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The St. Louis Cardinals' playoff hopes in 2024 are rapidly dissipating as the once-proud franchise looks poised to miss the postseason for the second consecutive year. The front office and ownership have appeared out of touch with fans, as Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III made a comment in May where he laughed at fans who said that they wouldn't show up to games at Busch Stadium.
The calls for John Mozeliak to step down as the team's president of baseball operations have amplified after a nightmare 2023 season, but a report from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggested that Mozeliak is planning to hold his position until his contract is up after 2025. His eventual replacement, which appears to be former Boston Red Sox executive Chaim Bloom, is nearly a carbon copy of Mozeliak in terms of their risk-averse natures when running an organization.
It's difficult to blame fans who are pining for change. The Cardinals front office made several questionable decisions in 2023, especially regarding its baffling treatment of Willson Contreras, and it has continued to show that it seems to have no plans for the direction of the franchise. The team's comments on its potential attempts to re-sign Paul Goldschmidt after he has had a historically poor 2024 drew the ire of fans, and it would likely cripple the Cardinals if they were to play him every day.
The team has continued its downward trajectory thanks to more befuddling choices by Mozeliak and company this season. These five front office decisions were the biggest mistakes that have doomed the Cardinals to mediocrity in 2024.