Cardinals may have already hired John Mozeliak's replacement

The St. Louis Cardinals are about to miss the playoffs for a second straight season, which has been a preciously rare occurrence during the long and illustrious history of that organization. With such high expectations (and a high payroll) looming over the Cardinals clubhouse, one has to imagine changes are on the horizon.

There has been a concerted effort to expel John Mozeliak from the front office for ages, but it won't happen this winter. St. Louis will keep Mozeliak in the president's chair through 2025, after which he plans to step down of his own accord. After all Mozeliak has accomplished in St. Louis, he has probably earned the right to end on his own terms. The more impatient members of the Cards fandom might argue otherwise — and even make some great points — but baseball is a business, and few have earned their stripes more thoroughly over the last couple decades than Mozeliak.

As St. Louis begins to plan for the future, however, it's interesting to track how the front office and ownership talk about life after Mozeliak. The veteran team president is expected to address fans shortly after the regular season concludes, per Katie Woo of The Athletic.

Barring an unexpected bombshell, Mozeliak will probably provide the standard "we want to do better" spiel we always hear from losing GMs. The Cardinals are an especially pressure-fueled franchise, with a restless fandom that made its displeasure known with record-low attendance numbers all season. Still, we generally don't get the big news out of public press conferences. That stuff is reserved for private leaks.

That is precisely why Woo's report is so fascinating. It may even give us a glimpse of Mozeliak's inevitable successor.

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Cardinals are setting the stage for Chaim Bloom to replace John Mozeliak after 2025 campaign

St. Louis brought in Chaim Bloom after he was fired as Boston Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer before the season. Initially brought in part-time to oversee certain minor-league functions, Bloom has since inked a full-time contract with St. Louis. He is expected to handle robust responsibilities this offseason as St. Louis puts its focus on player development.

"[Chaim Bloom] will be charged with making changes in the Cardinals’ farm system based on his findings," writes Woo. "His first and most pressing task: hiring a new director of player development."

If the Cardinals are already giving Bloom the power to make personnel decisions and hire staff, it's a sign of how much power and confidence he has in the building.

Before his uneven tenure in Boston, Bloom came up through the Tampa Bay Rays' ranks as a farm system technician, building one of the best prospect pools in the MLB. Developing young talent to replace their aging stars has been a struggle for the Cardinals in recent years. Perhaps Bloom can help turn that ship around.

It is surely no coincidence that Bloom, a former GM, is already wielding his power in the Cardinals' decision-making hierarchy. The St. Louis organization tends to build from within, at least as far as management goes. Mozeliak has been around for two decades; it's hard to imagine St. Louis dropping him and moving on to a completely new, completely unproven option.

Bloom has the GM chops necessary to build a winning team from the ground up. We can't hold everything that went south in Boston against him, and there are few better organizations, top to bottom, than the Cardinals of St. Louis.