We’ve all made our jokes at this point about Chaim Bloom’s deals with the Boston Red Sox this offseason, but I think it’s worth zooming out and seeing how the St. Louis Cardinals may find themselves in a similar position as the Red Sox in the coming years.
When Bloom took over the Red Sox in October 2019, they were just a year removed from a World Series title, but you couldn’t tell that by the state of affairs. The club had the highest payroll in all of baseball, with massive contracts on their books given out to players who were not performing. They had a superstar in Mookie Betts, and Boston’s ownership was not going to pay him, so he needed to be traded, and their farm system was seen as one of, if not the worst, in all of baseball. Oh, and they were an 84-win team that was mediocre at best.
Bloom was tasked with slashing payroll, trading away Betts, rebuilding the Red Sox farm system, and doing all of this while continuing to field a contender year in and year out. Needless to say, that was a tall, tall task, and Boston’s ownership lacked the patience to truly allow Bloom to accomplish all of those tasks.
Bloom was fired by the Red Sox in September of 2023, but as Craig Breslow took over for Bloom that offseason, he got to reap the rewards of Bloom’s hard work overhauling Boston’s farm system. When Bloom took over, the Red Sox lacked young talent across the board, but when Breslow took over, he had a farm system that was one of the best in baseball and the infrastructure in the minor leagues to continue to pump out great talent.
That has given Breslow a ton of flexibility over the last few seasons. They’ve been able to rely on a core of young players like Roman Anthony, Jarren Durran, Wilyer Abreu, Marcelo Mayer, Ceddanne Rafaela, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, and more to win a ton of games and be a contender in the American League.
They’ve been able to use their loaded farm system to swing a megadeal for ace Garrett Crochet, and then had the payroll flexibility to sign him to a long-term deal and have a ton of pitching depth behind him to supplement the rotation. They’ve signed Alex Bregman to a high-AAV deal with opt-outs, and now they are players in both free agency and the trade market for other star bats.
Oh, and they were able to acquire really good players like Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras from the Cardinals, and get them on much cheaper deals because of the quality of prospects they were willing to send over. And after doing all of those things, Boston still has an exciting young core and top prospects waiting in the wings to join them or be a part of another huge trade.
Here is why I am giving all of this context. Bloom is in year one of running the Cardinals organization, but he’s doing so from the jump with one of the best farm systems in the game, and is now adding to an already loaded system, not a depleted one, with the backing of ownership to do whatever it takes to acquire as much young talent as possible.
And what has Bloom been targeting in his trades? Young pitching, young pitching, and more young pitching. Controllable big league arms with high-floors, as well as high-upside arms who are still baking in the minor leagues. By accumulating all of these arms thus far, and likely adding more in the other deals he’ll make this offseason, Bloom is not only positioning the Cardinals to have pitching be an area of strength when they are contenders again, but he’s also giving himself the ultimate trade currency for when he can start operating like Craig Breslow has the last few offseasons.
Young pitching is one of the best trade currencies to have, and the Cardinals are stockpiling arms at a high rate
No, the Cardinals should not turn down the opportunity to acquire great position player prospects if they are offered any, but Bloom specifically targeting pitching this offseason allows him to build a strong staff for the Cardinals in the future, as well as use their pitching depth when the time is right to plug other holes on their roster.
So far, the Bloom has acquired right-handed pitchers Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins, two cost-controlled big league arms who have high floors as players, as well as a major upside play in left-handed prospect Brandon Clarke, as well as righties Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita.
In doing so, the Cardinals added Fitts and Dobbins to a big league staff that features other young arms in Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy, Kyle Leahy, and Andre Pallante. It’s a solid group of names, and while it lacks upside, it gives them six different Major League-ready arms who are cost-controlled.
He then added Clarke, Fajardo, and Aita to a strong group of pitching prospects that is headlined by Liam Doyle, Quinn Mathews, Tekoah Roby, Tanner Franklin, Cooper Hjerpe, Tink Hence, Ixan Henderson, Braden Davis, Chen-Wei Lin, Nate Dohm, Brycen Mautz, Cade Crossland, Mason Molina, Luis Gastelum, Hancel Rincon, and more arms that I could name. Oh, and they’ll likely add an arm with even more upside than Clarke in the inevitable Brendan Donovan trade.
Of course, not all of those arms are going to work out. That’s not the point. The point is that I just named 24 young pitchers who have real intrigue to them, six of them already being big league arms, and six or seven of the prospects being guys with high ceilings and real prospect pedigree, and the rest all offering true upside as potential big league arms one day. I didn’t even touch on young bullpen arms like Matt Svanson, Riley O’Brien, Gordon Graceffo, Matt Pushard, Chris Roycroft, or Andre Granillo, either.
The first goal is having a number of those arms fill needs on the Cardinals’ own roster, plugging multiple rotation spots and filling their bullpen with cost-controlled arms. But then, as the Cardinals continue to stockpile arms and have a depth of options coming up through the minor leagues, then Bloom can replicate what the Red Sox are doing and use his rebuilt group of arms to go out and acquire things the Cardinals need.
It’s impossible to project what St. Louis will need on their roster in 2028, 2029, or 2030, but by then, if Bloom is able to continue to stockpile pitching like he has, they could trade for an ace like Boston did with Garrett Crochet, bring in a veteran bat like Willson Contreras or arm like Sonny Gray to optimize their roster, or even chase a superstar bat to add to their lineup. Those kinds of moves are very possible for teams with a wealth of pitching at their disposal, and Bloom has already begun to build that kind of depth before a single game has been played under his leadership.
So, as the Cardinals continue to make deals that find them receiving young pitching, it may cause you to wonder why they aren’t targeting young bats. Just remember, you can never have enough pitching, and when you finally feel like you have a surplus, it puts an organization in the position to make big-time moves. Bloom is executing the early stages of this process, and hopefully, before you know it, the Cardinals will be the team aggressively adding on the trade market.