Inept evaluation of Cardinals management team implies John Mozeliak's tenure has reached its end.
In the earthy-shattering revelation towards the end of the 2024 season, Katie Woo at The Athletic put the St. Louis Cardinals hierarchy under the microscope like never before. A club typically as tight-lipped as Fort Knox saw some cracks thanks to Woo's investigative reporting and whispers from anonymous clubhouse members about the team's missteps.
For almost two decades, the St. Louis Cardinals were the gold standard of baseball organizations. Consistently bagging wins and playoff appearances, their Major League roster was a star-studded powerhouse. From 2004-2019, the Cardinals had the third-best winning percentage, just a smidge behind the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, two teams with metropolis-sized markets compared to St. Louis.
John Mozeliak and his team's methods were imitated throughout the league, and what St. Louis was doing was the envy of every other franchise. Few clubs could boast about drafting and developing talent as masterfully as the Cardinals in the 2010s.
But it all began to implode not long after. The Cardinals struggled to nurture quality pitchers and were forced to build their roster through free agency, a pricey and hit-or-miss method of team construction.
The once steady pipeline of MLB-caliber players began to dry up, and the foundations of the organization started to weaken.
Post-COVID, the Cardinals trimmed their workforce significantly. An outdated player development system paired with a player development team that was outmatched by contemporaries caught up to the Cardinals as the decade changed. According to Katie Woo, "In recent years, team insiders say, the Cardinals failed to keep up as rival teams increased the size of their staffs. Not including affiliate coaches, special advisors, or medical coordinators, the Cardinals currently have five full-time minor-league instructors, marking their leanest staffing level in the past decade."
As the 2025 season is in full swing now, the Cardinals' shortcomings are being recognized across the baseball world.
In a shocking turn of events, the St. Louis Cardinals' front office hasn't been voted among the top 5 MLB front offices for the second year in a row.
The Athletic conducted a survey to determine the best front offices in baseball. No one was surprised to learn that the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the top spot, thanks to an enormous budget and a farm system that consistently ranks in the top third of the league.
The St. Louis Cardinals, however, failed to receive any votes for a top-5 MLB front office.
It's not all doom and gloom for the Redbirds, though. The Tampa Bay Rays were voted the second-best front office in baseball, with Chaim Bloom playing a pivotal role in building their farm system when he was named Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations in 2016.
Bloom's next professional destination was the Boston Red Sox, who garnered a total of three points in The Athletic's poll.
The Cleveland Guardians finished fourth in the voting. Interestingly, the Cardinals and Chaim Bloom recruited Larry Day, a former coach, manager, and coordinator for Cleveland, to be the team's Director of Player Development. Bloom also brought Rob Cerfolio from Cleveland to be the Cardinals' Assistant General Manager of Player Development and Performance.
Another new face in St. Louis is Matt Pierpont, who was poached from the Seattle Mariners' front office. The Mariners managed to secure four points in The Athletic's survey.
Although the Cardinals haven't received votes as a top front office in baseball over the last two years, the arrival of Chaim Bloom and Matt Pierpont indicates a changing of the guard, a desperately needed shift in St. Louis.
- The shocking turn of events continued as the St. Louis Cardinals' front office failed to receive any votes for a top-5 MLB front office.
- The arrival of Chaim Bloom and Matt Pierpont indicates a changing of the guard, a desperately needed shift in the St. Louis Cardinals' MLB front office.
