Who deserves the most blame for the Cardinals 2023 collapse?

John Mozeliak

DeWitt certainly deserves the most blame for all of this, but Mozeliak is also somebody who should be held accountable here. It all started when Mike Shildt was fired after a 17-game winning streak.

The Cardinals president of baseball operations has been in the organization for several years. He is the architect of this year's team and previous teams. He made a good move by signing Willson Contreras, but that's all that he did this past winter.

He ignored the obvious need to add starting pitching and ultimately assembled one of the worst rotations in recent Cardinals history. One of the biggest blunders he made was bringing back Adam Wainwright after his decline last September.

Like all Cardinals fans, I love Wainwright and hope that he can finish his career strong by reaching 200 wins. But he's 3-10 with an 8.10 ERA and Mozeliak gave him $17.5 million. In turn, the Cardinals did nothing else to improve the pitching staff.

We must also unpack some of Mozeliak's recent blunders in free agency. Sometimes, it's not that he doesn't spend money, but rather that he overpays players who aren't worth the amount of money. Some recent examples include Brett Cecil and Steven Matz.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Mozeliak was adamant this year's pitching paradigm would hold up, even going as far as to say that the Cardinals' front office knew what they were doing and arrogantly claiming that the team had six starters.