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In a stunning announcement from a Texas courtroom on Wednesday that could be immediately costly for clubs like the Cardinals but ultimately better for fans eager to watch games, Diamond Sports Group, parent company of Bally Sports Midwest, signaled it could drop broadcasts for the Cardinals and several other MLB teams if unable to renegotiate deals for 2025.

An attorney for Diamond Sports said in a hearing that a revised plan to emerge from bankruptcy could include keeping the broadcast deal with one club, the Atlanta Braves, while dropping others. Diamond Sports has approached the Cardinals about renegotiating the current broadcast rights agreement to continue carrying games in 2025, and the implication made in court Wednesday was what could happen if those discussions falter.

While other teams have been unplugged, the Cardinals, for now, are on time delay, still potentially on Bally Sports but awaiting a clear signal on their broadcast options.

“Our situation remains unchanged despite news from Diamond Sports today,” said Anuk Karunaratne, the Cardinals’ senior vice president of business operations. “We remain focused on our alternatives, including a renegotiated agreement with Diamond Sports. The good news is fans will be able to access our games next season, and we’re hopeful this will include an option for in-market streaming.”

While the hearing Wednesday in Houston was the latest curveball in the cable chaos — especially when initial statements by Diamond Sports lawyer suggested they would reject deals with 11 teams — it did also provide some clarity. A revised plan to emerge from bankruptcy will be voted by creditors ahead of a confirmation hearing in mid-November. The Cardinals are not involved in that case, but if the plan is rejected and Diamond Sports liquidates, they would be part of the unwinding.

Diamond Sports has an agreement in place to broadcast its local NBA and NHL teams through the 2024-25 season, and the Blues will remain on Bally as part of that deal.

The Cardinals are in the midst of a 15-year, $1.1 billion rights deal that extends through 2032 and included an ownership stake in Bally Sports Midwest.

As part owner, the Cardinals are considered a “joint-venture partner” and are outside of the bankruptcy case. They have been firewalled from much of the turbulence in the cratering Regional Sports Network model due to their ratings, their revenues, and that partnership, but they’ve been preparing for it to reach them. The Cardinals received all of their scheduled payment for the 2024 season, and they only recently acknowledged increasing concern that they would not receive full payment from their broadcast partner for 2025. They are owed around $76 million or slightly more in 2025 according to the existing deal, per Post-Dispatch reporting and research.

The Cardinals confirmed this week that they expect to lower major-league payroll for 2025, and the uncertain broadcast fees along with reduced ticket sales are part of that calculus.

“The real challenge for us revenue-wise is on the local media situation,” club president Bill DeWitt III said. “As you know there is a whole trend where there is a lot of cutting of the cord, of the cable bundle, and we’ve had our distribution challenges. The good news is it appears as though under every scenario we’re looking at fans will hopefully have a direct-to-consumer product to get our games. Basically an app where they can stream games for a fee.

“I am really optimistic … we’re going to uncover every stone on the revenue side.”

A few MLB teams already have that app.

That model would do something DeWitt has advocated before — erase what he called the “antiquated” blackout rules and allow for streamed games to reach a broader and local audience.

When entering into the current broadcast deal with then-Fox Sports Midwest the Cardinals separated their streaming rights from that agreement to maintain a hold on them. That has helped them explore options for them individually rather than being bundled into deals discussed during bankruptcy court on the broader Major League Baseball level.

Post-Dispatch media columnist Dan Caesar previously reported how several local networks were eager to engage the Cardinals about their broadcasts.

The general feeling among local executives was that Diamond would keep the team’s rights, at least for next season, prompting KMOV (Channel 4) general manager JD Sosnoff to say Wednesday that he was “absolutely” surprised about the developments.

“You could see it headed in that direction, but I don’t think that the expectation was that it was imminent here in ������Ƶ,” he said.

KMOV is owned by Gray Media, as is over-the-air station Matrix Midwest (Channel 32), which Sosnoff oversees and could be a landing spot for live game telecasts.

“If the opportunity exists, we would be extremely interested to see what it takes to bring free Cardinals TV to the market,” he said.

Two former Cardinals TV homes — KSDK (Channel 5) and KPLR (Channel 11) — also could be possibilities, albeit likely on an ancillary channel of KSDK because of NBC network commitments. Station general manager Alicia Elsner said Wednesday that “KSDK remains interested in pursuing” the rights.

KPLR general manager Kurt Krueger previously told the Post-Dispatch that his station could bump CW network programming to make room for the Cardinals if it gained the rights.

In Houston, a lawyer for Diamond Sports, Andrew Goldman, said the company would continue with “a single telecast rights agreement, that of the Atlanta Braves. All of the other teams, all of Major League Baseball’s other agreements, will be rejected under the plan.” This prompted news that 11 of 12 teams would be dropped. The statement lacked needed context.

In 2024, Diamond Sports broadcast a dozen teams. Four of those teams had their contracts expire at the end of this regular season: the Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, and Cleveland Guardians. In addition to those teams, Diamond Sports seeks to reject existing contracts with the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers, whose late-season surge continued with a sweep Wednesday of the Astros to advance in the American League playoffs.

Diamond’s plan to maintain the Braves, leaves the Cardinals and five other teams: the Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Angeles, and Cincinnati Reds.

In court, Goldman said an “active dialog” is happening with those teams “who are aware of the implications of not being able to reach a deal,” as quoted in The Athletic.

“Today marks an important step forward for Diamond with the filing of a baseline plan to enable us to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable, go-forward business before year-end,” a spokesman for Diamond Sports Group wrote in a statement. “We have delivered proposals to and remain in discussions with our MLB team partners around go-forward plans. We firmly believe that through our linear and digital offerings we have created the best economic and fan-friendly engine for all of our team partners.”

MLB’s lawyer described the announcements as being “sandbagged.”

Diamond Sports filed for Chapter 11 protection in March 2023, claiming it needed to restructure so it could “eliminate $8 billion (in) outstanding debt.”

The heyday of blockbuster broadcast deals and live sports’ DVR-proof reign as a revenue titan started to tumble, and fast, when viewers began “cord cutting.” The previous model assured sports networks and news networks alike a subscription fee bundled into cable bills. Regardless if the subscriber watched the Cardinals or cable news, they were paying for that within the subscriptions. As consumers switched to streaming and a la carte options, the bubble burst and Diamond Sports was dealing with a dramatic reduction in subscribers and massive rights deals.

When negotiating their current deal with then-Fox Sports Midwest, the Cardinals considered starting their own network and even partnering with the Blues to do so. They opted for a partial ownership instead after seeing other teams, like the Cubs and Dodgers, have difficulty with distribution.

In the past two years, the Cardinals have been researching their options should they regain their rights, recognizing it would be an initial reduction in revenue but carry the potential for greater growth and a greater ability to reach more fans.

While the situation for fans and teams remains fuzzy, the hearing Wednesday at least accelerates resolution.

Staff writer Dan Caesar contributed to this article.

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Coming off a second consecutive season without a playoff appearance, the Cardinals used their first day of the offseason to lay out plans for what the 2025 season may look like with a “reset” coming on their player development system and an expected decrease in payroll at the major league level.

“Our baseball decisions going forward will focus on developing our pipeline of players, giving our young core every opportunity to succeed at the major league level,” Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said in his opening remarks of Monday’s news conference at Busch Stadium. “... We have a strong group of young players, and we will continue to push for ways to get better in the short term, and our No. 1 priority will be to lay the foundation for a sustained period of competitive excellence in the years ahead.”

During the 2024 season, the Cardinals were the 12th-younger team across the majors in average age for their hitters at 27.6 years old, per Baseball Reference. Their pitching staff, bolstered by three offseason signings of veteran starters Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, was the fourth-oldest group in MLB, with an average age of 30.8 years old.

The combination of ������Ƶ’ young core of position players and experienced pitching resulted in an 83-79 season that was not enough to clinch a postseason berth but avoided a second consecutive season with a losing record.

In the coming weeks, the Cardinals will make decisions that may begin to shape what the youth movement will look like. The club has $12 million options on Gibson and Lynn to keep the two for 2025. It would cost the Cardinals $2 million to buy out those options, making both hurlers free agents.

Of the pitchers who started games in 2024 for ������Ƶ, Gray, Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, and Steven Matz are all under contract for next season.

If spots in the rotation open and the Cardinals lean into their youth to fill openings, 26-year-old right-hander Andre Pallante got a look in that role this past season and posted a 3.56 ERA in 111⅓ innings across 20 starts. Michael McGreevy, a 24-year-old righty and former first-round pick, made three starts and an appearance out of the bullpen during his introduction to the big leagues. McGreevy sported a 1.96 ERA in 23 total innings. He held a 2.25 ERA in 20 innings as a starter.

“I definitely think someone like a McGreevy does deserve an opportunity to be in the rotation,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said on Monday. “But right now, our rotation is pretty full. As we take the next few weeks, we’re going to navigate that, and ultimately, you guys will hear about some of those decisions that we make prior to the end of the World Series, and some won’t, and so that’ll just take us into November.”

Within the Cardinals farm system, which is ranked No. 21 by Baseball America in its midseason rankings, left-hander Quinn Mathews has moved closer to the big league radar.

In his first year as a pro, the 23-year-old Mathews struck out an MiLB-leading 202 batters and maintained a 2.76 ERA in 143⅓ innings from Class Low-A to Class AAA. Mathews, a fourth-round pick in the 2023 MLB draft, was named minor league pitcher of the year by both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. He made four starts in Class AAA before the minor league season wrapped up. He had a 6.48 ERA in 16⅔ innings during his first test at that level.

The Cardinals opened the 2024 season with five players in its starting lineup who were 25 years old or younger in shortstop Masyn Winn (22), second baseman Nolan Gorman (23), center fielder Victor Scott II (23), right fielder Jordan Walker (21) and designated hitter Alec Burleson (25).

Of those, Winn and Burleson were the only two who remained at the major league level for the entirety of the 2024 season.

Winn took over everyday duties at shortstop and led all shortstops in defensive runs saves with plus-14, per FanGraphs. He batted .267 with 15 home runs and a .314 on-base percentage. He tied for second on the team in both hits (157) and at-bats (587) while leading in runs scored with 85. In 102 games started in the leadoff spot, Winn posted a .248 batting average, 23 doubles and 13 homers.

Meanwhile, Burleson, who turns 26 in late November, batted .269 with 21 home runs and a .734 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) in 152 games. Burleson played 49 games in right field, 31 in left field and 15 at first base — where he could play more regularly in 2025 as the spot opens with Paul Goldschmidt set to hit free agency. In his first opportunity as an everyday player in the majors, Burleson did not homer in the final 38 games he played.

������Ƶ also received a glimpse of a potential positional player piece moving forward when infielder Thomas Saggese debuted in September. The 22-year-old Saggese, who batted .253 with 20 homers and a .751 on-base plus slugging percentage in 125 Class AAA games, hit .204 in 49 at-bats while receiving time in the field at second base, shortstop and third base.

“Certainly, when you look at the group right now, of our top prospects, there’s a lot to be excited about,” Mozeliak said. “... I really feel like the overall vibe of what’s happening in our organization is a lot more positive than maybe people are making it out to be, but ultimately, we know we can find better ways to do things, and that’s ultimately our goal.”

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The Cardinals finished 22nd with 672 runs scored. They tied for 22nd with 165 homers. They were 22nd with 91 stolen bases. You get the picture — this was a decidedly below-average offense, as these grades will reflect. Their fielding was fine in some areas, not great in others. The precipitous decline of veterans Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, combined with the loss of Willson Contreras to injuries and the sudden collapse of young sluggers Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman were the primary concerns.

Masyn Winn

At the age of 22 he became the face of the franchise with his swagger and steady all-around play. Winn earned a team-high 4.9 WAR from Baseball Reference while hitting .267 with 32 doubles, 15 homers and 11 stolen bases. That performance, after he hit just .172 in a 37-game trial last season, was the single most positive revelation. He persevered through back soreness and he nursed late-season arm soreness while playing 150 games as a rookie. The grind finally took its toll as he hit just .192 with a .616 OPS in September. But he dug in and tried to power through.

Grade: A

Alec Burleson

With other outfielders suffering injuries and/or slumps, Burleson seized the opportunity to break through. He hit .269 with 21 homers and a team-high 78 RBIs. He hit .280 with runners in scoring position. Burleson wore down while batting just .202 with no homers, six RBIs and a .510 OPS in September. Had he not gone 5-for-12 with three walks and four RBIs in the season’s final series, that fade would have been even more dramatic. Still, he was on the short list of Cardinals who exceeded expectations this season.

Grade: B

Brendan Donovan

In his final 100 plate appearances he hit .360 with a .971 OPS to polish up his season numbers. Donovan struck a balance between getting on base and doing damage. His on-base percentage has declined from .394 to .365 and .342 during the last two seasons. But Donovan logged 652 plate appearances this season and set career highs in doubles (34), homers (14) and RBIs (73). While recovering from arm surgery this season, he didn’t see fill-in work on the left side of the infield. His hitting profile is a better fit for a super-utility role than everyday work at second base or left field, but he plugs in where needed.

Grade: B

Willson Contreras

Between bone fractures, he had 15 homers and 36 RBIs in 358 plate appearances. But Contreras hit just .210 with runners in scoring position and he was just 3-for-30 with RISP and two outs. He drew 45 walks and got hit by 12 pitches, which helped him build a .380 on-base percentage and an .848 OPS. But one of those HBPs left him with a season-ending finger fracture. Contreras made a concerted effort to improve his pitch framing which, unfortunately, led to his broken forearm. He threw out 23 percent of runners trying to steal, which was the second-worst percentage of his career.

Grade: B

Michael Siani

He climbed the depth chart and took over in center field due to his exceptional fielding range. Via Statcast, Siani recorded 15 outs above average. He earned a reprieve and narrowly qualified for Gold Glove consideration. His untimely oblique injury derailed his season offensively. After returning from the IL, he went 8-for-64 (.125) in September — albeit with 10 walks and six stolen bases. Since he hit just .228 with a .570 OPS overall, it remains to be seen if he can become more than an excellent defensive replacement.

Grade: B

Pedro Pages

He developed into a worthy backup catcher while offering a big upgrade from Andrew Knizner. Pages did a fine job working with the hurlers, executing game plans and framing pitches. He threw out 19 percent of runners attempting to steal, which made him a better fill-in option than Ivan Herrera behind the plate. Pages was a competitive hitter, batting .276 with two outs and runners in scoring position. Overall he hit .257 with a .704 OPS in the second half of the season while settling in at this level.

Grade: B

Ivan Herrera

He progressed nicely as a hitter this season, batting .301 with an .800 OPS. He hit .274 with runners in scoring position. He grounded into just three double plays in 229 at-bats. While back down at Memphis, he hit .280 with an .875 OPS. His hit tool is real. Ah, but Herrera’s inability to control the running game became exposed when he replaced the injured Contreras. He threw out just 7 percent of the baserunners attempting to steal against him. Can he make at least incremental progress with intensive offseason work on his mechanics?

Grade: B-minus

Matt Carpenter

He returned to the STL to serve as the veteran “bench captain” and provide some offense off the bench. Carpenter did OK on both fronts. He hit .286 in limited time coming off the bench and .234 overall, which was notable for a veteran who finished below the Mendoza Line in three of his previous four seasons. This team has seen popular veterans suffer an ugly farewell season wearing the Birds on Bat, so this wasn’t so bad.

Grade: C

Thomas Saggese

His ability to play three infield positions could give him a leg up on the utility role next season. But Saggese experienced an uneven offensive year after earning Texas League MVP honors at the Double-A level in 2023. He heated up in July at Memphis, hitting .349 with a .990 OPS, before cooling down again. Saggese offsets his lack of natural power by taking violent swings. He hit .204 in limited duty during his first big league tour. Can he become more selectively aggressive?

Grade: C

Lars Nootbaar

He finished with a flourish while hitting .290 with a .986 OPS in September. That allowed Nootbaar to move his full-season numbers (.244 batting average, .342 on-base percentage, .758 OPS) closer to his career norms. But injuries and inconsistency marred his season, again, and it remains unclear if Nootbaar can become a cornerstone player as this franchise resets. He is mostly a corner outfielder and corner outfielders need to produce runs. Nootbaar hit .227 with runners in scoring position and .216 with RISP and two outs.

Grade: C-minus

Luken Baker

The Bunyan-sized hitting prospect got another big league look and he had his moments. After clubbing 32 homers in 375 at-bats at Memphis, Baker went 7-for-40 with two homers, a double, a triple, two sacrifice flies and 10 RBIs during his late-season look with the Cardinals. He hit .258 over 2,423 minor league plate appearances in six seasons, so it remains to be seen if he can make enough contact to exploit his massive raw power.

Grade: C-minus

Victor Scott II

Injuries forced him into the lead role on center field to start the season … and he was clearly not ready for that. He started 17 times in April, played in 20 games overall and went just 5-for-59 at the plate before returning to Memphis. Eventually he got back on track at Triple-A, posting a .711 OPS in July and hitting .256 in August with his revamped swing. In 86 at-bats for the Cardinals in the latter half of the season he hit .244. He must learn to exploit his uncommon speed in the field by taking better routes to fly balls. On the bases, he must learn to steal more bases against big league defenses.

Grade: C-minus

Nolan Arenado

In his prime, Arenado delivered seven seasons with 30 or more homers. For Colorado he topped 40 homers three times while playing Mile High home games. After powering up for 90 homers 301 RBIs in his first three seasons in ������Ƶ, he produced just 16 homers and 71 RBIs this season while earning more than $30 million. He faded late, hitting just one homer and driving in just eight runs during 23 games in September. After earning 7.7 WAR in 2022, he slipped to 2.4 and 2.5 the last two seasons. On the plus side, he hit .272 with runners in scoring position and .283 with RISP and two outs. He also recorded nine outs above average at third base, per Statcast.

Grade: C-minus

Paul Goldschmidt

After hitting just .230 with a .664 OPS during the first half of the season, he did more damage in the second half while batting .271 with a .799 OPS. But for a player making more than $25 million, his bottom line for the season was poor: .245 batting average, 22 homers, 65 RBIs and a career-low .716 OPS in 599 at-bats. He hit .203 with runners in scoring position. After posting 7.7 WAR during his MVP season in 2022, he regressed to 3.1 last season and to 1.3 this season. Try as he might, he couldn't turn back the clock as he turned 37.

Grade: D

Jose Fermin

He hit .311 with a 924 OPS during his stints at Memphis this season, which earned him promotions to the big leagues. Alas, his offensive success at the Triple-A level did not translate. Fermin hit .173 during his spot starts for the Cardinals and just .105 off the bench. His inability to fill in defensively at shortstop further limited his value.

Grade: D

Jordan Walker

He hit .155 in his first 20 games, earning his demotion to Memphis. He went 2-for-20 during his pointless August recall. Finally given a chance to resume regular duty with the big club, Walker hit .253 with a .780 OPS in September. His season turnaround began in Memphis, where he hit .294 in August with an .830 OPS. He climbed from the abyss to finish just over the Mendoza Line with a .201 season batting average for the Cardinals. Now he faces a huge offseason. Walker is just 22, but two years into major league career he still needs a LOT of work as a hitter and outfielder.

Grade: D

Nolan Gorman

He progressed nicely in his second major league season, posting an .805 OPS with 27 homers and 76 RBIs in 2023. Gorman struck out a lot and delivered his run production in streaks, but he was still trending well. Then this season happened. Gorman struggled early, rebounded a bit in May and then cratered in June — batting .141 with 42 strikeouts in 99 at-bats. Unlike Walker, he failed to turn things around after his demotion to Memphis. Gorman hit .196 in his last 15 games at the Triple-A level, albeit with five homers in 56 at-bats. Like Walker, he faces a pivotal offseason. Which direction will his career go?

Grade: D-minus

Brandon Crawford

The Cardinals signed him to provide Winn insurance. Winn didn’t need insurance — and Crawford proved to be useless, batting .169 in very limited action before getting sent home. The offensively challenged Cardinals could scarcely afford to waste a bench slot on him.

Grade: F

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Chaim Bloom will get his second chance as the lone figure atop a team’s baseball operations pyramid when he replaces the Cardinals’ John Mozeliak at the end of next season. Cardinals Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. dubbed Bloom Mozeliak’s heir Monday.

Bloom, the former chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox, joined the Cardinals as an adviser to the baseball operations department in January. His primary charge had been to assess the club’s player development system.

Bloom now sits on deck as the Cardinals’ next president of baseball operations, and he’ll have a year to begin shaping the way the organization molds prospects.

In some ways, it’s a role tailor-made for Bloom. In some ways, it’s a similar role to the one he played that made him a rising star in the industry with the Rays. In some ways, it’s a distinctly different perch than he’d been afforded in Boston.

“This is a chance to really get in deep in this area in a way that I just think is unique,” Bloom said of beginning his tenure by overseeing the overhaul of the club’s player development department.

A rebuild in Boston

Bloom, 41, spent four years as the top executive in the Red Sox baseball operations department prior to his dismissal on Sept. 14, 2023. The Red Sox fired him after a second consecutive last-place finish in the American League East.

Bloom’s tenure in Boston included three last-place finishes but also featured one playoff appearance that extended to the 2021 American League Championship Series.

The Red Sox went 272-274 during Bloom’s four seasons. His first season came during the pandemic-shortened season and after MLB suspended Red Sox manager Alex Cora for a year for his involvement in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal in 2017.

The Red Sox also reduced their payroll from an approximate $236 million in 2019 to approximately $181 million in 2023.

Bloom oversaw a rebuild in Boston that included the departures of homegrown stars Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. to a 10-year contract extension in 2023.

Baseball America ranked the Red Sox farm system 22nd of 30 MLB organizations entering 2020. That ranking rose to 10th entering 2023.

Bloom also headed the Red Sox baseball operations department when the team drafted current No. 1 overall prospect in baseball, minor league outfielder Roman Anthony.

Player development pedigree

A native of Philadelphia, Bloom graduated from Yale University in 2004. While a student at Yale, Bloom interned and wrote articles for the baseball statistics and analysis website Baseball Prospectus.

Bloom began his front office career as an intern with the San Diego Padres and then in the Major League Baseball legal/corporate partnerships department.

Bloom got his foot in the door with the Tampa Bay Rays, again as an intern, in 2005. He climbed the rungs from assistant director of minor league operations in 2008 to director of baseball operations in 2011.

In 2014, Bloom became vice president of baseball operations. His responsibilities expanded to include personnel, player development, international scouting, contract negotiations, salary arbitration and strategic planning.

Following the 2016 season, Bloom became senior vice president of baseball operations. He and senior vice president of baseball operations/general manager Erik Neander together headed the baseball operations department until Bloom went to Boston following the 2019 season.

In 2018, for their general manager position.

Some of the top prospects in the Rays farm system between 2009 and 2016 included pitcher David Price, outfielder Desmond Jennings, pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, pitcher Matt Moore, outfielder Wil Myers, pitcher Jake Odorizzi, shortstop Willy Adames and .

Moore, Myers, Odorizzi, Price and Snell went on to earn All-Star selections in the majors. Myers and Hellickson each won AL Rookie of the Year honors.

Snell has won two Cy Young Awards and two ERA titles, while Price also won a Cy Young Award and a pair of ERA titles.

A head start in ������Ƶ

DeWitt said Bloom signed a five-year contract to serve as president of baseball operations that starts after the 2025 season.

Bloom remains an adviser for the time being and will oversee the “reset” of the player development system. Since coming aboard as an adviser, Bloom developed a plan for improving the Cardinals farm system.

Now, he’ll be on the ground floor of implementing that plan before he takes over the entire baseball operation.

DeWitt promised “significant new investments” in staffing, programs and infrastructure, including a new facility at the club’s spring training complex in Jupiter, Florida. The team is scheduled to break ground on that new facility in April, according to DeWitt.

“Things move and change,” DeWitt said. “As Chaim says, if you don’t keep up, you’re going to fall behind. So this is a matter of catching up to a degree and building to a degree.”

Bloom said the process of hiring new leadership for the player development system has already begun. The Cardinals are looking to add an assistant general manager to head up player development and to have input in the additions in that apartment.

With general manager Michael Girsch shifted to vice president of special projects, Mozeliak will absorb Girsch’s previous duties next season.

Presumably, Bloom would either assume those duties or make a hire for the general manager position when Mozeliak steps down after next season.

More than 10 top executives in the Red Sox baseball operations — from the general manager and assistant general manager levels to the analytics, minor league operations and scouting departments — were holdovers from the regime prior to Bloom.

In Boston, not only did several of the senior executives in baseball operations predate Bloom’s hiring, but many also predated Bloom’s predecessor Dave Dombrowski. That front office was arguably more entrenched than the one Bloom will join with the Cardinals.

It appears Bloom may have more of an immediate hand in shaping the top levels of the front office and player development department with the Cardinals than he did in Boston.

Expectations on player development

During Bloom’s tenure in Boston, he increased the baseball operations staff. The research and development department (analytics staff) grew from 14 entering 2019 to 33 entering 2023.

The Red Sox also added personnel in sports science, mental skills and sports medicine/sports performance. The coaching staffs of the minor league affiliates also increased size under Bloom’s leadership.

The Cardinals already have vowed to add staff in player development.

“It’s actually remarkable, even over the course of my career, just how much faster this arms race has gotten behind the scenes,” Bloom said. “That doesn’t mean every single new thing that comes into the game is something that you want to go all in on but certainly a lot of things have been.

“It really just comes out of 30 clubs competing to see how well they can develop players, how much better they can make these guys. Whether it’s teaching methods. Whether it’s combining performance and medical and on-field coaching to achieve better outcomes, to individualize training more. Whether it’s data. Whether it’s equipment. All these things are brought to bear in different ways.”

While he didn’t use the phrasing, Bloom seemed to describe a reimagining of the so-called Cardinal Way.

“That’s part of the tradition of this organization, innovation,” Bloom said. “A lot of these things that are a tradition now, they were new and different at one point when the ������Ƶ Cardinals starting doing it.”

As the Cardinals prepare to enter a new era with their player development system, Mozeliak praised retiring assistant general manager/director of player development Gary LaRocque.

“He really ran an excellent farm system, and he did it with the resources he had,” Mozeliak said. “When you look at the players that we’ve been bringing up, I disagree with the statement that someone says they’re not prepared. They might not perform right away because there is a learning curve and not every player comes to the big leagues and succeeds right away. It’s a hard game. It’s a tough league.”

Mozeliak asserted that the upcoming investments in player development aren’t a reflection that things were done wrong in the past. Instead, he pointed to those investments as a sign of a changing market where players now prepare differently.

The Cardinals will aim to be on “that innovative side of maximizing player performance,” Mozeliak said.

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Tasking Chaim Bloom to upgrade the Cardinals’ player development was a positive step for the DeWitt ownership.

But producing prospects hasn’t been the franchise’s biggest weakness. Asset mismanagement is what knocked the Cardinals off their National League Central perch.

The front office ignored the data on age-related athletic decline and invested heavily in older players.

Yadier Molina’s farewell season was bad. Adam Wainwright’s final tour was worse, despite his musical interludes. Paul Goldschmidt’s contract aged poorly, and the rest of Nolan Arenado’s deal threatens to do the same.

This season, the Cardinals got poor returns from the roughly $75 million allocated to Goldschmidt, Arenado and Miles Mikolas. More than $30 million more went to Willson Contreras and Steven Matz, whose contributions were limited by injury.

While there was internal finger-pointing at player development again, the biggest failures came from the highest-paid players.

It’s no wonder ownership is looking to slash payroll. Arenado has about $75 million left on his contract. Sonny Gray has another $65 million coming, and Contreras will collect about $54 million more. Mikolas and Matz are due about $30 million between them next season.

To rebuild, the Cardinals must expand their young talent base and manage their assets better.

Remember when the front office felt it had a pitching prospect surplus? That led to the disastrous trade of Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen for two years of Marcell Ozuna.

The franchise that once had an outfield surplus ended up giving away Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson. Earlier, it unclogged its pipeline by moving Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, Lane Thomas, Stephen Piscotty and Harrison Bader, among others.

Owner Bill DeWitt Jr. and lame duck president of baseball operations John Mozleiak are bullish on the surviving group of young veterans and prospects. And yes, the group largely measures up to the prospects developed back in Jeff Luhnow’s player development heyday.

The Cardinals didn’t find another Albert Pujols or Yadier Molina back then, but they pushed a steady parade of players to the majors. Many of the younger players the Cardinals have today resemble what the team had back in 2011 and 2013.

Beyond Pujols and Molina in 2011, the homegrown Skip Schumaker, Jon Jay, Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso, Jaime Garcia, Kyle McClellan, Jason Motte, Mitchell Boggs, Fernando Salas and Eduardo Sanchez filled roles.

That team deployed Matt Holliday and David Freese in their primes. Veterans Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook anchored the rotation. Mozeliak swapped prized prospect Colby Rasmus to add pitchers Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski.

That was a well-crafted roster, the result of heady asset management. Those were the days!

The 2013 pennant-winning team featured Wainwright as the staff ace and Edward Mujica closing. Holliday was still productive, as was Carlos Beltran.

Beyond Molina, there were also Craig, Jay, Descalso, Garcia, Salas, Boggs, Matt Carpenter, Pete Kozma, Matt Adams, Tony Cruz, Kolten Wong, Lance Lynn, Shelby Miller, Joe Kelly, Trevor Rosenthal, Seth Maness, Kevin Siegrist, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez and Tyler Lyons.

That team got huge years from Craig and Carpenter, sturdy starting pitching from Lynn and Miller, and endless bullpen help from that surplus of young hurlers.

After the organization rebounded from the “Hackgate” fallout, the 2022 Cardinals won the National League Central with a team reminiscent of 2011. Goldschmidt and Arenado played at MVP levels. Pujols starred down the stretch, and Wainwright and Mikolas steadied the rotation.

As he did in 2011, Mozeliak bolstered his pitching staff ahead of the trade deadline, spending the homegrown Bader, Edmundo Sosa and Johan Oviedo for starting pitchers Jordan Montgomery and Jose Quintana plus relievers JoJo Romero and Chris Stratton.

That team also featured graduated prospects Carlson, Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, Paul DeJong, Andrew Knizner, Ryan Helsley, Andre Pallante, Jordan Hicks, Jake Woodford, Jack Flaherty and Zack Thompson.

There were a lot of similarities — except that the ’11 team won it all and the ’22 team lasted just two games in the playoffs.

Then Pujols retired; Molina struggled and retired; Wainwright struggled and retired; Goldschmidt, Arenado and Mikolas all regressed and lots of other stuff went wrong.

So here we are. The team moves forward with younger players Donovan, Nootbaar, Gorman, Pallante, Masyn Winn, Alec Burleson, Pedro Pages, Ivan Herrera, Jordan Walker, Victor Scott II, Michael Siani, Thomas Saggese, Kyle Leahy, Chris Roycroft, Michael McGreevy and (maybe) Helsley.

Pitching prospects Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence, Tekoah Roby and Sem Robberse offer promise, as do catchers Jimmy Crooks and Leonardo Bernal and infielder JJ Wetherholt. The looming organizational upgrades should bear additional fruit in a few years.

But the Cardinals won’t regain their standing until they spend smarter and trade better. Of all the changes to come, those must be the biggest.

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Before the Cardinals “turn the keys” of baseball operations over to a new leader they’ve already signed to a five-year contract, the organization is detouring down an unfamiliar avenue for this ownership group, one that means a reduced payroll, increased youth and selling fans on a new brand after a generation of measuring success in Octobers rather than the futures market.

“The message is: We’re going young,” chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said after a news conference Monday to announce changes in direction. “That’s the message.”

A day after a second consecutive season ended without a playoff berth, the Cardinals detailed what DeWitt introduced as a “major announcement” for the direction of the club. In John Mozeliak’s final year as president of baseball operations, the Cardinals will focus inward with investments in their player development infrastructure that could limit spending on the big league club to contend in 2025.

Former Boston and Tampa Bay executive Chaim Bloom will oversee this overhaul of the minor league programs and then, next fall, take over as president of baseball operations when Mozeliak’s contract expires.

Bloom’s five-year deal in that role begins next offseason through 2030.

DeWitt said the Cardinals are “entering a period of transition.”

Just as noteworthy was what the Cardinals did not say Monday.

They avoided that charged word that starts with “R” and signals a certain slip in the standings.

They repeatedly used the little cousin of “rebuild.”

“Yes, this is a reset,” Mozeliak said after the televised news conference. “Yes, this is going to be where we’re not focusing on necessarily building the best possible roster we can. We’re also excited about the roster. We do have a bunch of young players. We also have some emerging stars at the minor league level. How we could augment that over the next few months, time will tell.”

Mozeliak, in his third decade with the Cardinals, could actually see some of his day-to-day responsibilities increase in 2025. Michael Girsch, the team’s general manager since 2017, will remain a vice president but in charge of “special projects.” Mozeliak said he’ll take on more of the GM duties while that position remains open for Bloom to eventually hire. Mozeliak said he did not want to create any “roadblocks” during a yearlong transition of power.

Mozeliak said Bloom will have input on major-league decisions that involve the future of the organization and the roster he'll inherit.

After Monday’s news conference, the Cardinals confirmed the Post-Dispatch’s report that Oliver Marmol would return as manager for a fourth season. In the coming days, he and Mozeliak will discuss the major league staff. Some changes are expected, especially as a few contracts expire.

The Cardinals finished the season 83-71, 12 wins better than 2023 but out of the playoffs and thus just as close to winning a National League pennant. That could explain why the response was more dramatic this year than last, especially after spending more than $200 million on major league payroll for the first time in club history. The spending tradeoffs the Cardinals made that did not result in big-league success had cost them in player development — a slow erosion over the past decade that has become a glaring gulch between them and advanced clubs.

“I’d like to set us on a course to get back to consistent winning,” said Mozeliak, whose rosters have won one playoff series since 2014. “Focus on the buildup of our baseball operations, invest in new infrastructure and technologies. See the groundbreaking (of improved facilities) in Jupiter, Florida. You may ask yourself two simple questions: What is this? And what is it not? What it is a multi-year strategy, a focus on player procurement and development. It’s a long-term investment in the organization’s future.

“What is it not?” Mozeliak continued. “It’s not a Band-Aid solution. And this is not an excuse. Focus on the word ‘change.’ Change. We need to make change to realize our ultimate goal.”

What that means for players who came to the Cardinals believing contending for a championship was their current goal is to be determined in the coming weeks.

Two former All-Stars, Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray, have no-trade clauses, but they also sought a move to the Cardinals because of their promise to be perennial contenders. Gray’s salary rockets to $30 million in 2025. Arenado escaped Colorado and agreed to a complex trade to the Cardinals when the Rockies' spending shriveled and a playoff-worthy roster came apart. Mozeliak said conversations with them are ahead and decisions must be “a two-way street.”

The Post-Dispatch asked DeWitt what the shift says to those franchise players.

“Obviously, they’re veterans and they will be great assets for us on the team,” he said.

The Cardinals can shed a chunk of salary swiftly in the coming weeks. They have $12 million options on pitchers Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn and a $6 million option on Keynan Middleton. It will cost $3 million to buy those out.

Andrew Kittredge and Paul Goldschmidt are free agents, and if the Cardinals want to hasten their “reset,” they could field prospect-rich offers on closer Ryan Helsley before his arbitration jackpot.

The Cardinals do not expect to chase free agents this winter who will cost them a draft pick, preferring instead to accumulate picks and young talent. As they did for Masyn Winn at shortstop, they want to clear routes for prospects Michael McGreevy, Thomas Saggese and Quinn Mathews to contribute in 2025. That too would create a cheaper, cost-controlled roster.

As part of the news conference, club President Bill DeWitt III outlined the uncertainties the club is facing for revenue. Top among them is the cratering cable model, which remains in bankruptcy court. The Cardinals do not yet know if they’ll receive their full rights fee from their broadcast partner’s parent company, Diamond Sports, for 2025. Club president DeWitt said the team hopes a direct-to-consumer model where fans can buy a subscription to games and stream them through an app is on the horizon.

Another factor was the message sent by fans this past season with fewer than 3 million tickets sold for the first time in Busch Stadium III history. Historically, Cardinals have tied their payroll spending to ticket revenue, and fan support has allowed them to punch above their market size.

And then there is the planned diversion of spending from the major league product to the minor league system. Bloom said ownership “gave the green light to make real investments,” some of which has already started.

Mozeliak estimated an 8%-12% increase in spending on player development to expand the staff and outfit the organization with modern technology.

“There are some fundamental things we want to do differently in the organization, and then as we have continued success at the minor league level, at the player-procurement level, then we can time it right and try to reinvest at the major-league level,” Mozeliak said. “You can’t put a dollar amount on it yet because I don’t know exactly what our revenues are going to look like. Ownership is committed to letting us take the first step to make that investment in the player development.”

The regression in player development was not overnight.

Mozeliak expressed concerns in 2017 and then encountered a variety of obstacles, from construction delays to coaches who ignored purchased tech, through the years. Staff cutbacks that left vital positions vacant put the Cardinals further behind their rivals. Before this past year, they were slow to respond to rapid advancements in pitching development.

“In the past few years — not a ton of years — teams have beefed-up and gotten more analytical,” chairman DeWitt said. “I think we were at the forefront a number of years ago and stayed there, went along, and kept improving. The industry saw the value of going all-in on player procurement and player development and we were doing fine. We were winning and having a good team. We didn’t quite catch up.”

Enter Bloom.

Hired a year ago as an adviser, Bloom spent the past season observing and auditing the Cardinals, mostly at the player-development level. He visited every affiliate and spent some time at the Cardinals’ academy in the Dominican Republic. At the end of his survey, he had suggested changes — and ownership empowered him to make them. He will also play a leading role in ownership’s hiring of a new assistant general manager-level farm director and other leadership positions for farm system.

Bloom joined Mozeliak and the DeWitts on the podium for the presser and delivered his first public comments on the Cardinals since joining the Cardinals.

“Our staff has the hunger to learn, to grow, to get better, to change,” Bloom said of meeting Cardinals minor-league coaches and officials. “That’s a good thing because that’s what we need. That’s what this game demands. The competition is this area of our industry has been absolutely relentless over the past decade. It takes boldness and humility to get on top and stay there. If you stand still and rest on your laurels even for a moment, you get beat.”

That could be why the Cardinals avoided using “rebuild.”

Bloom is not tasked with a rebuild.

His job is to build a renewed, better and modern foundation for player development upon which will grow the Cardinals’ major league team he will run.

“Find out how we get back out in front (because) that is part of the tradition of this organization — is innovation,” Bloom said. “Catching up is important. We want to be able to set the tone. We’re not just going to be looking at copying everybody else. We want to find our own way.”

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