the long-term contracts of veterans Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz.

All-Star closer Ryan Helsley, who set the club record for saves with 49 in 53 chances, is due a substantial raise in arbitration and would likely fetch a host of prospects in any trade. The Cards aren’t expected to pick up the club options for Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, but they do have an interest in retaining free agents Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew Kittredge and Keynan Middleton, a source told MLB.com.

“At a very high level, yes, I would anticipate seeing payroll going down because of these investments,” said Mozeliak, who will meet with Marmol this week to discuss potential coaching staff changes.

“We don’t know what that [payroll] number is, so in terms of who we might have to trade, that’s premature. … Yes, this is a reset, and yes, we’re not going to be focusing on building the best roster we can, but we’re also excited because we have a bunch of young players and we do have some emerging stars at the Minor League level. How we augment that over the next few months, time will tell.”

Asked about the decision to retain the 55-year-old Mozeliak and the one-year delay in promoting Bloom to the top spot in baseball operations, Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said he wanted to remain loyal to Mozeliak while also allowing Bloom to focus on getting the player development side up to speed.

“Our number one priority is to build up our player development system, so having Chaim in that role is really critical,” DeWitt Jr. said. “Meanwhile, Mo’s done an excellent job over many years and his record speaks for itself. … I think we have the best of all worlds here. [Mozeliak] is going to see his tenure through and Chaim is going to jump in and try to improve what we’ve done on player development. We’re really well set this year and beyond.”

Bloom, who spent the past nine months evaluating the Cardinals Minor League prospects, coaching and evaluation mechanics, built the Rays into a perennial contender with his player development implementations and later kick-started a Red Sox rebuild with his controversial trade of superstar Mookie Betts. He said his top priority is to get the Cardinals caught up in MLB’s “arms race” in developing prospects ready to contribute at the big-league level.

“It’s remarkable -- even over the course of my career -- how much faster this arms race has gotten behind the scenes … and it comes down to 30 clubs competing to see how well they can develop players,” Bloom said. “Whether it’s teaching methods, combining performance and medical, on-field coaching, individual training, data or equipment -- all these things are brought to bear. Catching up is important, but we want to set the tone.”

While Bill DeWitt III noted that 2.85 million of attendance in 2024 would be a good standard for most MLB clubs, it was a downturn for a Cardinals club that had drawn at least 3 million fans every year since Busch Stadium III opened in 2006. DeWitt Jr. thought a fanbase frustrated by not making the playoffs the past two seasons and not winning a playoff series since 2019 would embrace a “reset” around the club’s young players.

“I usually equate the term ‘rebuild’ to be stripping it down to the core, using replacement level players and starting from scratch,” the Cards chairman said. “I don’t think that’s what this is.”