John Mozeliak is the personality of the NL-worst St. Louis Cardinals, and that's a bad thing

The bow tie guy who's cool under pressure hasn't won much of significance in a decade.

The goal of every general manager, or President of Baseball Operations in today’s Major League Baseball terms, should be to not only build a competitive team--but one that makes a legitimate run at a title. Build winners, collect banners, and strive for pennants. Merely getting in shouldn’t really exist in their head, no matter the payroll.

John Mozeliak has always been given a moderate amount of money to spend on constructing a sustainable and highly competitive roster here in St. Louis. He’s just done a piss poor job of it lately, or the last 8-10 years. The former assistant general manager to Walt Jocketty took over for him in 2007, delivering a World Series title in 2011 and another appearance in 2013.

However, the 2006 team obviously wasn’t his, and the 2011 team really wasn’t Mozeliak’s work either. The lightning rod Colby Rasmus trade was a savvy move that paid dividends, but a lot of key pillars in this roster weren’t brought here by Mozeliak. The 2013 juggernaut that blew a tire in the World Series versus Boston was his baby, a foretelling sign of his roster-building abilities.

Let me ask the sternest Mozeliak defenders a question: What has he really done since 2013?

Blurting out 2014 wouldn’t be wise. For a guy who obviously has a decent amount of say in that dugout over the past decade, Mozeliak could have phoned down and never let the highly inexperienced Mike Matheny allow Michael Wacha to throw a pitch in that Giants series finale. Matheny’s hire and eventual fire was the first real piece of glass in cool and calm Johnny’s flashy tires.

The hire and eventual firing of Matheny’s replacement, Mike Shildt, was even more embarrassing for Mozeliak. After all, Shildt was his second managerial “yes man” who grew a backbone, refusing the beloved Cardinal Way. When Shildt said screw this, Mozeliak had him whacked but didn’t have much of a reason. In walks Oliver Marmol, who is following a division-winning season (and abysmal playoff performance) with a 25-35 start to the 2023 season.

What do fans think of the new “yes man?” They want him canned already, but Cardinal Nation really wants Mozeliak gone. The case for that to happen will take a season or two of eventless nights at Busch Stadium, but deflating his supposed genius is surely in order.

Where’s the genius, outside of fleecing teams on MVP-caliber (yet also aging) cornerstone players? Mozeliak hasn’t made a great trade since 2013 when he flipped Joe Kelly for John Lackey, a great-at-the-moment trade that didn’t age too gracefully. But that was a ballsy trade, one that happened in season like the Rasmus one and jumpstarted a revival. When has Mozeliak pulled off that kind of trade deadline heist?

Picking a fellow general manager’s pocket in December or January is table scraps for a guy who has been in the driver’s seat for as long as Mozeliak has, but the midseason deals used to be something you saw with his offices. These days, Cards fans are lucky if the low-hanging fruit is grabbed. No offense, old man Jon Lester.

Problem: No team was afraid of old man Lester. The starting pitchers that scared teams aren’t ones the Cardinals sign.

Mozeliak goes after guys like Mike Leake for big contracts instead of extending a workhorse in Lance Lynn. St. Louis kept cutting checks to Leake long after he last threw a pitch for their team. Mega-less-mind Mozeliak went out and signed Steven Matz, watching Marcus Stroman go to the rival Chicago Cubs. Matz is now in the bullpen trying to not suck while Stroman flings zeroes on Waveland Avenue. Great job, Mo.

Did he really ever know? What cornerstone player did he bring along while he was in the leadership seat? Bringing back Albert Pujols for an unforgettable season of reconciliation amid history-making accomplishments doesn’t count. Allowing Yadier Molina to try and be a starting catcher for 3-4 extra years is all of his work, though.

For a guy who likes to tune his manager’s clock before hiring them, he lets certain players walk all over him or keep the hands full of money. For (probably not) the last time, the Cardinals spend money; due to Mozeliak’s check-writing lately, they really don’t spend it wisely. Nolan Arenado bailed them out by waiving his opt-out clause, opting in fully with St. Louis.

Life after Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt isn’t a storm that’s nearing anytime soon, but it’s also not invisible either. These are the prime years of this machine-like duo, and the Cardinals are wasting those golden years on Matzy decisions. Why not power up the rotation with a 1-2 punch, which is supported now by the likes of Nolan Gorman?

Will Mozeliak waste the juicy years of young Gorman too? Can his team escape embarrassing headlines like Tyler O’Neill and Marmol having a very public pissing contest, or top prospect Jordan Walker sounding like a broken Paul DeJong rehab song upon his return to the big leagues? A bad record doesn’t help, but consistently bad decisions and contracts can bury a team.

Look at Brett Cecil and Dexter Fowler. Don’t forget Mozeliak was ready to offer Jason Heyward crazy money too. He was willing to pay David Price, but not Max Scherzer. Mozeliak asked DeWitt Jr. to write a big check for Price, who isn’t pitching this year and hasn’t been a notable starter in years. Hometown sensation Mad Max? No, repeatedly.

Yeah, he cost a lot of money, rightfully so. Big time players always do. Ask the accountant who filed the Arenado and Goldschmidt extensions. Mozeliak has routinely overlooked available starting pitching, clinging to the fountain of youth that we all call Adam Wainwright. All the chips the team placed on Flaherty becoming an ace-in other words, not trading him at his peak value-have now crumbled like a Jenga pile.

For every bad contract avoidance like the Albert Pujols/Angels albatross, Mozeliak cooks up a couple bad ones. Worse, he doesn’t make up for his mistakes. Even after Lynn continued to establish himself as a strong pitcher, St. Louis didn’t think about bringing him back.

Many people have asked about the personality of this ballclub, now that Pujols and Molina have retired and moved on. A move that Wainwright will follow after this season. Proclaiming Arenado and Goldschmidt as that symbol doesn’t quite fit. They’re terrific, Hall of Fame players, but are they really the personality of this team? Nah.

Is it the roughneck hustle of Brendan Donovan, or the furious passion of Willson Contreras (that .216 average needs more passion though)? That’s a slow-build, if true.

The fact is that the personality of this team is Mozeliak, and has been for quite a while. A businessman shouldn’t be that for a team, especially one that hasn’t won shit in a decade and sits at 25-35. His lack of moves, or unwillingness to dive in deep around the trade deadline, now defines his work as a GM. The biggest criticism I have is that he hasn’t evolved, or shown much care to try.

Yes, Mozeliak is successful at his job. Just ask Mr. DeWitt Jr. But just how good, or great, is he at being a roster-composer? Lately, it hasn’t been that good. Take that lack of NLCS wins since 2014, couple it with the lack of playoff activity for a few years, and then glue it to the lukewarm success in October over the past few years. What do you get?

Answer: Not much. No pennants in ten years. No World Series titles in 12. For a team that has spent like the Cardinals, a squad that claims to be the very essence of a baseball franchise, that’s weakening by the year.

The weak sauce culprit: Mozeliak. This is his team. It’s his bed, and Cardinal Nation shouldn’t have to sleep in it (they continue to do so, though). If his goal is to equip the team for a serious playoff hunt, he’s done a piss poor job lately.

John Mozeliak’s seat isn’t warm by a long shot, but it should be. Thanks for reading, and tip your writer with a subscription below.