Chaim Bloom will take over from John Mozeliak as the president of baseball operations for the St. Louis Cardinals after the 2025 season, according to the team’s CEO.
Bill DeWitt Jr. mentioned that Bloom will lead a revamp of the team’s player development system next season before officially succeeding Mozeliak, who has been in his role longer than anyone except for the Yankees’ Brian Cashman.
“Like many of our fans, we’re disappointed with our results the past two seasons,” DeWitt said, adding that manager Oliver Marmol will stay with the team in 2025.
“Our goals remain unchanged: to consistently contend for NL Central titles and playoff appearances and ultimately win the World Series. … Our baseball decisions going forward will focus on developing our pipeline of players, giving our young core every opportunity to succeed at the major league level.”
The Cardinals finished the season with a record of 83-79, missing the postseason for the second year in a row. They signed Bloom to a five-year contract.
The 41-year-old previously worked with the Tampa Bay Rays from 2005 until he became Boston’s chief baseball officer in October 2019. He was let go in September 2023 and then joined the Cardinals as an adviser last January.
Mozeliak, who is 55, stated that he pushed to bring Bloom in last offseason to evaluate the team’s current status and future direction.
“I’m certainly willing to do the walk, because I feel like we’re going to position ourselves really well, and when you think about your own legacy and how you want to leave something, I’m hopeful it will be left in a really solid place when I do step down next year,” Mozeliak said.
Mozeliak took over from Walt Jocketty as general manager in October 2007 and became president of baseball operations in 2017.
Additionally, the Cardinals announced that general manager Mike Girsch will take on a new role as vice president of special projects. This change comes after farm director Gary LaRocque decided to step down at the end of the 2024 season, although he will continue as an advisor in 2025.
“Ownership has given the green light for us to make real investments across the department now and going forward,” Bloom said. “That starts with finding and empowering new leadership in player development, which is a process that’s already begun.”
Change is also coming on the field after a 2024 season where the team had 2,878,115 fans attend 80 home games at Busch Stadium. This was the lowest attendance in a full season at full capacity since 1997, which was DeWitt’s second season as owner.
The team has options on veteran pitchers Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, both of whom were signed to one-year contracts in November 2023. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt is set to become a free agent after completing a five-year, $130 million deal.
“I’m not anticipating any big contracts going yet,” Mozeliak said. “We need to get a little reference on what our revenues are going to look like. When you think about the trading market in general, that starts as we enter post-World Series.
We often think through this. There are some players that I still think have some value here, both from a leadership and competitive standpoint. So, that is something that we’ll focus on.”
St. Louis had mixed results from its young players. Masyn Winn, a second-round pick in 2020, became the team’s everyday shortstop in his rookie year, hitting .267 with 15 home runs and 57 RBIs in 150 games. Meanwhile, 2020 fourth-round pick Alec Burleson led the team with 78 RBIs and hit 21 home runs.
