JJ, no one knows for sure about future budgets. It will be interesting to follow that over the next couple of years. I assume the Cardinals will maintain their status as second highest payroll in the NLC. Being higher than the Brewers, Reds, and Pirates is a low bar though and I don’t expect the Cards to ever be higher than the Cubs. The Cubs could hang with the Dodgers and Mets payroll wise if they wanted to. They choose not too but they are still at a different spending level as the Cards.
Just as interesting to me is how Bloom spends his payroll dollars. He is known as a development and pipeline guy but his track record of overall spending is rather murky. He didn’t have any money to spend in Tampa and apparently didn’t have much freedom in Boston so it is hard to get a read on what he might do. Since the owner sets the tone the safe assumption is that Bloom will be prudent and cautious.