The St. Louis Cardinals introduced new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom on Tuesday afternoon. It should come as no surprise that Bloom's first decision as POBO is to keep Oli Marmol as his manager. There were some questions regarding Marmol's job status since the Cardinals finished under .500 yet again, but Bloom squashed those in record timing. As for the man Bloom is replacing, John Mozeliak wasn't shy about stealing the show.
Mozeliak hosted his final news conference just a day before Bloom was introduced. Prior to Bloom making any decisions for himself, the man known around St. Louis as 'Mo' threw many of his past failures onto Bloom's desk.
“I’ve been asked over the past year: Why step down?” Mozeliak began. “And to me, it became simple. I love this job. But I also knew it was time for a change. Trying to reinvent yourself every year can be challenging. The drumbeat was getting loud — candidly, real loud — for a new voice. And I heard it. Speaking of changing: I do believe it can be a good thing, having a fresh voice, a different perspective. New ideas will be healthy for the St. Louis Cardinals.”
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John Mozeliak refuses to take accountability for Cardinals mess
What's curious about Mozeliak's message is not only that he refuses to take the blame for the situation the Cardinals find themselves in – instead merely suggesting a new voice is necessary in most organizations – but that he made such waves a day before Bloom was set to outline his own vision to St. Louis media.
What's worse is Mozeliak seemed to give away Bloom's plan a day before he spoke it into existence.
“The unique thing about the role that I had with the Cardinals is we never tried to rebuild,” Mozeliak said. “The word you may hear tomorrow may be different. But that’s for them to speak.”
Lastly, Mozeliak failed to take responsibility for his actions as president of baseball operations, claiming that he didn't regret any of the moves he made last winter, while also admitting the Cardinals didn't reach their end goal.
“I don’t regret anything we did this year,” Mozeliak said. “We knew it was going to be difficult to try to thread this needle. If you’re looking in hindsight, would it have been smarter to try to trade some of the players that we ended up trading in the offseason? But we wanted to give our fan base some level of hope. We wanted to see if a couple of guys did click and got hot. Unfortunately, we did come up short.”
Whether Mozeliak regrets his actions or not, there's no denying Bloom's first step in his shoes will be to pick a direction, and stick with that plan. As Mo mentioned himself, his front office tried too hard to thread the needle. It didn't work, period.
Where do Chaim Bloom and the Cardinals go from here?
The good news for Bloom is he has a manager in Marmol he can trust. The Cardinals will prioritize player development moving forward more than ever. Marmol has shown, albeit in small doses, he can help in that regard. The next steps for Bloom will be to identify what the 2026 Cardinals roster should look like. Mozeliak did rid that roster of several veterans at the trade deadline, including closer Ryan Helsley, but players like Miles Mikolas, Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray remain. If Bloom has his way, all three will be gone this winter.
Bloom is more than just a rebuild artist, but he created a reputation for getting more out of less in Tampa Bay. In Boston, he built a World Series contender, before tearing it all down at the direction of ownership. Those are two very different stories, but his path forward with the Cardinals will likely look a bit closer to his time in Tampa, albeit with more resources at his disposal.
St. Louis needs to identify its young talent and build around those players. The next great era of Cardinals baseball won't start next year, or perhaps even the year after. Bloom is playing from behind because of the flaws in judgement Mozeliak failed to admit in his exit interview.