Best Cardinals teams during the Mozeliak era who somehow missed a World Series title

The St. Louis Cardinals have the second-most titles in all of Major League Baseball, but have been in a World Series drought since their 11th trophy in 2011. It's not just the Cardinals struggling to make it to the Fall Classic, as this year marks the ninth consecutive year that the National League participant is not from the NL Central, tied with the AL Central for the longest streak among divisions.

As John Mozeliak's tenure came to a close following the end of the 2025 season and the World Series right around the corner, I decided to take a look at Mo's teams during his time as GM/POBO and see how they only managed to win one title during that time. To put the list together, I looked at a combination of FanGraphs' season-long WAR totals while also looking at NL standings and individual performances.

Which John Mozeliak-led teams should have come away with at least a World Series appearance?

2022: 93-69, 1st in NL Central, Lost 2-0 in NL Wild Card

After Mike Shildt was let go, the Cardinals went internal for their next manager and settled on Oliver Marmol. As it turns out, it may have been more than the "philosophical differences" that made the organization move on from Shildt, but Marmol was handed a team that had just won 90 games and maintained its core while also welcoming back legend Albert Pujols.

As has become commonplace in St. Louis, the rotation remained a question mark as Adam Wainwright and Miles Mikolas spearheaded a starting five that ended up having 13 pitchers start games for the team. The rotation scraped together a decent season and was revamped by midseason acquisitions Jordan Montgomery and Jose Quintana on the way to a seventh game.

2012-2013: 185-139, lost in NLCS, lost in WS

I grouped these two seasons together because the Cardinals were just coming off of a World Series title, but had lost Albert Pujols to free agency going into 2012. Even without the living legend in their lineup, the Cardinals did not miss a beat. They finished second in the division but made it all the way to the seventh game of the NLCS before being eliminated by a Travis Ishikawa extra-inning homer.

Without Pujols, the Cardinals had four players receiving MVP votes, their starting rotation had four pitchers tally at least 13 wins with Kyle Lohse finishing 7th in Cy Young voting. In total, the team also had six All-Star Game representatives but ultimately fell short of the title.

2013 was even better with five players receiving MVP votes, another six All-Stars and Adam Wainwright finished second in Cy Young voting after a 19-9 season. This team ended up winning the NL Central and advanced all the way to the World Series. Facing off in a 2004 championship rematch, the Cardinals ended up falling to the Red Sox as David Ortiz and Co. dominated in six games.

2021 - 90-72, 2nd in NL Central, lost in Wild Card round

The 2021 season was the one where we were supposed to see the Cardinals get back to their championship success as they welcomed in Nolan Arenado to fortify the middle of the order with Paul Goldschmidt, Tyler O'Neill, and Dylan Carlson. With a full push towards offense, the Cardinals' pitching rotation did have some holes, but the hope was that they would eat enough innings while the offense kept the game close.

The rotation never really got going but was bolstered by midseason acquisitions Jon Lester and J.A. Happ, but in the end, it was not enough to silence the power bats in the postseason. The Cardinals took home an NL Wild Card berth but were quickly eliminated by the LA Dodgers despite having three hitters with at least 30 homers and the entire starting lineup hitting at least 11 home runs.

Honorable Mentions:

2022 was an option because of how good Goldschmidt and Arenado were, but the rest of the team was really lackluster.

2019 had middle-of-the-order pop but did not do much else well despite winning the NL Central.

2015 saw the Cardinals win 100 games but did so without a player hitting more than 24 homers or driving in more than 84 runs. The pitching was the backbone of the team but lacked the number one pitcher to ride through the playoffs.