In a recent sit-down interview with MLB.com at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, Chaim Bloom, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, answered questions on a wide range of topics, from the team’s outlook in 2026 to his relationship with manager Oliver Marmol.
MLB.com: Opening Day is two weeks away. What has impressed you the most about the Cardinals?
Chaim Bloom: There is so much good energy here. We want this young group to understand that this is theirs to run with, their standards to set and this is theirs to define as to what this is going to be in the coming days, weeks, months and years. … It has been a really fun camp to be around for all of us. That is important given where we are.
If I were to point to one thing -- and hopefully we can keep it this way until we get to the starting gate and beyond -- it’s how our arms have looked overall, particularly some of the guys who are new to the organization.
MLB.com: What is your biggest concern going into the season?
Bloom: Generally speaking, we have had such incredible energy here in camp. We have a younger group. This is a hard game. There are going to be ups and downs. It’s always easy to be optimistic this time of year, and you want to be. You know you will have to roll with some punches and you are going to get hit and hit hard at some points in the season. That is true no matter how good of a year you have. It’s just the nature of the baseball season.
A lot of how your season unfolds is determined by how you roll with [the punches], not who you are when things are great. But can you stick with the things you promised yourself you would do -- both as a group and for some of our young players -- when things get tough? That is going to be the biggest challenge for us with the ups and downs of the season. Who are we when we are not at our best? Can we bring that best version of ourselves to the park even when things are not going perfectly?
MLB.com: The organization recently signed Oliver Marmol to a contract extension. Please give me the moment that made you say, “This guy can lead this team for the next few years.”
Bloom: I don’t think there was one specific moment. I think it was just doing my homework on him, being around him and working with him increasingly over the last couple of years -- understanding who he is, how he leads and the type of partner that I think he can be. The thing that I point to is, Oli is not someone who is satisfied being whatever he is on that day. He is always looking to get better. He is willing to look into the mirror and challenge himself to grow and change. We all need to do that -- myself included. … He has a real desire to grow. That’s something that wants to make you bet on him.
MLB.com: It’s not a secret that you made the Cardinals younger by trading veterans for younger players. Of all the players you acquired this offseason, who do you think will make an impact this year?
Bloom: I never like to put limits on anybody because the players will tell you where they belong and how quickly they should move. … Acquiring two young starting pitching candidates in the two trades with the Red Sox in Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins have the ability to impact us. When that happens, what it looks like, obviously, that’s all still TBD. What we wanted to accomplish with those deals is give us some real pitching depth. We have options. We have competition.
MLB.com: JJ Wetherholt is having a really good camp. What has impressed you the most about him?
Bloom: Obviously, there are a lot of impressive things about JJ. I think, to me, something that has stood out is how he handles himself. As he has gone through different levels, JJ has a calmness and a presence about him that has shown in different ways. This is a different camp for him than last year. He has displayed his personality a little bit more, whereas last year he was here mostly to make a cameo. Now, he has a chance to make our club. But that presence and that quiet sense of purpose, there is a maturity to how he goes about his work. There is a purpose with which he tries to put himself in position to succeed, to get himself better, to try to be a consistent version of himself. His work really stands out.
MLB.com: I want to mention some other players. How concerned are you about Jordan Walker? He has not been productive the past two years.
Bloom: We all know that ultimately this is a results business, but we get to the results by having a great process. Jordan’s process this offseason is as good as I’ve seen since I’ve been in this organization. From everything I’ve picked up talking to different people who have been around him, this is probably the most committed he has been to a process that has a chance to succeed in the big league level. That to me, first and foremost, is what I want to see.
When you look at somebody like this, especially at his age, I have a lot of optimism that, at some point, he is going to be the player that everybody envisioned a few years ago. Obviously we want that to happen in our uniform. We want it to happen sooner rather than later. Of course, given that it hasn’t happened the last couple of years, there is some level of concern. The thing I find encouraging is how committed he has been to a process that can lead him to success in the big leagues.
MLB.com: What has he done differently?
Bloom: I probably boil it down to two things. One, there is more maturity to how he has communicated and how he has thought through things. He had a great offseason. He was working with some third parties, but he stayed in contact with our staff. We all felt engaged in the same plan.
Physically, he has tremendous natural gifts. Getting him to move in the box in a way that better allows those gifts to be realized, that allows him to make the type of contact that he wants to make, that allows him to make swing decisions he wants to make. That’s not going to come overnight. Again, there are going to be some ups and downs, [but] you are more willing to ride those ups and downs when you see the commitment to something that could lead to good things.
MLB.com: Nolan Gorman. He had defensive and offensive problems last year. How concerned are you about him?
Bloom: His situation is a little different. You don’t have to imagine what it would look like for Nolan Gorman to be a very good Major League player. We’ve seen it, and we really saw it almost all season long in 2023. I think the question is, how do we work with him to get to where he can do it consistently?
We know the power plays to all fields. The question is -- is his approach going to allow him to get to that power? Is he going to control the strike zone in such a way that he can access that power? Are we going to be able to get him to move on the field to where he can play a quality Major League third base? He has done all of these things in the past. So the question is getting him to where that shows up on a consistent basis. There have been encouraging signs in camp. Obviously we’ll see how it plays out.
MLB.com: You were raised by the Rays family. What do you take from that organization to the Cardinals?
Bloom: I feel so fortunate to have grown up in the organization that I did -- just an incredible group of people, an incredible culture. The biggest thing I take is people and culture are the root of lasting success. I believe that very strongly. I believe that a lot of the good things that I was able to be a part of and the things they have accomplished since I left the Rays have been a result of good people in culture.
Everybody talks about the information advantage. Yeah, we tried to cultivate that, too. But at the end of the day, what it comes down to is having great people working together well. If you have that and everybody from top to bottom is on the same page, moving towards a common goal, you can achieve more than what people think you can achieve. I think that holds true probably in any business, certainly in any organization in baseball.