The St. Louis Cardinals are 47-42, which puts them 6.5 games behind first-place Chicago in their division and one game behind the San Diego Padres for the final NL Wild Card spot. The next three weeks will determine how the organization approaches a pivotal trade deadline.
For years, fans have begged the Cardinals to pick a direction. This is a veteran roster with a lot of expensive contracts that has accomplished very little together. St. Louis' farm system pales in comparison to the majority of MLB programs. With little hope on the field or for the future, the fanbase clamored for foundational changes last offseason. John Mozeliak didn't really deliver.
Now the Cards are stuck in a strange limbo between trying to compete and taking realistic stock of the situation. This roster is not built to sustainability contend. Mozeliak knows that, but he also won't be around next season. On his honeymoon tour, Mozeliak only really needs to think about this season. And therein lies the potential for a power struggle in the Cardinals front office over the next few weeks.
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Cardinals front office faces potential discord as John Mozeliak captains final trade deadline
St. Louis has already committed to Chaim Bloom as the team president upon Mozeliak's retirement. Bloom has spent this season working quietly in the shadows, presumably with a focus on improving the Cardinals' farm system and charting paths to the future, as that is his unique strength as a decision-maker.
Mozeliak and Bloom historically do not align in terms of their priorities. So when Mozeliak says he and Bloom are working together on decisions at the deadline, it sure feels like a recipe for butting heads and clashing viewpoints.
"I do feel like when you look at where we are that week leading up, the 72 hours leading up to the trade deadline, that may affect how (Bloom and I) make our decisions," Mozeliak told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (h/t MLB Trade Rumors). “I hope we have really hard decisions to make come July 31 because that means we’re playing well."
Mozeliak defined his trade deadline process with Bloom as a "collaboration." While all front offices collaborate to some degree, rarely does the current president work in unison with his known successor. This is a unique dynamic and given their vastly different styles of management in the past, it will be fascinating to see how it plays out.
This isn't to say Mozeliak and Bloom can't or won't get along. They've been working together all season with nary a report of frustration or disagreement. But the trade deadline is a pivotal point for the franchise, especially with a decline in revenue limiting what Mozeliak and Bloom will have available to spend at the trade deadline.
If the Cardinals don't definitely skew significantly positive or negative in the coming weeks and reach the deadline on the postseason bubble, it will be fascinating to see whose voice — Mozeliak's win-now mentality versus Bloom's longest view in the room — carries greater weight.