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Cardinals To Hire Chaim Bloom For Advisory Role https://t.co/xLxIhdapRK pic.twitter.com/ZxQP5Lu8TZ
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) January 8, 2024
I guess there’s no way to know for sure how a hiring like this comes to be. But I’m going to guess that it’s mostly because someone in the Cardinals’ front office knows Chaim Bloom because of the Cardinals’ prior dealings with the Rays organization.
For a second I thought this guy may have been the latter half of the Bialystock/Bloom partnership, but I looked it up and that’s not the case. Thank goodness.
Hopefully, he’s an independent opinion of us, for Mo. I hope he speaks his mind and isn’t a payroll puppet.
They aren’t bringing him in to be another sycophant. He’s coming in to assess who’s doing their jobs and who isn’t.
Here’s a couple of informative articles on Bloom:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Bloom
Boston Red Sox fire Chaim Bloom, formerly seen as Jewish baseball wunderkind
I don’t think Bloom is there to become the farm director… The current one received a promotion less than two years ago.
Here is what Mo said today,
“Having a fresh set of eyes on all aspects of our baseball operations…”
If folks didn’t see it, the press release is on the home page.
It seems like every time I went to a Saturday game at spring training , I’d see Mo and Girsch roaming around in the stands. That was kind neat. Bloom doesn’t work on Saturdays for religious reasons, but given his success in Tampa Bay, I’d say not being available on Saturdays doesn’t hurt him. I hope that extra set of eyes helps the whole Cardinals organization. And I bet it will.
There was a report of FO reshaping on deck for this winter, so at least we are seeing some evidence. I think also the movement of McEwing and repositioning of MacLea suggests trying to rework how things integrate with the dugout staff. Maybe we will get a better idea about all this as we move through ST and get the season underway.
If they’re gonna bring in an outside voice, why this guy? He sucked at his job in Boston and got canned because of it. I’m all for bringing in an outside voice to counter the Cards FO echo chamber, but I’m not sure this is the guy to bring in.
I haven’t seen any substantive change this offseason until now. The fourth bench coach in 15 months, a popular ex-player with no coaching experience, and one support guy being reassigned internally doesn’t move the change meter for me. Everything else is exactly the same as before.
At least Bloom has been in key leadership roles running two other organizations. Only one of the five currently serving as PBO, GM and AGM can say that, and he has been with the Cards for 16 years.
Perhaps Bloom’s years of Rays experience as right hand man to Andrew Friedman will be more relevant than his time in Beantown.
P.S. I am not sure who would have been better to bring in, but if folks have other names they like better, please share them. Seems to me that the only way a person with experience leading baseball ops would be available to hire would be if he had been fired from his prior job, but maybe I am missing something. And I’d rather see a younger, more innovative guy than a recycled 70-year-old former GM, for example.
That the Cardinals are willing to do this at all should not be underestimated.
Looking back, I can vividly remember the fan (and media) disgust when unknown Jeff Luhnow was hired. What followed was a very tumultuous period, but after all the puts and takes, the major changes made the Cardinals better.
They aren’t bringing him in to be another sycophant. He’s coming in to assess who’s doing their jobs and who isn’t.
We hope. I tend to think so too, which might mean the decision came squarely from BDW. It’ll be interesting to watch Mo’s non-verbal communication when you see him speak about Bloom, i.e., things like eye contact/blinking, posture changes, hand gestures, fidgeting, etc.
Bloom ran the Red Sox for 4 years.
They finished dead last 3 times.I entirely understand why he had a great reputation when the Carmines hired him. But I don’t know why anyone would want to hire him for any position of meaningful responsibility now. Just because someone is part of the Amazing Andrew Friedman GM Tree(TM) doesn’t guarantee they will excel at any job, any place, any time. Maybe middle management suits his brains/temperament the best.
The man failed dismally in Boston. Like, Ollie Marmol dismally. Is there some real tangible evidence that Chaim Bloom is going to make the Cardinals better?
I don’t know if the guy is going to be a good advisor or a bad one, but I know there is more to a man than his team’s place in the standings. The Sox under Bloom were 267-262 in a lot tougher division than the NL Central.
What I have read suggests Bloom was asked to try to make the Red Sox more like the Rays and accordingly was not given the resources of the past years. Their payroll was 12th last season in a downward trend after having been first in MLB in both 2018 and 2019, just before he arrived (per Cots). That is a major change.
Positive factoids per the Boston Globe:
The Sox reached the 2021 ALCS
Their farm system improved from among the worst to fifth, per BA (this was correcting a notorious weakness of the Theo and followers prior regimes, especially lack of pitching development)Negative factoids (many of which seem to revolve around spending less money):
Poor return for Mookie Betts (not that he had to be traded, but the return for him)
Failure to add players at 2023 deadline when 2.5 games back of Wild Card (do we think he didn’t want to spend?)
Poor starting pitching depth (if you haven’t developed it, you have to buy it)
Tried to buy and sell at 2022 deadline
Xander Bogaerts allowed to reach free agency (noted not all his fault)
Signing Trevor Story (biggest signing has been a bust)
Trading Hunter Renfroe and Andrew BenintendiAgain, I ask to those who don’t like Bloom, who would you have hired instead?
Part of the problem with the Cardinals has been talented prospects who produce through the minors, but struggle with that last promotion at the MLB level. And prospects whom the Cardinals really don’t think that highly of who excel with other organizations. Bloom should be able to help. As Mo has said, “we need to reassess our prospect evaluation system.” This is a clear first step. It’s quite frankly overdue.
I have no problem with Bloom. He didn’t excel in Boston but the Rays have had the best front office in MLB for the last 20 years so I am sure he learned a lot there. The real question for me is how involved will he be? Most likely he will be asked to make observations and suggestions but not decisions. If he is heavily involved with decision making then that isn’t a good look for Girsch, who is supposed to be Mo’s chief lieutenant. I don’t view him as any kind of threat to Mo though.
As Mo has said, “we need to reassess our prospect evaluation system.”
Evaluating established major leaguers incorrectly (and potential managers) has resulted in the decline of the past 7-8 seasons. The Birds underestimated their own young talent — committing in a panic to Fowler, Ozuna, and Contreras, as well as a plethora of over-the-hill relievers, instead of Bader, Herrera, and numerous others.
Again, I ask to those who don’t like Bloom, who would you have hired instead?
Thanks for a truly thorough response, Brian. The thing of it is, for us in the general public, potential front office hires can’t be perused through like free agent ballplayers because the vast majority of them are of course working behind the scenes in relative if not total obscurity. But for certain the first thing I’d do is look toward individuals in the smartest, winningest organizations. Like the Braves, for instance. Or perhaps the Dodgers or Brewers or even the Orioles. Not the Red Sox.
Bloom’s sustained failure in Boston makes him a non-starter to me. His elderly predecessor Dombrowski handed him a team that played .588 baseball for four years, which translates to about 95 wins per year. Being in such a tough division didn’t seem to bother him. Then Chaim the Yaley promptly led them to a trio of last-place finishes. A single ALCS appearance doesn’t remotely counterbalance that fact.
He has a lot more experience in baseball than Girsch.
If tasked with evaluating a player, neither would benefit from watching the player play.
The people right for this job are not anonymous back room wonks. They are guys who have run teams, names we know. Remember the Cards aren’t hiring for either PBO or GM, but that experience is important. Still, this advisor job isn’t going to cause someone who currently has a good job to quit it.
So who is out there who has been successful leading a team recently who is out of work and interested in consulting?
To the specific teams mentioned:
The Dodgers and Braves are successful organizations, meaning they don’t have a lot of turnover. The last Braves GM prior to Anthopoulos was banned from the game for cheating in 2017. The last Dodgers GM who isn’t still a GM or better is Ned Colletti, who was fired in 2014 and hasn’t been in MLB since. To go back earlier than that would take one back to 2005.
The Orioles had been terrible for years so that they have rebuilt and are finally competitive is admirable, but Mike Elias (a former Cardinal employee) is still in his job. And the Cards aren’t going to go the tanking route, at least not on purpose!
I don’t think of the Brewers as being a particularly progressive model, but their big guy was recently poached by the Mets so they are doing something right. Their GM prior to Stearns, Doug Melvin, left that job in 2015 and at 71 years old, is still an advisor for the Brewers.
I want to be clear that I am not worshipping Bloom. But because I am honestly struggling to come up with a comparable candidate, I am not going to throw stones at the guy they hired. I am glad the Cardinals are taking action.
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