Cardinals fans ears should perk up at John Mozeliak's quote on star hunting in future

Are the St. Louis Cardinals prepared to change their ways when it comes to swinging big for star-level players?

According to outgoing president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, ownership understands that they will need to pony up if the organization cannot develop its own star talent.

In an interview today on 101 ESPN's midday show "BK and Ferrario", Brandon Kiley asked John Mozeliak how the Cardinals, under Chaim Bloom, can acquire a superstar in the future if they are not in positions to select them at the top of drafts and are also unwilling to spend the massive contract needed to lure one in during free agency. While Mozeliak focused that initial response on how they've acquired past stars in spite of that, he did, unprompted, circle back on that later to provide a peek into the future for Cardinals fans that they may find very encouraging.

"Does that mean, to an earlier point that you guys asked, about where we are in the free agent market, the Cardinals have always used the free agent market to augment what we don't have. Sometimes it's not the most exciting strategy in the world, but it has served us fairly well over time. As I think we look at the game and where it's going, I think ownership understands that, at some point, they are going to have to, if we don't develop it, then you have to find it. But in the meantime, we are going to keep looking."

John Mozeliak continues to hint that Cardinals' ownership recognizes the need to change their philosophy on big money spending in the future

Stick with me for a moment, but before I comment on that quote specifically, I do find it to be far more interesting when you line it up with other quotes that Mozeliak in recent years that seem to show a changing of perspective and the same time that the changing of the guard is underway in the front office.

• After the 2022 season, the Cardinals chose not to jump into the superstar free agent market and also balked at the rising price of starting pitching as well. That's where the infamous Mozeliak quote came that their "model would be tested" in light of the increased spending from other National League teams.
• Following the 2023 season, the Cardinals' financial landscape began to change as their TV deal hit major uncertainty and decreased ticket sales that season, coupled with an anticipation of a further decline in attendance, gave them increased caution in spending. They did, however, bring in Chaim Bloom as a special advisor and began to put in motion a multi-year transition plan for their leadership.
• This past offseason, the Cardinals announced that they would be trimming payroll and focusing on opportunity for young talent, meaning that Mozeliak's final year in charge would be marked by threading the needle of fielding a competitive team, building toward the future, and not cutting back on spending on the Major League roster.
• While some have feared that the Cardinals would be moving toward a Tampa Bay-like model where they cut payroll spending significantly moving forward, Mozeliak shared during Spring Training on 101 ESPN's "The Morning After" show that he believed ownership would begin to start spending again in future seasons to augment the young talent that populates the roster.

That's a lot to digest there, but honestly, I think it is all super relevant to this conversation. Back in the early and mid-2010s, the Cardinals signed Matt Holliday to the largest free agent contract signed that offseason, they traded big prospect packages for Jason Heyward and Marcell Ozuna, ownership signed off on acquiring a large portion of Giancarlo Stanton's $300+ million deal from the Marlins before he vetoed the trade, traded for an extended Paul Goldschimdt, and finally acquired Nolan Arenado and his massive deal, along with $50 million of cash from the Colorado Rockies. Oh, and offered both David Price and Jason Heyward contracts north of $200 million before both of them decided to sign elsewhere.

It's a complicated spending history for sure, but one that was far more aggressive than they have been in recent years. Still, it's the same ownership group, and it appears that their struggles and self-reflections over the last number of years have caused ownership to get serious about turning this around.

They started with the least flashy thing they possibly could have done, and yet, it is by far the most important, in investing heavily into their player development department, facilities, and strategy moving forward, and insuring that the people leading that charge, spearhorned by Chaim Bloom, are the very best in the business at it.

But what fans (fairly) want to know is whether or not that same intensity, energy, and aggression will be turned to their big league payroll when their "ducks are in a row" from repairing their foundation. It's why I was actually pretty vocal recently about the Rafael Devers stuff, because I have not had a lot of faith that the Cardinals would want to spend big money on a star in the future.

Now, let me pause for a second. I have actually had very little doubt that the Cardinals would return to spending closer to $200 million on payroll than the $149 million they slashed their budget to this year. I never believed the DeWitt ownership group would be content with being a bottom team in spending; they know that won't fly in this market. My major question has been whether or not they would pony up the big-time offers for big-time players when needed.

At Cardinals' Blogger Day a few weeks ago, Mozeliak shared with the room that while he will step away from baseball and the Cardinals organization for a while once he is done as president of baseball operations, he does potentially see a role with the club in the business side of things. He doesn't think it would be wise to be involved with baseball operations so that there is no appearance of him looking over Bloom's shoulder, but he clearly is open to the idea of still being involved with the DeWitt ownership group.

If that's true, I honestly don't think it makes a whole lot of sense for Mozeliak to tease out the potential of spending in the future if he may work closely with the DeWitt family in the future on the business side of things.

Now, that quote was in reference to Kiley and Ferrario's questions about acquiring stars, but Mozeliak was pretty clear that he believed their best route to getting stars was by developing them, and hey, I don't disagree with him. Ideally, the Cardinals are going to develop their own young stars moving forward, and that's the best way to do so for sustainable winning. But, there comes a time when organizations need to open up their pocketbooks and spend on what they don't have, whether that is another middle-of-the-order bat or a front-line starting pitcher.

Until the Cardinals do that under Bloom, all of this is talk. But for now, I do think it is fair to get at least a little bit excited about what Mozeliak was getting at in this interview, as well as the one he did back in spring training.

I know many fans like to say that ownership and the front office have said stuff like this before and promised they'd make the big move, but not follow through on that. I challenge those who think that to find evidence of that and bring it forward. Not because I'm not willing to myself, but because I don't actually believe ownership or Mozeliak has promised to spend big on free agents before. They've talked about increasing spending before, but not recognizing the need to go out and do something big that they've been unwilling to do recently.

This isn't a promise from Mozeliak that they will do so, either. But frankly, it is a stronger inclination of a growing recognition that things need to change in that department than we've seen from this group since the days they actually followed through on that. While it's easy to make statements like this when the bill won't come due for a few years, it's something I think fans and media should have in the back of their minds and continuously remind Bloom's front office, and more importantly, the ownership group, of moving forward.

They don't need to spend like the Mets or the Dodgers. They don't need to sign Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani. But when big fish become available and the Cardinals have a need, they better be willing to strike in order to take a young, dynamic team and catapult them into World Series contender status. These comments seem to indicate their philosophy is changing, but only time will tell.