We're in the limbo period of the St. Louis Cardinals off-season. We know Chaim Bloom is the architect, and Cardinals Nation eagerly awaits his roster decisions as the new president of baseball operations puts his fingerprints on the next era of St. Louis baseball.
In October, though, the postseason unfolds—so the real movement waits.
But that doesn't mean we can't learn valuable information about the process Chaim Bloom plans to use to bring the Cardinals back to prominence.
Recent reporting by Katie Woo of The Athletic offered a window into one aspect of Bloom's approach to building up the infrastructure of the organization—and it's a strategy that might feel on the surface like a bit of a surprise considering trends across MLB in recent years.
In an era where teams are relying less and less on traditional scouting, Woo writes that Bloom plans to beef up the scouting department in St. Louis, with plans to hire a director-level position that oversees pro scouting as the Cardinals look to improve their evaluations of players in other organizations.
Whereas Randy Flores' focus as scouting director primarily covers the amateur ranks, as his group prepares for the MLB Draft each summer, there could be value in strengthening the Cardinals' approach to identifying targets in other organizations.
Think back to the trades in recent years where it felt like the Cardinals had their hand forced in the types of deals they had to make. When trading away expiring assets for whatever modicum of value could be recouped is viewed as the best-case scenario for your deadline dealings, perhaps there's value in reimagining the approach that landed you in those situations in the first place.
Rather than sitting back as though the trades are happening to the Cardinals, the new reality could feature the Cardinals with more agency over the types of trades in which they are involved. Adding to the emphasis of pro-level scouting could be a key facet for this concept.
Though Bloom, given his history in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, is certainly likely to lean on data, technology and analytically-inclined information for decision-making, the idea that Bloom's Cardinals will still value scouting should be refreshing to Cardinals fans that prefer an old-school approach to the game.
Because it seems that Bloom's desire to leverage technology won't preclude the Cardinals from a willingness to lean on the wisdom of its scouting department, too.
It's not difficult to imagine how equipping the organization's scouting department with additional resources and technology to more effectively perform their duties could actually give the Cardinals an edge over competitors that eschew the scouting side of things in favor of reliance only on the new-school approach.