Bernie’s Redbird Review: Is John Mozeliak Worthy Of The Cardinals Hall Of Fame? I Have An Opinion.

THE REDBIRD REVIEW

As John Mozeliak prepares for his final season as the president of baseball operations for the St. Louis Cardinals, I wanted to take some time to review his overall performance in his important role.

This isn’t designed to be an all-encompassing look at the Mozeliak Years. That will come in 2025, as he nears the finish line on his two-year contract that expires at the end of next season.

I wanted to go with an overview angle today — the basics of winning and losing in the regular season, and the postseason. Overall, Mozeliak did a very good job, even if he should have done better with it.

Eventually the relentless drive of winning baseball tapered off. The Cardinals’ baseball model became listless outdated. The franchise standards gradually deteriorated. Mozeliak made mistakes in the second half of his term in office and had a lot of responsibility in the downturn. But this wasn’t a solo act.

Mozeliak works closely with Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., and DeWitt controls the budget. Mozeliak had to deal with payroll limitations which is fairly common with most major-league teams. But Mozeliak made too many regrettable spending decisions, and that was certainly a factor in the Cardinals’ recession.

I put the good and the bad together to come up with the (almost) full body of work. With one season to go for Mozeliak, this is how his record added up through 2024.

– The Cardinals were tied with Tampa Bay for No. 3 overall in regular-season winning percentage (.545) from 2008 through 2024. Only the Dodgers (.587) and Yankees (.571) had more regular-season success than St. Louis.

– The Cardinals made it to the postseason 10 times in 17 years. The only franchises with more postseason appearances over that time were the Dodgers (14) and Yankees (12). Next were the Cardinals (10), Braves (10), Astros (9) and Rays (9.)

– During the Mozeliak years (through 2023), the Cardinals ranked sixth in the majors with 36 postseason victories behind the Astros, Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees and Giants.

– Only the Dodgers (121), Astros (105) and Yankees (84) competed in more postseason games than St. Louis (79) from 2008 through 2023.

– During Mozeliak’s term in office through 2024, the Cardinals advanced to the NL Championship Series five times, won two National League pennants, and claimed the 11th World Series title for the franchise in 2011.

– The Cardinals had only one losing season In Mozeliak’s 17 years in the top baseball role. That’s rare. That isn’t easy to do. Among the other 29 big-league teams, only one club, the Yankees, has managed to avoid any losing seasons since the start of 2008. And the Dodgers are the only other team with just one losing season. The other 27 teams have had at least five losing seasons since 2008. And 15 MLB franchises have had nine or more losing seasons over the last 17 years.

My purpose here isn’t to ignore the frustrating downturn that began under Mozeliak’s supervision in 2016. Since the start of that ‘16 campaign the Cardinals rank 10th in the majors with a .528 winning percentage and have a 4-11 postseason record. The Redbirds have missed making the playoffs in five of the last eight full seasons.

My purpose is to remind everyone that Mozeliak was outstanding while handling the organization’s top baseball post during the first part of his career. For eight seasons (2008-2015) the Cardinals led the National League and were second overall to the Yankees in regular-season wins, competed in more postseason games (64) than any MLB team, and ranked second overall to the Giants with 32 postseason victories.

Needless to say, Mozeliak benefited from an infrastructure that had been established by Cardinals executives Walt Jocketty and Jeff Luhnow – and La Russa was the team’s manager during Mozeliak’s first four seasons in charge. But Mozeliak did effective behind-the-scenes work as Jocketty’s top assistant.

Hey. but didn’t Mozeliak ride the Albert Pujols train? Yes, he did. But so did everyone else that I’ve mentioned here: DeWitt, Jocketty, Luhnow and La Russa. In his position as scouting director in 1999 and ran the drafts when the Cardinals selected Pujols and Yadier Molina, among other notables.

And when Pujols left the Cardinals as a free agent following the 2011 season – I don’t blame Mozeliak for that, by the way – the Cardinals entered the post-Pujols era by posting MLB’s best regular-winning percentage (.579) from 2012 through 2015. They won the NL pennant in 2013, and were third in the majors with 21 postseason victories over their first four seasons without Pujols.

Since 2012, the Cardinals rank third in the majors with a .544 regular-season winning percentage. Virtually all of that was done without Pujols, but he did return for a 93-win farewell season in 2022.

Some of you reading this – and many others – would prefer to scrub the strong years from Mozeliak’s history. But I don’t have to do that. Frankly, I think it’s petty to do that. And I won’t do it. It’s a shame Mozeliak failed to uphold the same standards that he shaped.

What happened? I don’t think it’s anything unusual. Mozeliak has been in the organization – and in this particular job – for a very long time. Too long. Stagnation sets in. Even the best people can go stale if they stay in the same bubble. Complacency is inevitable. Without having experiences in new environments, without being motivated by new challenges, it’s easy for some leaders to change their ways and adapt to changing trends. And the people around the ensconced, job-secure leader may fall into the same rut.

The energy doesn’t hold up. New thoughts and ideas don’t materialize. Or they aren’t implemented. Inertia creeps in to the point where a once-thriving executive is no longer capable of being effective. I think this applies to Mozeliak. I really do.

I also know this: John Mozeliak will be in the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame one day, and he’s worthy of the honor.

Thanks for reading …

–Bernie

A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has provided informed opinions and perspective on St. Louis sports through his columns, radio shows and podcasts since 1985.

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Stats used in my baseball columns are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Statcast, StatHead, Baseball Savant, Baseball Prospectus, Brooks Baseball Net, and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise noted.