Chaim Bloom spoke to reporters at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas on Tuesday about a team that finished 77-85, and the plan he described sounds a lot like a promise to keep doing the thing that produced 77-85.
That is my read, not his, and his words were more careful. “I think we need to do a lot more things that are consistent with what we started doing last year to keep going, to keep integrating other players, keep pushing to get the most out of things, keep looking to acquire more pieces for the core and then to put the right pieces around,” Bloom said. Read it twice and the verbs are all about the inside of the building: integrate, push, get the most out of.
JJ Wetherholt earned that vocabulary: he hit 17 home runs and put up 4.5 WAR in 139 games and finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting. Jordan Walker broke out. Alec Burleson, Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy kept developing. MLB.com says all of it has added optimism for 2027 and beyond, and nobody serious disagrees.
An Opening Day home run and walk-off hit in his first two career games 🤯
NL Rookie of the Year finalist JJ Wetherholt had a dream start to his 2026 season! pic.twitter.com/cn0DSy2pvb
— MLB (@MLB) November 10, 2026
But optimism is a feeling and 77-85 is a record. That same story says this roster flirted with an NL Wild Card spot, and flirting is the right word for a team that did not get there. A club that close does not close the gap by handing more at-bats to the players who already got them. Wetherholt, Walker and Burleson are going to play regardless. They are the baseline, and the improvement has to come from somewhere else.
To his credit, Bloom did not rule that out. He talked about making sure there are “lanes” for young players, and then he talked about “looking outside the organization from a trade standpoint” for players who could join the core “whether in a front-and-center role or a supporting role.” Fine. Right sentence, wrong proportions: the first half of his answer got the volume and the second half got the footnote.
Here is what the second half has to turn into: a real addition, someone who makes the 2027 floor higher than the 2026 ceiling. Not another lane. A body that takes a lineup spot or a rotation spot from a mediocre option and makes the whole thing more stable when the kids hit the rough patch every young hitter hits.
Reportedly the alternative is the one the front office has already run once.
The #STLCards plan to go slow this winter, per The Athletic
Instead of splurging, Chaim Bloom is expected to repeat last offseason’s approach: sign durable veterans to short-term deals and flip them at the deadline
That’s how Dustin May and JoJo Romero became outfield prospects… pic.twitter.com/9c0ieVDdqo
— STL Sports Central (@STLSprtsCntrl) November 11, 2026
Short-term veterans flipped at the deadline is a defensible way to build a farm system. As a way to build a contender it is lousy, because a rental you plan to sell in July is a player you have already decided not to count on in August.
Time is not the Cardinals’ friend, either. Milwaukee just won its first World Series, and the Cubs made the playoffs yet again. Both play in the NL Central, and neither cares how promising Wetherholt looked. With the Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring Dec. 1, MLB.com notes, there will be more free agent and trade activity this month than in most years. Ahead of that date, Bloom did not necessarily seem rushed. Nobody around him is going to wait on that calm.
Bloom told reporters his staff is working on three fronts: its own people, agents, and other teams. Somebody should tell the third front it is allowed to win a trade.
