The Cardinals seem to have forced Michael Girsch and Gary LaRocque out

The St. Louis Cardinals held an end-of-season press conference earlier this week that carried much momentum behind the announcement. The Cardinals are becoming slightly more aware and realize change is needed. Fans are about ready to riot if they do not see the direction of this franchise being handled by a new front office. The DeWitt family and President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak are most certainly listening.

The biggest announcement is for Boston Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom will be taking over in 2026 for John Mozeliak. In the meantime, he is being assigned to rebuilding the player development system. His first task is to find a replacement for longtime Cardinals Director of Player Development Gary LaRocque who retired at the end of the 2024 season. He will serve in an advisory role in 2025

LaRocque is not the only Cardinals front office member being moved into a new role. GM Michael Girsch will be reassigned to a new role within the organization. He will become the VP of Special Projects working with John Mozeliak's front office. No other members of the front office were announced to be shifting into new roles. There will be no replacement in 2025 for Girsch, as Mozeliak will fill his role.

With that being said, these were forced decisions by the DeWitts. Instead of being businessmen and simply firing personnel that no longer bring any value to your business, they gave two guys within the gentleman's club a get-out-of-jail-free card. The right decision would be removing both from the front office and cleaning the slate to start over. But what took place was these men being given a forced retirement and reassignment to avoid any bad PR against their marketability to work for another organization. Also, VP of Special Projects?

If John Mozeliak does not get fired and replaced after letting the organization slip through the cracks over the past decade, then do not expect his front office to be gutted. He will protect them at all costs and everyone will leave the organization in 2025 on their own terms. 2025 is simply to recruit new talent to start over while the gentlemen's club has one year to make tough decisions to continue losing the fanbase's trust.

It is too early to tell if any other prominent members of the front office will get the pink slip at their desks. The same goes for Oliver Marmol's coaching staff going into 2025. But now we know that the entire front office continues to have job security. If the DeWitt's believe they can get fans' trust back with the press announcement, they are wrong. No real changes are taking place for 2025. We will begin to see needed change when Chaim Bloom gets to call his own shots.