Cards add former Red Sox exec Bloom as adviser

The St. Louis Cardinals hired former Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom as an adviser Monday, bulking up their front office after the team’s worst season in nearly 30 years.

Bloom, 40, was fired by Boston in September after the Red Sox were nearing their third last-place finish in four years. In the other season, 2021, Boston advanced to the American League Championship Series.

During his five seasons with the Red Sox, the team went 351-340 and turned around a moribund farm system Bloom inherited. But with fierce competition in the AL East, Red Sox ownership — which has pared payroll in recent years — pivoted from Bloom and hired Craig Breslow as the new chief baseball officer.

Bloom joins a Cardinals organization that entered 2023 with hopes of a second consecutive National League Central title only to crater, finishing 71-91. While president of baseball operations John Mozeliak and manager Oliver Marmol kept their jobs, owner Bill DeWitt Jr. sought an outside voice to help the organization right itself.

“I have known Chaim for a long time and feel that this is a great opportunity for the St. Louis Cardinals,” Mozeliak said in a news release announcing the hire. “It will be good to get an outside perspective of our organization from someone who is as well-respected as Chaim. Having a fresh set of eyes on all aspects of our baseball operations should be helpful.”

The Cardinals valued Bloom’s experience with the Red Sox and before that the Tampa Bay Rays, whom he joined in 2005 as an intern. Bloom steadily moved up in the ranks, and when Andrew Friedman left to become president of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bloom and Erik Neander were promoted to run the organization. They saw the Rays through a rebuilding period that set the stage for their recent excellence, going 421-287 over the last five years, all of which were playoff seasons.

The Cardinals, long one of the model franchises in baseball, faltered last year after four consecutive playoff appearances themselves. With a pitching staff beset by injuries and ineffectiveness, and a lineup filled with talent but too many redundancies, the Cardinals sputtered to a 10-19 April and never recovered.

They were aggressive in free agency this winter, signing right-hander Lance Lynn to a one-year, $11 million contract and right-hander Kyle Gibson to a one-year, $13 million deal before guaranteeing right-hander Sonny Gray $75 million over three seasons. Since those late-November moves, their only transactions have been a pair of trades, sending outfielder Tyler O’Neill to Boston for right-handers Nick Robertson and Victor Santos, and this week acquiring right-handed reliever Andrew Kittredge for outfielder Richie Palacios.

“I’m excited to join the Cardinals and to be a part of this great organization,” Bloom said in the news 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.”

St. Louis had remained a steady presence near the top of the NL Central until 2023 despite a number of trades that had gone poorly, including a deal that sent All-Star outfielder Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay and All-Star right-handers Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen to Miami.

Bloom’s expertise goes well beyond the statistical analysis he first displayed writing for Baseball Prospectus and then brought to Tampa Bay. He served as director of baseball operations for the Rays, with a wide swath of responsibilities, and in Boston executed massive contracts (Rafael Devers for 11 years and $331 million), trades (the lamented Mookie Betts-to-the-Dodgers deal) and hirings (Alex Cora as manager).