{"id":279456,"date":"2025-08-29T09:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/279456\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T09:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T09:30:11","slug":"rays-executive-says-chaim-bloom-a-great-fit-for-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/279456\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays executive says Chaim Bloom ‘a great fit’ for Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The premise of the question was how intriguing it would be for Chaim Bloom to merge his experience with a small-market, innovative club in Tampa Bay with his time running a big-market, iconic team like the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n

But before it could be asked, Rays executive Erik Neander interrupted.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike right into St. Louis,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Like right into his former colleague and longtime friend\u2019s next club.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was keenly aware that the Rays needed to operate one way and that Boston was solving for something a little different,\u201d Neander said. \u201cAs I\u2019m going through the compliments for Chaim, \u2018adaptable\u2019 is absolutely one I would insert. You have to do the business one way here. You have to do your business another way in Boston. I\u2019d have all the confidence in the world with him going to St. Louis without those experiences. But having those experiences can put him ahead.<\/p>\n

\n People are also reading\u2026\n <\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the experience in a market a little bigger and a market a little smaller \u2014 with lessons learned from both,\u201d Neander continued. \u201cHe\u2019s going to do an exceptional job with this one. It\u2019s right in the middle of all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neander, the Rays\u2019 president of baseball operations atop their front office for the past eight seasons, spoke about Bloom with the Post-Dispatch this weekend outside Tampa Bay\u2019s clubhouse at George Steinbrenner Field.<\/p>\n

Bloom is set to take over as the Cardinals\u2019 president of baseball operations in the coming month as the successor to current top executive John Mozeliak. Bloom has spent the past two seasons mostly focused on the Cardinals\u2019 player development \u2014 auditing it and offering suggestions in 2024 and reworking, staffing and updating it during 2025. In recent months he\u2019s increased the time spent with the major league staff, and he\u2019s met regularly with manager Oli Marmol.<\/p>\n

Since the October 2024 news conference to announce Bloom\u2019s rise to run baseball operations after the 2025 season as well as his five-year contract that starts in 2026, his public comments have been limited, mostly to the team\u2019s monthly publication.<\/p>\n

His past comments have touched upon the merger of experiences with his two previous organizations and the benefit of both tradition and innovation.<\/p>\n

In the past two weeks, executives with other clubs have independently told the Post-Dispatch how eager they are to see what Bloom \u2014 \u201cFree from what he had to deal with in Boston,\u201d one said \u2014 does with the Cardinals given his head start on shaping the system he\u2019ll inherit.<\/p>\n

Neander offered several thoughts on what Cardinals fans can expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharacter. Integrity. Passion for baseball. Knowledge of baseball? A-plus,\u201d Neander listed. \u201cNot just the present but like 1862 baseball. I think the world of him. … There\u2019s not going to be a lot of GM-speak. He\u2019s going to want to communicate that vision. He understands and appreciates the importance of fans. You don\u2019t open the curtain and disclose the world, but there\u2019s an importance to communicating to fans what you\u2019re doing, why you\u2019re doing it and why (they should) be excited about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s too worried about concerning himself with looking smart or outsmarting (others). He\u2019s concerned with winning. He looks plenty smart enough without trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bloom joined the Rays as an intern in February 2005 and was hired full time in October of that season. He climbed the ranks in the Rays front office to senior vice president of baseball operations before being hired as Boston\u2019s chief baseball officer in October 2019.<\/p>\n

Neander, likewise, began as an intern with the Rays, and their careers dovetailed through baseball operations as the Rays rose to appear in the 2008 World Series and then built toward a run of consecutive postseason appearances despite playing with a limited budget in the land of giants: the American League East. Bloom is credited with helping build the Rays\u2019 emphasis on player development and especially the Rays\u2019 success identifying and amplifying pitchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHellbent on making the most of your paths to compete and win,\u201d Neander said, describing the collaboration with Bloom when both had prominent spots in Tampa Bay\u2019s baseball operations. \u201cIt was competitive toward winning. Our hands were full trying to compete with some really successful, historic franchises, and all of our time and energy went into doing our best to succeed in that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, Neander\u2019s last season together with Bloom in Tampa Bay\u2019s front office, the Rays went 96-66 to finish second in the AL East and reach the playoffs. That was the first five consecutive playoff appearances for the Rays \u2014 the continuation of momentum Bloom helped start. His time in Boston was shaped by ownership\u2019s pressure to trade Mookie Betts, one of MLB\u2019s top talents, and other mixed motivations at the major league level. But beneath the spotlights of Fenway Park, Bloom\u2019s front office in Boston rebuilt a farm system that the Red Sox are benefiting from today with rising stars like Roman Anthony.<\/p>\n

Although it ended abruptly with Bloom\u2019s dismissal at the end of the 2023 season, the talent produced by the system he restocked is changing the perception of his time in Boston.<\/p>\n

Which brings the conversation back to the question about how he\u2019ll merge his two experiences with an organization moored in the middle.<\/p>\n

A city rich with baseball tradition will welcome talking about 1800s baseball.<\/p>\n

But what it really wants to hear is a vision for the late-2020s Cardinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserves it,\u201d Neander said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great fit. It\u2019s a wonderful baseball town. There is a lot of tradition. Test Chaim\u2019s knowledge of tradition and baseball history. Ask him about some player in 1872. Pull up a team and ask him the roster. He\u2019ll have stories about people that I\u2019m pretty sure he made up and then I\u2019ll look, and, oh, there they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he\u2019s energized, and I can tell it\u2019s something he\u2019s very passionate about doing and doing it there. It\u2019s already easier to root for him when he\u2019s in the NL Central as opposed to the AL East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winn scratched, errorless streak ends<\/p>\n

Masyn Winn, who has been managing soreness in his right knee throughout the season, was a late scratch from Sunday\u2019s series finale due to pain in the joint. The Cardinals considered him day to day, which is a continuation of how he\u2019s been for other stretches of the season.<\/p>\n

Winn received an anti-inflammatory shot during the All-Star break to alleviate soreness in the knee, and he\u2019s adopted a training-and-treatment regimen that allows him to continue starting.<\/p>\n

Winn appeared in 116 of the Cardinals\u2019 first 130 games, and he\u2019s eight innings shy of surpassing 1,000 at shortstop this season.<\/p>\n

Although he didn\u2019t field a ball Saturday, he did receive an error, retroactively applied to a game this past week in Miami. After a review by Major League Baseball, Winn was given an error on Xavier Edwards\u2019 ground ball to lead off the fourth inning Tuesday. The play was initially ruled a hit at loanDepot Park.<\/p>\n

The scoring change ends Winn\u2019s streak of errorless games at 49, just shy of being the third shortstop this season to reach 50.<\/p>\n

He has only three errors in 450 total chances this season.<\/p>\n

Wetherholt, King, etc.<\/p>\n

Cardinals top prospect JJ Wetherholt went 2 for 2 on Saturday against former Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale in the lefty\u2019s rehab start for Atlanta\u2019s Class AAA affiliate. The left-handed-hitting Wetherholt led off the bottom of the first with a single, and he doubled off Sale in the third inning.<\/p>\n

Wetherholt finished the game 3 for 4 to lift his average to .316, but Class AAA Memphis lost to Gwinnett, 4-2.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals recalled lefty John King from his rehab assignment and placed him on the active roster. King missed a couple of weeks with a strained oblique muscle, and he appeared in three games with Class AAA Memphis to prepare for his return.<\/p>\n

King allowed three runs (one earned) in 2 2\/3 innings for the Triple-A Redbirds.<\/p>\n

The Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America announced this weekend the creation of its first new award in several generations. Starting in 2026, the BBWAA will add a Relief Pitcher of the Year Award in each league to the historic awards already presented by the organization: the MVP, Cy Young Award, Rookie of the Year and managers of the year honors. <\/p>\n

Post-Dispatch columnist Lynn Worthy joined Jeff Gordon to discuss the opportunities Matt Svanson, Riley O’Brien, Thomas Saggese and others are getting in the season’s final weeks.<\/p>\n


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