ST. LOUIS—One day after the St. Louis Cardinals finished the 2024 regular season without qualifying for the postseason, the team announced a series of changes Monday aimed at bolstering its player development system, while laying out a succession plan in the front office.

John Mozeliak, who has previously said 2025 would be his last season in his role as President of Baseball Operations, will remain in the job next season, to be succeeded by Chaim Bloom, the former Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox executive.

Bloom has spent the season as a Mozeliak adviser doing an internal audit of the organization. He’ll have a five-year contract starting next year. He will focus on the player development system over the next year, as the team also looks for a replacement for longtime farm director Gary LaRocque, who retired at the end of this season after ten years on the job.

"When we talk about the changes that we’re hoping to see or the investments we’re hoping to make, it’s not a reflection of that we weren’t doing it right, it’s just the market’s changing, and how players prepare and play for games that’s moving and we don’t want to just be reactionary to it," Mozeliak said. Construction on a new spring training complex in Jupiter starts in April, and the new approach launched publicly Monday will mean more money for technology and staffing.

"There is no area of the game that just stands still and so if you want to get out front, you should be looking at everything, not from the point of view of placing blame or pointing fingers but just saying how can we do this the best, how can we win at this, how can we win at this how can we be better than the competition," Bloom said.

The team also announced GM Michael Gersch will move into a new role as Vice-President, Special Projects.

As the Cardinals followed up last season’s last place-finish with an improved record but one that still fell short of playoff contention, critics and an impassioned fanbase have questioned if Mozeliak should step aside now, potentially allowing Bloom or someone else, to take over the role now. While defending the team's overall run of success that has characterized the past 25 years, team owner Bill DeWitt, Jr. said the moves reflected a need to make "significant changes" to move back to sustained success.

The investment in player development will mean a lower big league payroll in 2025.

"Part of that’s the function of the fact that we are committing to the young core, and when you do that, they’re on more cost controlled early-stage salaries so I would say that’s largely a function of where we are in the strategy of this to the extent payroll comes down and we enter into a window in the near future of let’s say more competitive and fully-formed roster development with good young players, it’ll come right back up," said team president Bill DeWitt III.

Bloom’s tenure in Boston was marked by a trade of a cornerstone player--Mookie Betts-- before Bloom was dismissed in 2023. Mozeliak was not specific when asked Monday if the reason for the transition is that it would allow Bloom to start with a clean slate in 2026, leaving tough decisions about the current major league roster to Mozeliak.

The club faces decisions in the coming weeks on 2025 player contract options for pitchers Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, among others, but also has a handful of players with long-term contracts who retain no-trade clauses, including pitcher Sonny Gray, catcher Willson Contreras and third baseman Nolan Arenado. 

Mozeliak and team President Bill DeWitt III declined to say if the team would seek to get rid of larger contracts still on the books, with Mozeliak saying that as of right now that would not be the case, but that a payroll figure for 2025 had not been set.

"I’m not anticipating any big contracts going, yet," Mozeliak said, noting that discussions about player movement picks up after the postseason. "There are some players that I still think have some value here from a leadership standpoint and also from a competitive standpoint."

The Cardinals, like many other franchises, are dealing with the fact that revenue generated through media rights is going down as the industry deals with the impact of cord-cutting. But the club is also faces the fact that for the first time in decades, it didn't draw 3 million fans to Busch Stadium for the first time in years. Team executives said the end result on the field was below expectations the past two seasons but insist the young core of players is still a draw.

"I think it’s an exciting team to watch and to follow and to see the other young players that are going to be coming up  so if I were a fan I would be kind of excited for the future. I see what we have, I see what’s coming. Change can be good," Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr. said. 

Mozeliak would not characterize his competitive expectations for the 2025 season, given that he doesn't know the roster makeup. DeWitt, Jr. said the moves underway now are about a consistent future.

"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 number one priority will be to lay the foundation for a sustained period of competitive excellence in the years ahead."