John Mozeliak admits Cardinals' progression is 'stuck in the mud'

The St. Louis Cardinals open the 2025 season next week against the Minnesota Twins, but before the team heads north from Jupiter, STL Post-Dispatch writer Derrick Goold had a sit-down with outgoing President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak. Within the Q&A, Mozeliak touched on many topics that Cardinals fans will find interesting, but much of what was covered related to the inactivity during the most recent offseason and the team being stuck in neutral in regards to player development.

Since becoming the General Manager in the 2007 offseason and the POBO in 2017, Mozeliak has put together a consistently successful regular season team, tallying winning records in 15 seasons and ranking third in the majors in total wins. During his tenure, the team has made the postseason 10 times and won the 2011 World Series. However, his lack of dominant teams and only two appearances in the Fall Classic has left Cardinal Nation wanting more. Understanding the changing landscape of the league and the organization needing a fresh look, Mozeliak announced that this year would be his last at the helm, giving way to Chaim Bloom after the season.

What went wrong with the Cardinals near the end of Mozeliak's tenure?

Even after an 83-win season in 2024, the team seemed to be stuck in neutral, returning many familiar faces that underperformed during the miserable 2023 season. This stale roster promised to undergo massive changes during the most recent offseason, but a lack of trade suitors or unwillingness to waive no-trade clauses left the 2025 Cardinals in a weird spot, rostering a combination of established veterans and young hitters in need of a bounce-back season.

When Mozeliak was asked how and why the team's progress stalled over the past few seasons, he was very clear that the team lost its previous advantage on their competition. Typically seen as a developmental powerhouse, the Cardinals were spoiled with their minor league players taking off in the majors once they received their opportunities. After developing superstars Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Adam Wainwright, the organization hit a snag in their prospects making an impact at the next level. Mozeliak noted that shifted the team's thinking, as they knew they had to make a splash outside the organization, and that created the trades for cornerstones Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. The lack of support from the lower levels limited the potential of the major league team, however.

"At one point, we had an edge. That edge has been neutralized over time. You still have to find ways on the margins to separate yourself."

John Mozeliak

Knowing the need for change after back-to-back mediocre seasons, Mozeliak was given one more task: Compete while trimming payroll but also setting up Bloom for the future. With this unfamiliar territory, Mozeliak found this offseason was the most stressful during his tenure. He responded to Goold's question about this strange season by saying, "Candidly, I felt it was the most stress I’ve ever experienced because I didn’t feel like we were ever really moving forward. And when you’re just stuck in the mud or not progressing, that part is tough."

While some fans may feel that Mo is unwilling to make large-scale changes, it seems that this offseason just did not provide the opportunity for that to take shape as expected. He continued on, saying that the baseball operations side of things has seen some positive changes, but those updates are things that are not noticed by the fans or seen as exciting moves from the outside. Mozeliak admits that this gray area of an offseason causes a lot of frustration from fans who wanted the team to do more, either to improve for the 2025 season or to sell off all valuable assets for a build towards the future. The end game, though, is a sustainable model that will keep fans engaged and continue to build the Cardinals organization for future success.

This awkward area made it difficult for Mozeliak to make decisions as well. With the fans always wanting success at the Major League level, Mo had to prioritize big league spending rather than push financial resources towards the development side like upgrading the spring training facility or owning a pitching lab. The desire to be great at the highest level was also complicated by big changes in recent years, which Goold noted as three managers, loss of draft picks, and the pandemic. He asked Mozeliak, rightly in my eyes, what took so long for the team to understand the need to update the organization. Mo's response seemed to have some irritation behind it, disagreeing with the statement that changes took long. He said, "...these were things that we just could not keep trying to put a Band-Aid on or quick fix. The decision now is to play the longer game, allow our system to become productive and then try to use those other resources — free agency and trade — to augment."

While the 2025 season holds plenty of question marks for what is next for the St. Louis Cardinals, ownership and front office personnel all seem to understand that it is time for a change. Even without the full-scale roster changes that fans expected to come this year, the Cardinals' decision-makers feel they are on the right path back to relevancy.