Chaim Bloom has announced the Cardinals focus for 2025-26 season

[ramfandan]

https://redbirdrants.com/chaim-bloom-ha ... -offseason

Will copy and paste the story below .
A few highlights :
1) Adding an external hire for head of professional scouting department plus several additional pro scouts
2) the current 7 pro scouts will return on one-year contracts with Randy FLores and Moises Rodriguez retaining asst. GM roles.
3) DeWitt following thru on his promise to give Bloom what he needs to improve the team's draft-develop process.
4) Bloom has already shown a different approach to moving away from pitch-to- contact pitchers to swing-misss types . Bloom wants pitchers with strikeout stuff. ex. Liam Doyle
note: not mentioned in article but 1st pick who led nation in strikeouts per 9 inning average .

Article full text below :

Chaim Bloom is wasting no time in getting down to business to fix the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals' new president of baseball operations was hired to bring his modern baseball approach to the team and remedy the numerous pitfalls that the Cardinals have recently found themselves mired in. After a season in which Bloom was largely absent from the public eye as he worked behind the scenes in John Mozeliak's last year with the team, Bloom is now unquestionably the one pulling the levers of the Cardinals. Now, as we head into the offseason, Bloom has announced his plans for the next phase of revitalizing the team.

The Cardinals will be adding to their professional and international scouting department for 2026.
According to Katie Woo's latest article in The Athletic (subscription required), Bloom plans to add several new positions to the team's scouting department, including an external hire for the head of the professional scouting department. The Cardinals' seven current professional scouts will all return on one-year contracts, and Randy Flores and Moises Rodriguez will retain their roles as assistant general managers.


It should comfort Cardinals fans to see Bloom making good on his words from his introductory press conference about adding new staff members in an attempt to get the team back on track. Many other teams have chosen to traverse the opposite path, cutting scouts and relying more on programs. Bloom said there needs to be a combination of both to make a successful team, and a 2024 article from J.J. Cooper of Baseball America (subscription required) mentioned that teams letting go of their scouts were losing an edge. Cooper gave an example of how pitch modeling still struggles to quantify the deception of pitchers' changeups and that scouts can help fill that gap.


Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. also appears to be following through on his promises to give Bloom what he needs to help the Cardinals improve through the draft-and-develop process. Last season, the team made sweeping changes to its player development and analytics departments, and Woo suggested that the Cardinals may not be finished on that front.

The Cardinals have already shown a drastically different approach to the draft under Bloom, moving away from the pitch-to-contact hurlers and seeking strikeout stuff instead, and this scouting revamp may serve as the next step in unearthing more gems who could develop into stars to help the Cardinals claw back into contention.

For me personally, looking forward to seeing who Bloom hires externally for head of professional scouting department .

[Absolut]

A plan? That’s a change!

[rockondlouie]

Thx for sharing!

How great is it having a young, energetic POBO who's actually got a PLAN to turn this franchise around?

Can't wait to see what he has planned in the months following the World Series.

[ramfandan]

Thx for sharing!

How great is it having a young, energetic POBO who's actually got a PLAN to turn this franchise around?

Can't wait to see what he has planned in the months following the World Series.

Quite welcome , Rock ! I like the new blood he is bringing in with him... Cerfolio (formerly Guardians ) and Pierpont to head up the pitching.
Moving forward, I do like that the team is moving away from Mo's pitch-to-contact philsophy to guys who can get swing/miss . While Mikolas was nice guy and had his moments, he would get so much contact that you were holding your breath as to how many balls would be knocked around the park . Now I realize that Liam Doyle will not have the strikeout rate in MLB that he did in college . (His final year at Tenn. he mowed down 15.43 guys per 9 innings ..tops in Division 1 . When he does pitch in the big leagues , think he will bring excitement to Cards fans at Busch . Hoping we get a couple more fireballers like him.

[rockondlouie]

Thx for sharing!

How great is it having a young, energetic POBO who's actually got a PLAN to turn this franchise around?

Can't wait to see what he has planned in the months following the World Series.

Quite welcome , Rock ! I like the new blood he is bringing in with him... Cerfolio (formerly Guardians ) and Pierpont to head up the pitching.
Moving forward, I do like that the team is moving away from Mo's pitch-to-contact philsophy to guys who can get swing/miss . While Mikolas was nice guy and had his moments, he would get so much contact that you were holding your breath as to how many balls would be knocked around the park . Now I realize that Liam Doyle will not have the strikeout rate in MLB that he did in college . (His final year at Tenn. he mowed down 15.43 guys per 9 innings ..tops in Division 1 . When he does pitch in the big leagues , think he will bring excitement to Cards fans at Busch . Hoping we get a couple more fireballers like him.

I've been making threads for years RFdan begging for BDWJr to fire Mo and bring in a fresh set of eye's w/new ideas on how to run the organization..............and finally it's happened!

Cerfolio/Pierpont are fabulous hires!

I expect more to come as Bloom has said he's going to add even more "brain power"!

How many years have we been begging for Mo to draft/develop power pitchers only to see him fail time after time?

Bloom is willing to take some shots on high strikeout kids who may have some rough edges w/the thought his revamped minor league player development system can sand off the rough edges.

I love it!

And I also get the feeling he's going to be looking for some "big boppers" too, guys who can knock the ball out of the park.

Can't wait for the WS to get over, should be a fun winter leading into STing.

[bccardsfan]

He still has the same manager and pitching coach... sigh. BDW has given him funds to continue to improve the development system. The question is will he let the MLB payroll get back up to 180+M?

[Banner29]

It remains to be seen how successful Bloom will be in building an every day MLB roster. But there’s little doubt that drafting and development will be second to none, which is a great start.

[ramfandan]

It remains to be seen how successful Bloom will be in building an every day MLB roster. But there’s little doubt that drafting and development will be second to none, which is a great start.

Agree ! Luring Cerfolio from Guardians was a great start for Bloom . Pierpont comes well regarded also heading up the pitching program .
Unfortunately there will be fans who after 2026 season (W-L record especially ) will make a 'final' judgment on Bloom .

[Banner29]

It remains to be seen how successful Bloom will be in building an every day MLB roster. But there’s little doubt that drafting and development will be second to none, which is a great start.

Agree ! Luring Cerfolio from Guardians was a great start for Bloom . Pierpont comes well regarded also heading up the pitching program .
Unfortunately there will be fans who after 2026 season (W-L record especially ) will make a 'final' judgment on Bloom .

He’s got quite the mess to clean up. So he deserves ample time to fix it. That doesn’t mean that within the next year he will be exempt from criticism with decisions that he makes. The Oli situation is a poor start but that very well might not even be his decision to begin with. We will never know. Just suspect at this point. But it’s hard not to get excited about what he’s doing right now with the “foundation” of this organization. And it’s shocking when you see what he’s doing just realizing how far behind, out of touch, and lazy Mo actually was.

[Strummer Jones]

I'm not wild about Dusty coming back.

But otherwise, it's so danged refreshing to have someone leading the ship that actually has an idea of what to do and how to do it.

Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but at least there's a PLAN.

[2ninr]

Thx for sharing!

How great is it having a young, energetic POBO who's actually got a PLAN to turn this franchise around?

Can't wait to see what he has planned in the months following the World Series.

Quite welcome , Rock ! I like the new blood he is bringing in with him... Cerfolio (formerly Guardians ) and Pierpont to head up the pitching.
Moving forward, I do like that the team is moving away from Mo's pitch-to-contact philsophy to guys who can get swing/miss . While Mikolas was nice guy and had his moments, he would get so much contact that you were holding your breath as to how many balls would be knocked around the park . Now I realize that Liam Doyle will not have the strikeout rate in MLB that he did in college . (His final year at Tenn. he mowed down 15.43 guys per 9 innings ..tops in Division 1 . When he does pitch in the big leagues , think he will bring excitement to Cards fans at Busch . Hoping we get a couple more fireballers like him.

I've been making threads for years RFdan begging for BDWJr to fire Mo and bring in a fresh set of eye's w/new ideas on how to run the organization..............and finally it's happened!

Cerfolio/Pierpont are fabulous hires!

I expect more to come as Bloom has said he's going to add even more "brain power"!

How many years have we been begging for Mo to draft/develop power pitchers only to see him fail time after time?

Bloom is willing to take some shots on high strikeout kids who may have some rough edges w/the thought his revamped minor league player development system can sand off the rough edges.

I love it!

And I also get the feeling he's going to be looking for some "big boppers" too, guys who can knock the ball out of the park.

Can't wait for the WS to get over, should be a fun winter leading into STing.

Ex Blaze Jordan. Low risk shot at a rh power bat.

[2ninr]

It remains to be seen how successful Bloom will be in building an every day MLB roster. But there’s little doubt that drafting and development will be second to none, which is a great start.

Agree ! Luring Cerfolio from Guardians was a great start for Bloom . Pierpont comes well regarded also heading up the pitching program .
Unfortunately there will be fans who after 2026 season (W-L record especially ) will make a 'final' judgment on Bloom .

He’s got quite the mess to clean up. So he deserves ample time to fix it. That doesn’t mean that within the next year he will be exempt from criticism with decisions that he makes. The Oli situation is a poor start but that very well might not even be his decision to begin with. We will never know. Just suspect at this point. But it’s hard not to get excited about what he’s doing right now with the “foundation” of this organization. And it’s shocking when you see what he’s doing just realizing how far behind, out of touch, and lazy Mo actually was.

You do a nice blend of cheering and criticizing Banner. I'm a fan. I think Oli is Blooms choice. He knows what he's getting. Oli is the anti-Schildt. Bloom needs no distractions from the on field personel. I respect him for not making the popular move and firing Oli. I think he's willing to take the criticism for his reasons for keeping him

[rockondlouie]

Thx for sharing!

How great is it having a young, energetic POBO who's actually got a PLAN to turn this franchise around?

Can't wait to see what he has planned in the months following the World Series.

Quite welcome , Rock ! I like the new blood he is bringing in with him... Cerfolio (formerly Guardians ) and Pierpont to head up the pitching.
Moving forward, I do like that the team is moving away from Mo's pitch-to-contact philsophy to guys who can get swing/miss . While Mikolas was nice guy and had his moments, he would get so much contact that you were holding your breath as to how many balls would be knocked around the park . Now I realize that Liam Doyle will not have the strikeout rate in MLB that he did in college . (His final year at Tenn. he mowed down 15.43 guys per 9 innings ..tops in Division 1 . When he does pitch in the big leagues , think he will bring excitement to Cards fans at Busch . Hoping we get a couple more fireballers like him.

I've been making threads for years RFdan begging for BDWJr to fire Mo and bring in a fresh set of eye's w/new ideas on how to run the organization..............and finally it's happened!

Cerfolio/Pierpont are fabulous hires!

I expect more to come as Bloom has said he's going to add even more "brain power"!

How many years have we been begging for Mo to draft/develop power pitchers only to see him fail time after time?

Bloom is willing to take some shots on high strikeout kids who may have some rough edges w/the thought his revamped minor league player development system can sand off the rough edges.

I love it!

And I also get the feeling he's going to be looking for some "big boppers" too, guys who can knock the ball out of the park.

Can't wait for the WS to get over, should be a fun winter leading into STing.

Ex Blaze Jordan. Low risk shot at a rh power bat.

[ilcubuffs]

"moving away from pitch-to- contact pitchers to swing-miss types" .

Should Cardinal fans assume that one of the new hires duty will be to explain the pitching concept of swing-miss to Marmot and Blake? Just one of the many problems of retaining incompetent people while believing you are coaching players the nuisances of MLB. Incompetent people cannot teach squat.

[CCard]

I have no problem with adding scouts. That can only help identify diamonds in the rough. But the high end targets are still the high end targets at the end of the day and it'll take bucks, not scouts, to sign them. I love the idea of high strikeout pitchers. In my opinion, pitch to contact leaves a pitcher and team vulnerable to too much batted ball luck. When a pitcher strikes out a hitter, that hitter completely failed. It just can't get better. I'd like to see them get some more high OBP players also. Get guys on the bases. Putting pressure on the opposing pitchers. I very cautiously optimistic about Bloom and the future of the Cards. I just hope that DeWitt doesn't do the bare minimum. Open up that wallet a little bit.

[ramfandan]

Thought I would add the new hire announced todaymentioned in this thread first post. Thanks to Gallatians for posting the hire.
Below is a bio I found on Buffa .



Jacob Buffa
Senior Director, Player Develepmont and Performance Science

In 2025, Jacob Buffa enters his seventh season with the Astros and second as Senior Director, Player Development and Performance Science. Buffa joined the Astros in January 2019 as a development coach and was promoted to Director of Performance Science in January 2022 where he was responsible for building the first Performance Science department for the Astros. Currently Buffa oversees biomechanics, sports science and player development. In this role he is responsible for setting the vision and strategy for how minor leaguers are developed under the Astros system. As well as leading the initiatives on technology acquisition and performance research.

Prior to joining the Astros, Buffa co-founded a baseball performance facility in St. Louis Missouri. A 2016 Graduate of Missouri State University, Buffa currently resides in Houston with his wife, Shanna.