4 ways Chaim Bloom is already rectifying John Mozeliak's mistakes

A Day Shadowing Red Sox CBO Chaim Bloom | Boston Globe/GettyImages

Over a two-year period, St. Louis Cardinals President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom was given an inside look at the organization. He was hired initially to “vet” the player development system and give his insight into an organization that was once the crown jewel of player development but had faded into one that failed to produce stars.

This up-close-and-personal look at the system, top to bottom, allowed Bloom to find its weak spots and areas of greatest need. When his promotion to president of baseball operations was announced, he had an excellent plan of attack in mind, one that would bring the Cardinals back to their annual ways of contending for National League pennants.

In his introductory press conference in September, Bloom made this goal clear. “We are not where we need to be, we are not where our fans expect us to be, and we are not where we expect ourselves to be,” said Chaim. “Our goal is to field a team every year that can compete for the division and for a World Series championship.”

In order to achieve this goal, Chaim Bloom will need time and plenty of help. He already started the latter part of that process when he hired executives such as Rob Cerfolio, Larry Day, and Matt Pierpont before the 2025 season. Bloom brought on intelligent, proven executives to help reshape a broken farm system. After 15 months of change, the Cardinals are already seeing growth on the player development side of things.

JJ Wetherholt, Brycen Mautz, Ixan Henderson, Joshua Baez, and Leonardo Bernal shone brightly last year in the minors. The players were able to develop tremendously, partially due to the help from the new player development team and partially due to their own hard work and dedication to the new plan.

While the timeline isn’t certain, the Cardinals and their ever-revolving door of reliable contributors began to falter. Sometime around COVID, the Cardinals began losing their old ways. An outdated player development department and an emphasis on spending on free agents rather than in the minors or on coaches, instructors, and technology all pulled the Cardinals back. This caused them to suffer in the standings and in the future outlook.

Chaim Bloom is tasked in his first offseason as president of baseball operations with resetting the Cardinals. He must rebuild a farm system, update a coaching staff, and build out an instructional team to help guide the Cardinals into the future. This won’t be a speedy process, but Bloom has already been busy fixing what his predecessor failed to prepare for him.

Of course this won’t be a speedy process, and Chaim Bloom knows that. “When we have to choose between short-term gratification and our bigger goal of contending consistently, we will choose the long term,” said Bloom in his opening press conference. Despite the long path he has ahead of himself, Chaim Bloom has already been busy fixing the Cardinals.

Here are 4 things that Chaim Bloom is already doing to rectify John Mozeliak’s mistakes.

1. Calling out development errors

We’ve known for a few years now that the Cardinals are behind their peers when it comes to player development. We’ve seen players like Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, and others find success as prospects only to falter once they make it to the majors.

The most recent player mentioned as a victim of poor player development was catcher and designated hitter Ivan Herrera. Herrera has proven his value on the offensive side of the game since making his debut. He has a career .286/.370/.436 slash line. He took his offense to another level last year with a .837 slugging percentage and 19 home runs. There is little concern surrounding his bat in the majors.

Where the worries have come has been on the defensive side of the game. Herrera has struggled to throw out runners in his brief time in the majors, and Chaim Bloom hinted at poor player development being part of the reason for his defensive woes.

“I don’t think, when you look at the entirety of his career, I’m not sure he was ever really set up for success at that position because of a number of factors,” said Bloom of Herrera’s development. “Some of it’s just about the state of the organization, what else is available at the position internally where you might not get that fair shot, and yet you’re being asked to perform in the big leagues, so you’re not in a fair teaching environment.”

The Cardinals cut back on support staff heavily around 2020, and Herrera was a victim of that smaller staff. The club continually seeking to contend also cut into Herrera’s pressure to perform. Jordan Walker was also likely a victim of poor player development paired with a need to perform at the major-league level.

Bloom is already showing a willingness to work with these young players who could develop into core pieces of a contending team.

2. Dramatic expansions of staffing and coaching

In an article written by Katie Woo following the 2024 season, the microscopic size of the Cardinals’ coaching staff compared to other organizations was thrust into the light.

After the 2024 season, the Cardinals had only five full-time minor-league instructors. This represented their smallest minor-league coaching staff in a decade. Coincidentally, the cracks in the organization started popping up following the 2019 season, particularly when it came to player development.

Rather than spend money on coaches and support staff, John Mozeliak and the Cardinals front office and ownership groups preferred spending on the major-league roster. Mid-tier free agents took precedence over spending to build up the minor-league teams. Eventually, this caught up to the Cardinals, and they saw the fruits of their limited labors in 2023 when they went 71-91.

Bloom has worked to address this shortcoming since the beginning of his time in St. Louis. “(I’m) still working through things, but I would like, hope and expect that our senior folks will all go forward with us,” said Chaim of the coaching staff and front office group. “I do anticipate that we will have some additions to the front-office group, when and in what roles, I’m not ready to say that yet.”

Since joining the Cardinals as an advisor in 2024, Chaim Bloom has dramatically expanded the coaching staff. They added a director of pitching in Matt Pierpont and a director of hitting in Dalton Hurd. The Cardinals have also added support staff beneath these directors in support fashion. Casey Chenoweth and Kyle Driscoll were added to the major-league staff as assistant hitting and pitching coaches, respectively.

Chaim Bloom has been committed to expanding the scouting department under Moises Rodriguez and Randy Flores.

Growth in coaching and support staff will go a long way to helping the Cardinals be annual contenders. Players will now have multiple outlets for assistance, and the development won’t stop at the major-league level, a phrase the new front office has been harping on since 2024.

3. A boost in transparency

There is a delicate balance that a team has to maintain when it comes to being transparent. Give away too much information, and you weaken your bargaining abilities. Hide too many things, and fans begin to distrust what you’re doing. So far, Chaim Bloom and his team have been more transparent and up front with the team and its direction than John Mozeliak was, and that’s been a welcome change amongst the fanbase.

Rob Cerfolio, the club’s assistant general manager in charge of player development and performance, has been on several podcasts and shows to discuss the team and its plan. Randy Flores has been more in the public more of late.

In a recent episode of Best Podcast in Baseball, host Derrick Goold illustrated quite well why the Cardinals and John Mozeliak weren’t as transparent and up front as fans would have wanted. He also spoke about why Chaim Bloom is being afforded the luxury of telegraphing potential moves. “For the most part, I wonder if the position that they’re in now, that it’s easier to say the direction they’re going because instead of strategically trying to create a contender and surprise with a move, they’re trying to prepare their fanbase for the inevitable move.”

When the Cardinals were contending, they had to be more secret. If they announced their interest in a particular player, other teams would then jump and analyze that player further lessening the chances the Cardinals had to sign him. Over the years, the Cardinals were evasive in their specific intentions to maintain an upper hand.

Chaim Bloom has stated openly that he’s shopping veterans such as Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado. He’s also stated that he intends on listening to offers for players like Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero, and Nolan Gorman. This clarity has given fans a peek into the front office’s long-term approach.

Bloom was also up front about how long this rebuild may take. While he has shied away from using the word “rebuild,” he has made it clear that the long-term needs of the organization will take precedence over the short term. “We should never come in with any goal other than to win, but we’re going to be making moves that are more aligned with that long term.”

This transparency is a welcome change of pace for a fanbase that became accustomed to a tight-lipped regime under John Mozeliak.

4. Preaching urgency rather than patience

If you were to tally the number of times that John Mozeliak used the word “patience” during his career, you would be counting for quite a long time.

In the 2021-2022 offseason, Mozeliak asked for patience when it came to filling out a starting rotation. He preached patience when it came to top prospects such as Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman not playing up to their expected levels. He also preached patience when Willson Contreras was being jerked around the field in 2023.

“You’ve got to have confidence with people in certain roles, that’s what it comes down to,” Mozeliak said. “We’ll be patient, but look, again, this has not gone how we would have thought. You’ve got to remind yourself it’s a long season, but it’s certainly gotten off on the wrong foot.”

Patience certainly wasn’t a virtue Cardinal fans had in deep supply after nearly two decades of unparalleled success in the National League. Therefore, the fans grew frustrated and weary with Mozeliak constantly telling fans to wait and see the fruits of his labor.

Chaim Bloom is already changing that tune. While he’s asking fans to wait to see the organization back to their winning ways, he’s trying to take the most efficient route towards that success.

In a story published during the 2025 Winter Meetings, John Denton of MLB.com tackled this change in approach. Denton discussed Bloom wanting his leadership team to address the shortcomings of the team with urgency. It’s not a small task to ask of his group, but he wants them to be purposeful and swift with their actions.

This sense of urgency has even made it down to the team’s field manager, Oliver Marmol. “Chaim communicated it extremely well that there’s a sense of urgency to all of this,” said Marmol. “The better we are at our jobs, the quicker we turn this thing around.”

Fans will still have to be patient to find consistent success, but they can at least rest easy knowing that Chaim Bloom wants to fix the organization quickly. Success won’t come immediately, but the organization is being built to be annual contenders in the near future.