Cardinals’ succession chain taking shape as Mozaliak hints at retirement

On a sweltering patio in Juptier, Florida in February 2023, John Mozeliak expressed his desire to step back from his day-to-day responsibilities as St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations by the conclusion of his contract following the 2025 season.

On Saturday, in the midst of a new year’s most blustery day, he affirmed that intent while also conceding the obvious questions that accompany the organization’s two highest profile offseason additions to his staff.

His wishes, unlike the weather, are not running hot and cold.

“I would imagine that’s going to stay pretty true,” Mozeliak said when asked if that was still his intended path forward. “I don’t want to sit up here on January 13 and retire, but I think having a succession plan and uncoupling some of the things I’ve been involved in at such a high level…it’s probably reasonable to think that having a different voice at some point would make a lot of sense.”

The most obvious different voice which most recently joined the room is that of Chaim Bloom, previously the head of baseball operations with both the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox. The Cardinals officially announced Bloom as a part-time advisor last week, but his impact has been seen throughout the winter.

Mozeliak said Saturday that he “bounced these acquisitions off” Bloom over the past several months. Each of the four relievers added to the 40-man roster from outside the organization – righties Ryan Fernandez, Andrew Kittredge, Riley O’Brien and Nick Robertson – were either acquired or overseen by Bloom at previous stops in his career.

“Some of them he remembered better than others,” Mozeliak said, “but certainly if you have a resource, you should tap into it, and that’s what we did.”

Bloom has been discussed as a factor in those succession discussions with chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr., Mozeliak acknowledged, while taking pains to stress that, “we have a lot of capable people in our front office.”

“Obviously [general manager] Mike Girsch is someone that’s well thought of in the industry,” Mozeliak added. “Randy Flores [assistant general manager and scouting director] is a riser.

“I feel pretty good about where the organization is, but there’s also some things that are going to change over time, and I just want to make sure we’re positioned in that way.”

The other outside addition, though barely outside, is that of Yadier Molina, whose title officially lists him as a special assistant to Mozeliak. Ahead of spring training, the plan for Molina is to spend time with the front office group learning more about player procurement and evaluation. Once spring training starts, however, the expectation is that he’ll be intimately involved with the coaching staff.

That, Mozeliak said, is where Molina currently feels most comfortable. And it’s also where attention will be unavoidably drawn in the aftermath of a 91-loss season and with a manager in Oliver Marmol who is entering the last season of his contract without an obvious extension in sight.

Asked about the potential for tension there, especially given Molina’s expressed desire to manage in the Major Leagues, Mozeliak had the opportunity to diffuse, to punt. He instead decided to stoke, even as he said he, in the present tense, wasn’t precisely concerned.

“It could become real,” he said. “We’ll find out, but I don’t think it would make sense to approach it that way. Clearly I’m a big advocate for Oli. I believe in him, but we also recognize last year was not good, and so we have to make some adjustments. We have to do some things differently, and hopefully we do it in a successful manner.”

Very few people working in baseball have the opportunity to script their own exit the way Mozeliak does. That was earned over decades of success both competitively and on the business front, and it was developed through building a strong relationship with ownership. In his meeting on stage with fans on Saturday, Mozeliak cracked that plenty of people could do his job, but they would first have to get the job.

The process of getting the job is complex, and like anything else, relies on connections and relationships. The Cardinals have not hired a baseball operations head or field manager without existing ties to the organization since bringing in Tony La Russa from Oakland in 1995.

Bloom and Molina are now in the fold, and as much as Molina has shaped the organization’s past, the two of them together will seemingly play an enormous role in shaping its future. That has the potential for awkwardness, and for the conflict-averse Cardinals, represents a significant change in their operational strategy.

There is, if nothing else, an acknowledgement of the obvious – when things get as bad as they were last year, something has to change.

“There’s probably a little bit of arrogance when you do something as long as I’ve done it, and approaching it in that way is not helpful,” Mozeliak said. “You have to have a little sense of humility on what can happen and realizing that it’s hard to keep everyone happy, but still trying to be true to how we make decisions and why we make decisions.”

Who is making the decisions will, within the last two years, change.