Redbird Droppings: 2024 Payroll, Chaim Bloom, Trevor Bauer

This time on Redbird Droppings, a look at the freeze on payroll, why Chaim Bloom gets an unfair reputation from Boston, and why Trevor Bauer won’t be a Cardinal.

It’s been slow recently for the Cardinals, and now we know know. But they’ve added to the front office and that’s going to be good for the team. And Trevor Bauer is trying to latch on with a Major League team, but it probably won’t be the Cardinals. Also, a few quick hits from around the web.

Payroll Constraints

John Denton recently interviewed Cardinals’ President Bill DeWitt III and DeWitt made a few comments that got Cardinals’ fans attention; due to “financial uncertainties”, the team is probably done adding to the roster for this upcoming season.

Fans have been hoping for news on Blake Snell or a reunion with Jordan Montgomery; everyone can agree that adding a Josh Hader or bringing back Jordan Hicks will shore up a shaky bullpen. At this point, none of those will happen.

The team has already added Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, and Kyle Gibson to the rotation and added relivers from the Rays (Andrew Kittredge in trade), Mariners (Riley O’Brien on waivers), and Red Sox (Ryan Fernandez as a Rule V pick up and Nick Robertson and Victor Santos in trade). It’s an improvement, but they need more to truly compete for a World Series. Denton believes that if the team could make a trades with equal salary going each way, they could get something done.

The biggest issues here is the TV Deal; while Bally’s is expected to continue broadcasting Cardinals games through the end of the season, the rest of the $1B contract signed through 2032 is unknown. When the deal started in 2018, the Cardinals made $50M from the deal, with it escalating each year after; it was rumored that the Cardinals would make $86M from the contract in the final year. Bally Sports Midwest has seen profits shrink from $2.5M in 2022 to a $13.8M loss in 2023.

One potential suitor has emerged – Amazon Prime could partner with Diamond Sports (owner of Ballys Sports Networks) to air both Cardinals and Blues game in their respective next seasons. It unknown how this would impact the Cardinals revenue, but the team is playing it safe right now by limiting what they are spending.

Another reason for the limited addition to payroll was attendance in 2023; the Cardinals had 3.24M people attend games last year, the second lowest full season total since 2006 (2011 saw 3.09M attend games). Excluding the 2020 Covid season, the Cardinals have seen continual decrease in attendance since 2019. Fans are clearly disillusioned with the product right now.

Could the Cardinals still spend? Probably, but this is also a business for the DeWitts and they want to make money. If they lose TV revenue and attendance is down (although still one of the better in the MLB), payroll is probably one of the first things to take a hit. They aren’t dumb though, and they know after last season, it can’t go down.

Chaim Bloom Joins the Cardinals Front Office

The Cardinals announced on Monday that they’ve brought in Chaim Bloom as an advisor to President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak. I’ve seen a lot of questions as to why the Cardinals hired Bloom and I’ll address the main ones.

He wasn’t good with the Red Sox. How could he have built a good team when his directive was to cut payroll? The Red Sox painted him as timid and cheap and allowed him to take the blunt of trading Mookie Betts to the Dodgers (while they didn’t mandate it, they weren’t happy when he was set to make $27M). Bloom took over as GM after the 2019 season, when the team started the season with a $236M opening day payroll; he was fired after 2023, when their opening day payroll was $181M.

When he joined the Red Sox, they had the worst rated farm system according to Baseball America; it was ranked 5th best when he was fired. Bloom knows how to evaluate talent, which is something the Cardinals have struggled with. They have strong drafts, but they haven’t drafted many elite players. They also have the tendency to over-value players in their system (reluctant to trade players, as we saw at the 2022 trade deadline when they wouldn’t deal Dylan Carlson in a dead for Juan Soto).

Why is he working remote? Baseball has started to lean more into video and less into in-person, as have many industries across the world. Many teams have cut back on scouting because of video and analytics. Being in an advisory role, he’s probably not needed at the stadium everyday; in fact, it’s probably cheaper for the team to allow him to stay in Boston and hit him up as needed. He’ll have access to the same data, and someone in his role doesn’t need to meet with players. He’ll also travel as need to visit the minor league teams, if the team needs him to do so.

Couldn’t they have used that money for more pitching? Front office employees make peanuts next to what they players get. Even if Bloom is making $5M, that not enough to get a pitcher that would make a difference on this team. Plus, teams have different payroll budgets for the players and front office; signing Bloom to be an advisor doesn’t take money away from what they team would use to pay players.

Adding Bloom to the front office mix is a good thing. He’s been successful in multiple roles with the budget conscious Rays; he’s been in player development (both stateside and internationally), minor league operations, contract negotiations, and more; he also broke into baseball by writing for Baseball Prospectus. He’s very analytical and that’s something the Cardinals have lacked in the last few years.

Bauer Isn’t Joining the Cardinals

Trevor Bauer won’t be joining the a major league team this year, let alone the Cardinals. I know Cardinal fans want Bauer; he’ll be pretty cheap as he tries to re-establish himself in Majors. The problem is there are multiple strikes against him playing in 2023.

First off, he’s not clear of all legal trouble yet. He came to a mutual agreement to drop both sides of a lawsuit in regards defamation back in October, but it’s believed that Bauer still has as many as 3 other suits still in motion in regards to sexual assault. Those legal issues are too much of a distraction for a team, especially one coming off a season like the Cardinals just finished.

Secondly, he’s had plenty of issues with teammates. He’s been deemed a cancer in the media. Why would the Cardinals, who were rumors to have clubhouse issues last season, want to add someone like this when they’ve attempted to fix the issues with Gibson and Gray (both known to be great clubhouse presences)? He’s been cast in the Tommy Pham mold; someone who speaks his mind, even to the determent of their team. The Cardinals traded Pham because of these issues, so I don’t see them bringing in a similar player.

Finally, he’ll be a PR nightmare. Every game, every road trip, there will be questions about why they’d sign someone like Bauer; he’s tainted and until the legal problems are over, he’s a distraction. Teammates will get tired of the questions. Oli will get tired of the questions. And more importantly, Bauer will get tired of the questions and he’s been a guy that has been combatant with the media in the past (he’s also been combatant with fans and critics on the internet).

Bauer could add a lot to a team; he’s forward thinking on training methods that could help the team, he’s a former-Cy Young Award winner, and he’s better than most of the pitchers the Cardinals have. Unfortunately, the negatives still outweigh the positives at this point.

Quick Hits

• Andrew Wang of Redbird Rants notes the Cardinals have had 13 different bWAR leaders in the last 13 years.
• Yardbarker believes the Cardinals should look at Adam Ottavino.
• Argo The Rapper? Victor Scott II knows of him.
• The Cardinal Nation names Masyn Winn as the #1 prospect in the organization.
• Redbird Rants points out that Richie Palacios isn’t going to be the next Randy Arozarena.