Cardinals hire Chaim Bloom as advisor to Mozeliak

ST. LOUIS -- After decades of famously following and abiding to the maxims of “The Cardinal Way,” the Cardinals pronounced themselves more open than ever to outside ideas with Monday’s hiring of former Rays and Red Sox front office executive Chaim Bloom to an advisory position.

Bloom, 40, served as chief baseball officer of the Red Sox from 2019-23. Boston reached the 2021 American League Championship Series under Bloom’s guidance. After the Red Sox won 92 games in '21, they fell on hard times in '22 (78-84) and '23 (78-84), finishing last in the AL East in both seasons.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak first mentioned the possibility of bringing in an outside resource during the General Managers Meetings in November. Bloom will work under Mozeliak, advising on a variety of baseball-operations areas.

“We’ve always prided ourselves with our history, but understanding best practices is something that I think smart businesses do, and this gives us an opportunity to do that,” Mozeliak said of being more open to ideas from former leaders of other MLB organizations. “I just think it’s a great opportunity when you think about the length of time that [chairman] Bill DeWitt and myself have been together. And with a lot of the senior leadership in the front office, it’s going to be nice to have somebody to give us a fresh perspective.

“When you look at our steady state over the last 25 years, we really haven’t had a lot of those outside voices to come in. Chaim has had an accomplished career and allowing him to come in and look behind the curtain and give us some insights is exciting, and it’s something we look forward to.”

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Mozeliak said he first approached Bloom about the possibility of an advisory role in September when the latter parted ways with the Red Sox. Mozeliak described Bloom’s role as “more of a part-time role, more of an advisory role.” He said Bloom will not be relocating to St. Louis, but he will be with the club in Spring Training, and he will join the squad for home and road games during the season.

Mozeliak said Bloom wasn’t directly involved in recent Cardinals acquisitions of relief pitchers Andrew Kittredge, Nick Robertson and Ryan Fernandez -- players Bloom had ties to from his time working for the Red Sox and Rays. Still, Bloom proved to be a valuable resource in helping learn more about players the Cards added.

“There were some things I would bounce off him from time to time, but the main purpose for Chaim isn’t player acquisition or roster building; it’s more about organizational structure,” said Mozeliak, who plucked Fernandez away from the Red Sox in the Rule 5 Draft and dealt outfielder Tyler O’Neill to Boston for Robertson on Dec. 8. “But I’d be foolish to not take advantage of my contacts when trying to understand a player’s makeup and how he thinks a player might fit in, if he has such knowledge.”

Bloom, a 2004 graduate of Yale University, broke into Major League Baseball with intern positions with the San Diego Padres and MLB’s league offices. Before he became Boston's chief baseball officer, Bloom spent 15 years (2005-19) in the Rays' baseball operations department, including the final three as the club’s senior vice president of baseball operations.

“I’m excited to join the Cardinals and to be a part of this great organization,” Bloom said in a release. “Mo and his team have given me such a warm welcome, and I'm eager to build relationships here and to learn, contribute, and help us win.”

Mozeliak said Bloom’s dramatically different experiences with Tampa Bay and Boston should aid him in St. Louis -- a relatively small market, but one with World Series aspirations each season.

“Working with a small-market team with Tampa, he had a unique experience on how that operated, and then running the Boston Red Sox is clearly a large-market team,” Mozeliak said. “We’re somewhere in between, but his expertise of what he’s seen will be very helpful to us moving forward.”