Cardinals fans owe John Mozeliak an apology after new context to transition year

The St. Louis Cardinals have received a ton of criticism from fans, media, and voices around the game of baseball for their year-long transition from the John Mozeliak era to the Chaim Bloom era. Although there were some interesting benefits of the decision from the outside looking in, most were left very confused by the decision not to just put Bloom in charge from Day 1.

Well, we may actually owe Mozeliak an apology for all of the flak he has taken this last year for remaining in his seat as a lame duck.

When asked about what discussions were like with Bill DeWitt Jr. last year and the decision to name Bloom his successor but remain on for one more year, Mozeliak provided 101 ESPN's "The Morning After Show" with subtle but extremely important context for why they went this direction.

"Part of the reason I did stay on for this past year was Chaim had some personal things that he had to address before he could take this job full-time," Mozeliak shared on 101 ESPN. "And so ultimately, I was used more as that bridge to the next set of leadership or specifically to Chaim, and also Chaim to really begin building his foundation for what he wants the front office to look like. So in a way, there's a lot of logic to it. You know, if you were to ask Bill, Chaim, and Mo, we'd say look, it was different, it was slightly awkward at times, but I think it was really effective."

John Mozeliak stuck around for one last year with the Cardinals so Chaim Bloom could take care of some personal matters

Yes, to be fair to everyone involved, no one shared this bit of information publicly regarding Bloom until that interview, so it's not fair to say that fans should have known this before critiquing Mozeliak. Even so, as is the case with a lot of leadership roles, there are things that the general public is not privy to that impact decision-making, and that can be a hard thing to wear when you're Mozeliak and taking the brunt of that criticism.

For the Cardinals to keep this out of the public forum until now, that likely means Bloom requested not only that level of privacy that he had things to take care of, but he also likely wanted to remain out of the spotlight this year, another critique that myself and others have had of the organization for not allowing Bloom to speak publicly since his introductory press conference, outside of a few conversations with Cardinals Insider, the club's internally made publication.

Look, Mozeliak has said for years now that the Cardinals needed fresh voices, and it became apparent in recent years that he meant replacing his own as well. Sticking around one more year in this awkward transition was not the ultimate sign of arrogance and pride that many made it out to be, but rather, more of a selfless act to keep the organization together and moving forward while Bloom was preparing himself for the role and beginning the groundwork that he wanted to lay.

Some might say, "Why not just fire Mozeliak anyway?", but let's be real here, that would be a far more chaotic plan if they truly wanted to set Bloom up for success. Having a vacuum of leadership for a year under an interim leader at such a critical time in the organization's history sounds like a terrible idea when you have someone with 18 years of experience in that seat, willing to transition to his successor, like Mozeliak did.

Was it pretty? No. Were there bumps along the way? Yes. Did Mozeliak do Mozeliak things that frustrated us all? You bet. But he also accomplished the main priority of this transition, which was steering the ship at the Major League level while giving Bloom plenty of time to implement foundational changes to the organization that allow him to hit the ground running next month. And of course, take care of those personal matters.