Jul 27, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom talks with the media before a game against the Cleveland Guardians at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

Chaim Bloom Reflects On Infamous Trade With Heartwarming Anecdote

Originally posted on St. Louis Cardinals on SI
By Curt Bishop | Last updated Dec 15, 2025 2:00 PM ET

As the St. Louis Cardinals continue their offseason and try to rebuild for the future, Chaim Bloom has a clear plan in place that fans have been able to get behind thus far.

Fans were frustrated with John Mozeliak for years, seeing that the Cardinals had fallen behind the times in a lot of areas. Bloom is trying to get the Cardinals back up to speed as the game evolves.

Bloom isn’t without a few mistakes, which includes the Mookie Betts trade in 2020 while he was still with the Boston Red Sox. In an interview with Foul Territory, the new Cardinals executive shared a funny story about the criticism he gets for it, which even comes from his own family at times.

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Chaim Bloom Shares Funny Story About Mookie Betts Trade

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“My boys love baseball. Now they’re old enough, they really follow this very closely. They’re way worse than anybody in the media in terms of how hard they are on me,” Bloom joked.

“They were young enough when that happened that they weren’t really aware of it, and now my oldest, who just realized last year that I traded Mookie Betts, he’s like ‘Dad, what are you doing?’”

Bloom joked that he tells his sons that it’s a long story about what happened, and to be fair, he can’t be fully blamed for what happened.

Fortunately though, the new Cardinals president of baseball operations isn’t letting it haunt him at all and is able to make fun of himself about it and the fact that his sons give him a lot of criticism for making the deal.

Bloom has already been busy this offseason for the Cardinals. He traded Sonny Gray to the Red Sox and also signed right-hander Dustin May to a one-year contract.

While Red Sox fans were understandably confused by the Betts deal, as well as his own children, Cardinals fans have been willing to look past the mistakes of that move, and so far, they seem to be impressed with what he has been able to do in just a few months at the helm.

We’ll see what Bloom has planned for the Cardinals for the rest of the offseason. But while Cardinals fans are giving him grace, he cannot escape the criticism over the Betts trade, even in his own home.

This article first appeared on St. Louis Cardinals on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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