ST. LOUIS (AP) — Chaim Bloom says the St. Louis Cardinals will be sticking to their roots to get back to October baseball.
Bloom, who has been in line since last year to become the organization's president of baseball operations, spoke to the media Tuesday as he takes over a team that finished the season 78-84, fourth in the NL Central and missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season.
“The Cardinals win first and foremost with players we develop,” Bloom said. “That operating model that has sustained this organization for decades is still sound. But for it to develop the results that we need, we have to be elite at acquiring and developing baseball talent in every aspect.”
Bloom served as an advisor to the organization this season. He is taking over for John Mozeliak, who said last year he had advocated for brining Bloom in to get a fresh look at where the Cardinals were at as a team.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Bloom said Tuesday. “We’re not where we need to be. We’re not where our fans expect us to be. We are not where we expect ourselves to be.”
St. Louis has won 11 World Series. Only the New York Yankees have won more. Their most recent title came in 2011 in Tony La Russa’s last season managing the club.
“Our goal is to field a team every year and compete for this division and a World Series championship,” Bloom said. “In this competitive business, the front of the line is always moving. We’re not going to concede anything. We need to be focused on our ultimate goal.”
Bloom, a 2004 graduate at Yale, spent 15 years (2005-19) with the Tampa Bay Rays, including the final three as senior vice president of baseball operations. He was chief baseball officer for the Boston Red Sox from Oct. 28, 2019, through Sept. 14, 2023, when he was fired. The Red Sox advanced to the American League Championship Series in 2021.
Bloom said he will retain manager Oli Marmol.
“As far as our field staff, there are still some things that we need to sort out,” Bloom said. “I expect a lot of continuity. It’s a good group of people that really cares.”
Bloom could explore trades for Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contreras. Those three veterans all have no-trade deals.
Arenado, 34, has two years remaining on his contract and is owed $42 million. Gray, 35, has one year left on his deal. He is owed $35 million in 2026. And Contreras, 33, has two years left on his contract. He is owed $36.5 million and a $5 million buyout for the 2028 season.
“I don’t like to draw a line and say these guys are in and these guys are out,” Bloom said. “The game is too hard for that.”
In the past three years, the Cardinals' farm system has failed to produce impact players. Fans have shown their displeasure with that.
The team's attendance has dropped from 3.32 million in 2022 to 2.25 million this year.
“I understand their frustration,” CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. said. “They love their Cardinals. They love their Cardinals winning. We’re going to make every effort to get back to that.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILe - Then-Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox Chaim Bloom talks with a reporter before the baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees Friday, June 16, 2023, at Fenway Park in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)
LONDON (AP) — A proposed bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives failed Friday as parliamentary time ran out following an effective filibuster by unelected lawmakers in the revising chamber that blocked the will of elected members.
Though the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was passed by the House of Commons last June, the House of Lords talked it out since then, stoking widespread criticism that it had overstepped the mark.
Proponents of what has been termed “ assisted dying ” — sometimes referred to as “assisted suicide” — hoped it would mark the biggest change to social policy in the U.K. since abortion was partially legalized in 1967. The intention was to put an end to the practice of those near the end of their lives from going to other countries, such as Switzerland, for an assisted death.
The bill had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.
But opponents in the House of Lords managed to hold up its passing by filing more than 1,200 amendments on a range of concerns, including the potential coercion of vulnerable people and a lack of safeguards for those with disabilities.
”The House of Lords scrutiny exposed this bill as ‘skeleton legislation’ riddled with gaping holes,” said Gordon Macdonald from the Care Not Killing campaign group which is opposed to a change in the law. “It is now clear that this bill was both unsafe and unworkable.”
The number of amendments is believed to be a record high for a piece of legislation that was brought forward by a backbencher rather than by the government. These so-called private members' bills can only be debated on a Friday as the government largely controls the rest of the parliamentary timetable, thereby limiting the time available.
Campaigners for assisted dying expressed their anger at the sight of unelected lawmakers holding up the will of the elected chamber. They have insisted that they intend to bring the bill back in the next parliamentary session, which begins after King Charles III outlines the government's upcoming program in a speech to both houses of Parliament on May 13.
The sponsor of the bill in the House of Lords, Charlie Falconer, said he felt “despondent” that a piece of legislation “so important to so many, has not failed on its merits, but failed as a result of procedural wrangling."
“Much more than letting ourselves down are the very many people who support the bill and who feel we have not treated them properly,” he said.
Lawmaker Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Bill to the House of Commons in late 2024, said she was “trying to stay positive” while admitting “a real sense of sadness and sorrow today.”
She said there “will absolutely be appetite" within the Commons to bring the legislation back in the next session of parliament.
Last month, lawmakers in the Scottish Parliament rejected their own assisted dying legislation. Scotland has a semiautonomous government that has authority over many areas of policy, including health.
Assisted suicide — where patients take a lethal drink prescribed by a doctor — is legal in countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and parts of the U.S., with regulations on qualifying criteria varying by jurisdiction.
Campaigners hold a banner outside parliament in London as a proposed law to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will run out of time on Friday, more than a year after MPs first voted in favour of it, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A campaigner holds a banner outside parliament in London as a proposed law to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will run out of time on Friday, more than a year after MPs first voted in favour of it, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Campaigner Louise Shackleton holds a banner outside parliament in London as a proposed law to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will run out of time on Friday, more than a year after MPs first voted in favour of it, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A campaigner holds a banner outside parliament in London as a proposed law to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will run out of time on Friday, more than a year after MPs first voted in favour of it, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Campaigners hold a banner outside parliament in London as a proposed law to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will run out of time on Friday, more than a year after MPs first voted in favour of it, Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
