Goold and Hochman react to start of Cardinals Chaim Bloom era

Goold and Hochman react to start of Cardinals Chaim Bloom era

Hello from Bush Stadium and day one of Heim Bloom as the Cardinals new president of baseball operations. I am St. Louis Post Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Gould joined of course by Benjamin Hawkman sports columnist. You know him as 10 Hawkman. Benjamin, what stood out to you from the press conference and our chance to talk with him afterwards? Yeah, it was really cool. We got to sit with Klein Bloom just the sports writers after the press conference. But for me, what stood out was just his confidence and his ambition. Here’s a guy who comes in with Tampa Bay in his back pocket, Boston in his back pocket. He’s experienced different things in the major leagues. But as he spoke to the media and spoke to the fans today, he wanted to earn their trust back and he wanted to fight for championships. Will that happen in 2026? I don’t think so. But hopefully for St. Louis soon enough. What about you, man? There was a real stress on the long-term view and he said they’re not going to take shortterm short shut short shortcuts or even look for shortterm boosts that will cost them long term. I think what was really interesting to me, Benjamin, most of all was the notion of like, you know, Bill Dwit Jr. and the Cardinals have really talked a lot about continuity and they’ve said that for years. I’ve asked in the past if that leads to staleness. We heard a little bit of how is going to try to blend that. He’s talking about continuity on the coaching staff with manager Oliver Marmal. They’ve really worked close together about their plans for this winter and next off season. Heim also told us just moments ago as we were talking to him that he hopes to keep the front office leadership group together. So you’re going to see a lot of the same people maybe in some new roles certainly in some different responsibilities. So how do you mingle in the new and I think that we saw maybe some evidence of that certainly something that’s new from last offseason. Benjamin is they’re going to be able to spend a bit. It sounds like he’s going to go shopping. He said it might be for free agency. It might be for trades, but it won’t be an off seasonason like last year where they didn’t make a major league move at all. To be honest, Eric, I mean, you need five pitchers to fill a rotation, and how many do they have right now that are viable major league starting pitchers? So, yeah, uh, he’s probably going to have to get a free agent pitcher, and he spoke often and candidly about making trades and how there is redundancy on this roster, and that could mean a left-handed bat is dealt possibly for a starting pitcher. I think it’s going to be interesting because I think he’s going to want to use continuity as a strength and not be burdened by tradition. That’s what I got from it today is that it’s not going to be an impediment to always do what they’ve done before. He’s eager to do some new things, but build upon the tradition, not necessarily, you know, tear it apart or start from scratch. He definitely didn’t want to start from scratch, but he wanted to take it in a new place. No question. He hit all the right notes. He mentioned George Kle, Branch Ricky, a lot of the people that came before him generations before that helped not only build the Cardinals but build baseball. And he mentioned the Dwits in their draft and developed history. But look, the Cardinals have a timehonored history. But right now, in this current time, they’re not making much history. Right. So, day one of Heiml Bloom as president of baseball operations is really day 600 of having Heim Bloom around the organization. And now he gets started on really a busy off season looking at trading Nolan Aronado, possibly trading Sunonny Gray. He’s going to have some redundancy in the roster that he’s going to have to address. And they got to get some depth. Where’s the starting pitching going to come from? Where’s the power going to come from? And how do they create a space for JJ Weatherhold to compete for a starting job in spring training? All this is ahead for the Cardinals in this off season. Benjamin, thank you very much for joining me. For sports columnist Benjamin Hawkman, I’m baseball writer Derrick Gould. Thank you for listening to us here at cltoday.com.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch writers Derrick Goold and Benjamin Hochman share their thoughts about the start of a new era for the St. Louis Cardinals as Chaim Bloom takes over as president of baseball operations.