The St. Louis Cardinals’ Architects of the Future

As we wait for the first domino to fall in the annual offseason frenzy of trades and free-agent signings, we look at four men not named DeWitt who control the future of the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

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St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak doesn’t operate in a vacuum. His abilities are directly influenced by other important members of the front office.

This offseason, for instance, Mozeliak is handcuffed by a farm system that lacks a depth of Major League-ready talent. In so many trades these days, that’s what payroll-shedding teams usually want. And, soon, the St. Louis Cardinals will probably be losing at least one moderately tradable asset, 25-year-old infielder Jacob Wilson, in the Rule-5 draft. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo thinks hard-throwing right-hander Luis Perdomo will probably be taken, too.

So that leaves Mozeliak with the dangerous free agency market, where pitfalls are everywhere. First, there’s the constant temptation to give top free agents the long and costly contract demands they always make. Slugging first baseman Chris Davis just hit 40+ homers for the Baltimore Orioles, but he’s already 30 and has an uneven track record and the Cardinals may not need him. Ben Zobrist may be versatile and had a great World Series for the Kansas City Royals, but he’s old. Any money paid to him now will be for his achievements in the past.

Then there are all the free agent pitchers, for whom I have but one name to offer up as a cautionary tale. C.C. Sabathia. By today’s standards, that 8-year, $182 million deal he signed with the New York Yankees back in 2008 was a success. New York got good value out of him for half the contract. For the last three, however, and this, his final year in pinstripes, the left-hander has been an injury-riddled albatross.

David Price, Zack Greinke and Johnny Cueto could all have arm problems in the first years of their inevitably giant contracts. Then what? Then they become albatrosses, too. And St. Louis Cardinals fans know too well that here’s simply no way of knowing when or if a pitcher will get hurt.

So it’s not just Mozeliak who drives this franchise. It’s also a handful of guys beneath him. We’ll highlight them here, but it all begins with Mo:

Next: The General Manager

The General Manager

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In his four years as Walt Jockey’s first lieutenant, Mozeliak watched talent he helped find as a scout — Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina chief among them — lead the St. Louis Cardinals to three straight division titles, two league titles and one World Series title. Then, in 2007, Mo took over and helped win two more World Series titles. Under Mozeliak, the St. Louis Cardinals have reached the postseason for five consecutive seasons now.

So far, his signature move is his 2011 standoff with free agent first baseman Albert Pujols, the face of the St. Louis Cardinals and its best player for nine straight seasons to that point. Mozeliak held the line at $200 million over ten years, the highest contract offered in franchise history. Pujols, of course, got $40 million more from the Los Angeles Angels, which was a huge blow to St. Louis Cardinals fans at the time.

Since then, though, Pujols has had four good but not Cardinals-esque seasons in L.A. More importantly, his contract (and now the Mike Trout contract with it) have limited what the Angels can spend in free agency. And its farm system is just awful. While the St. Louis Cardinals have been to the postseason every year since Pujols left, the Angels made it just once, in 2014, when they were promptly swept away in the LDS.

In a results-oriented business like professional baseball, Mozeliak is one of those rare executives who has met the challenge and then some. I think most St. Louis Cardinals fans would agree that we’re lucky to have him.

Next: The Mathematically Inclined Assistant GM

The Mathematically Inclined Assistant GM

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Michael Girsch will be in his fourth season as the St. Louis Cardinals’ Assistant General Manager, a role in which he helps Mozeliak with Major League player transactions, contract negotiations and player evaluations. Girsch also helps oversee all aspects of Baseball Operations, including amateur and pro scouting, player development, international operations and baseball development.

More importantly, Girsch is the analytics voice in the front office. The St. Louis Cardinals hired him in 2006, the same year it named Jeff Luhnow vice president of scouting and player development. Luhnow initially made Girsch coordinator of amateur scouting, but promoted him to head up the baseball development department two years later. That’s the group that uses analytics to help the St. Louis Cardinals braintrust make personnel decisions.

As Luhnow cleaned out that department on his way to Houston in 2011, the St. Louis Cardinals wisely grabbed Girsch before Luhnow could, promoting Girsch to his current position. No doubt Girsch’s feedback was crucial in Mozeliak’s dealings with Pujols. Subsequent moves like the sneaky 2013 acquisition of Randal Grichuk (above) with Peter Bourjos have Girsch’s fingerprints on them.

Next: The Scouting Director

Our Man in Latin America

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Just in case there’s any question about the importance of Luis Rodriguez, the St. Louis Cardinals’ director of international operations, the big league club’s best starter, Carlos Martinez (above), was unearthed in the Dominican Republic under Rodriguez’ watch. So was the late Oscar Taveras.

Three (Alex Reyes, Magneuris Sierra and Edmundo Sosa) of the St. Louis Cardinals’ five best prospects are results of the work Rodriguez and his staff have done internationally. If the team wants any prayer of continuing to win, Rodriguez needs to keep doing what he’s been doing.

The Puerto Rico native has headed the St. Louis Cardinals’ global scouting efforts for nine years now. Before that, Rodriguez worked in the Major League Baseball offices for ten, lastly as MLB’s director of international baseball operations. This guy knows the turf like few others in his position do, knowledge that is necessary to unearth gems like Reyes, Sierra, Sosa, and others in Latin America these days.

Next: The Farm Director

The Farm Director

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For all the prospects Rodriguez and Flores bring in, Gary LaRocque provides the perfect environment and circumstances to turn them into big league assets quickly. Despite analytics, the game is still influenced by human whimsy. You never know whether a guy like right-hander Sam Tuivailala (above) will handle converting from infielder to relief pitcher. You don’t know if a skinny young high school hitter like Nick Plummer will eventually hit for plus power when he fills out.

All LaRocque and his staff can do is put these and other prospects in situations where they can learn from their failures without being crushed by them. Because remember, all the kids who make it to the pros are used to being dominant as amateurs.

Meanwhile, LaRocque needs a deft touch, knowing when to tweak a swing or pitching mechanics and when to lay off. That’s not easy, either. Every player is different.

And as if that’s not enough, the St. Louis Cardinals’ success makes LaRocque’s job harder (Flores’, too), because he never gets the once-in-a-generation talent that hovers only at the very top of the draft. And rarely at that. He must work harder to help players turn their raw athletic tools into sharpened baseball skills in four to five seasons. By then, they should be ready to contribute or to be used as trade assets.

Next: 2015 Draft Recap, Part 3

LaRocque and the St. Louis Cardinals are currently in that no man’s land where the latest wave of talent has arrived and the next is still a year or two away. Then again, LaRocque probably knows something about Charlie Tilson and Jack Flaherty we don’t know. Someone always makes a quantum leap. They’re only human, after all.