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)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The sound of construction roared over the most memed metro station in Mexico City as workers hammered at marble floors under a chandelier and rows of lamps reminiscent of a scene from “Harry Potter” or “Titanic,” racing to finish ahead of the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony Thursday.
Mexicans milling through the busy Hidalgo metro station pointed and laughed, occasionally snapping pictures of the face-lift that has become the subject of a cascade of internet memes.
The cosmetic makeover that authorities have attempted to give the capital as visitors arrive from around the globe also has become a symbol of criticisms that the government is prioritizing its superficial appearance for World Cup fans over fixing critical structural issues that have long plagued the city.
“People make fun of it because it's a failed aesthetic, it doesn't make a lot of sense,” said Silvia Escamilla, 28, who was hustling to work among a crowd of Mexican commuters. “All these renovations are like putting makeup on the city, because the infrastructure they could actually invest in just isn’t there.”
For weeks, Mexico City workers have plastered walls and metro cars with cartoon axolotls, the mole salamander that has become a city mascot. They also have painted bridges purple and planted Mexican marigold flowers typical of Day of the Dead celebrations in November.
The 22 million residents of the sprawling capital, known as Chilangos, have jokingly referred to the renovations as the city's “axolotlization.” They have posted videos of flooded underpasses next to freshly painted murals of axolotls and crumbling stairs and potholes painted bright purple.
Hidalgo station, in the heart of the downtown, has perhaps become the subject of more memes than anywhere else in the city.
When city workers installed the chandelier near the metro entrance and rows of Victorian wall lamps in May, social media users were quick to joke that authorities were trying to make the gritty metro system look like it was in a European city.
Residents began to show up at the station in elegant dresses in videos layered over Mozart music. One social media influencer descended the marble stairs dressed as the Beast from the classic Disney cartoon “Beauty and the Beast.” Another arrived as Napoleon Bonaparte in a white wig and French military uniform.
“May you have an elegant metro connection,” one social media influencer said as he strolled through throngs of commuters dressed in a tuxedo and top hat. Another filmed herself selling pink dresses aboard one of the metro trains, yelling to passengers that the items matched the “etiquette” of Metro Hidalgo.
Many more posed next to marble floors and walls torn up by construction ahead of the soccer tournament being hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.
The crush of jokes amused Mexicans for weeks, but also cut to the core of a deeper problem in the city, said Aldo Solano Rojas, an art historian in Mexico City who has criticized the remodel.
Failures to prioritize issues like the metro's crumbling infrastructure and holes in the major municipal roadways show the government “doesn't understand the real needs of the city,” he said.
“State presence, at its best, is reflected in well-maintained sidewalks and adequate transportation infrastructure that doesn't collapse every day,” Solano Rojas said. “It's not reflected in frivolous, superficial axolotl murals while the streets are flooding.”
The criticisms come in the midst of wider social unrest in Mexico City as the country's teachers union, families of Mexico's 130,000 missing people and a range of other social movements use the proximity to the event to pressure authorities.
The government also has faced accusations of displacing sex workers and street vendors in an effort to clean up the streets. Despite the tensions, city workers on Wednesday were still racing to complete construction ahead of the opening ceremony and first match.
Mirna Baranco looked fondly on the renovations, but the 46-year-old laughed at the chandelier over Hidalgo construction workers. She nudged her boyfriend and pointed.
“I've already seen it all over the place on Facebook, but not in real life,” she said.
Baranco understood the criticisms, but said she didn't think it was necessarily a bad thing that authorities were making changes to be more attractive to international visitors. The World Cup has helped push local governments to make needed renovations, even if some look a little out of place, she said.
The changes show that “Mexico isn't just how others stereotype us, as a country with narcos,” Baranco said. “Mexico has a lot to give the world.”
A woman puts on makeup at the subway in Mexico City, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
A dancer holds a replica of the World Cup trophy as soccer fans stand along Reforma Avenue in Mexico City, Saturday, June 6, 2026 ahead of the FIFA World Cup. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
People walk through a subway station that has new lighting, part of preparations for hosting the World Cup soccer tournament in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
People walk through a subway station that has new lighting, part of preparations for hosting the World Cup soccer tournament in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
