The St. Louis Cardinals have announced the hiring of a Jewish executive as their new President of Baseball Operations.

Chaim Bloom, 41, who signed a five-year deal with the Cardinals on Monday, will succeed current president John Mozeliak after the 2025 season. Mozeliak, who has held the position since October 2007, will be working closely with Bloom to run the club during his final year on the job.

Prior to joining the Cardinals, Bloom served as the Red Sox’s chief baseball officer from 2019 until 2023. Before his stint in Boston, he spent 15 years with the Rays organization, starting as an intern in 2005 and eventually becoming the team’s senior vice president of baseball operations.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on drafting and developing our own players,” team owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said during Monday’s introductory press conference. “It’s clear we need to make significant changes to get back to this model. Our baseball decisions going forward will focus on developing our pipeline of players, giving our young core every opportunity to succeed at the major league level.”

Bloom, who will focus on player development as an adviser to the Cardinals during his transition period, acknowledged the importance of maintaining a strong pipeline of players within the organization.

“More than anything, the remarkable success this organization enjoyed for much of the past two-plus decades was fueled by its homegrown talent pipeline,” Bloom said. “This year, I saw some of the reasons why. I saw the pride in what’s been accomplished here over the years, the passion for teaching the game, the care for the organization, for what it stands for, and especially for our players, and I also saw in many of our staff a hunger to learn, to grow, to get better, to change.”

“The competition in this area of our industry has been absolutely relentless over the past decade,” he added. “It takes boldness and humility to get on top and to stay there. And if you stand still and you rest on your laurels for even a moment, you get beaten.”

The Cardinals have had only one losing season since Mozeliak took over as general manager in 2007. Last year they finished the season with an 83-79 record but failed to reach the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

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