Former Cardinals pitcher has pointed words for John Mozeliak's detractors

The best fans in baseball may be faced with their toughest test on Opening Day of 2026 to retain that moniker. St. Louis Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak will be stepping down from his perch after 2025, but he's likely to return to Busch Stadium for the Cardinals' first game when they introduce many former Cardinals greats.

In all likelihood, a chorus of boos will rain down on Mozeliak, tarnishing what should be a special occasion and a celebration of the Cardinals' history, and one former Cardinal believes shaming Mozeliak would be an incredibly stupid move.

Lance Lynn thinks it's "horses**t" if fans boo Mozeliak and blame him for 2025.

On a podcast with Lynn and Cardinals reporter Jim Hayes, Lynn pointed to the Cardinals' decisions to slash the payroll and place winning on the back burner in 2025 and said Mozeliak shouldn't take the blame for a team that didn't put him in position to aim for a title.

Lynn is correct in that this season should not fall on Mozeliak. The Cardinals were hamstrung by owner-imposed monetary constraints and thus unable to pursue the high-priced free agents in the offseason who could potentially turn the team around. But the fact that the team found itself in such a dire situation at all does, in some capacity, fall on Mozeliak's shoulders.

Lynn pointed out that fans will only consider the last three years when determining what kind of reception to give Mozeliak, and that may be true. Recency bias is a real thing, but the cracks in the Mozeliak regime began to form around 2015. When other teams were going all-in on the newly created Statcast metrics, the Cardinals decided to remain more traditional. Mozeliak and the Cardinals were unable to see the evolution of pitching that was taking place, where strikeouts were coming to dominate the game. Instead, they continued to snap up players who pitched to contact, and the results gradually deteriorated through the years, bottoming out in 2023.

It's worth wondering whether the Cardinals would have had to resort to this payroll crunch had they not been so insular and closed off to the rest of the league during Mozeliak's tenure, eventually leading to their demise as a model franchise. Despite this, there is plenty to smile about regarding Mozeliak's run with the Cardinals, including six postseason appearances, two National League pennants and one World Series title, and Mozeliak should be commemorated for his success just as much as he should be criticized for his failures.

Mozeliak will leave behind a complicated legacy, and while a tepid reaction to his inevitable return to Busch Stadium is more understandable than Lynn lets on, Cardinals fans should err on the side of appreciation for all Mozeliak did for the franchise. Even if they don't respect him on his initial return, expect the passage of time to place him in a kinder light as the years go on.