- Cardinals president John Mozeliak is stepping away after decades with St. Louis.
- Mozeliak helped build the Cardinals’ 2011 World Series championship team.
- “There’s a lot of mixed emotion,’ Mozeliak tells USA TODAY Sports.
John Mozeliak looks around his office, sees the filing cabinets, the books, binders, pictures, paintings, mementos and souvenirs, and realizes there’s precious little time to pack it all up.
But Mozeliak, St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations, can’t bring himself to do it, not just yet.
Besides, how in the world can you pack up 30 years of memories when your eyes are filled with tears?
Mozeliak, who has been with the Cardinals since 1995, is scheduled to be honored on the field Sunday Sept. 21 and will then watch the game against the Milwaukee Brewers in a suite with his family.
It will be the Cardinals’ 2025 home finale.
It will also be Mozeliak’s final game at Busch Stadium.
Mozeliak, 56, who will accompany the team on their final trip to San Francisco and Chicago, is officially stepping down from the Cardinals at the season’s conclusion. He plans to take three months off, and then figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life.
“There’s a lot of mixed emotion,’ Mozeliak tells USA TODAY Sports. “I know it’s the right time, but the thing that’s scary is how does one spend their time now?’
Mozeliak doesn’t chuckle and says: “My schedule has been just so routine for so long and to think all of a sudden, ‘Look, I don’t have to be somewhere.’ That is so bizarre. And then there’s sort of the understanding you don’t really have a role in anything right now.
“It’s going to be one of those mental games you’re going to have to do a little work on. I’ll give it at least three months to sort of decompress. What might be after that, I don’t know.
“I don’t want to close the door to anything, but I’m not looking to kick one open, either.’
Considering Mozeliak’s storybook rise as a pizza manager and batting practice pitcher to being the architect of 10 postseason teams, winning one World Series title and two pennants, there’s no telling where you next might see the man everyone calls, “Mo.’
“I don’t know anyone in baseball who came from such a humbling beginning and had such a whirlwind rise like Mo,’ says veteran New York Yankees scout Jay Darnell, the man who kick-started Mozeliak’s career. “It’s just unreal.’
Darnell first met Mozeliak at the age of 15 when he coached his American Legion team in Boulder, Colorado. Darnell became the major league video coordinator for the Colorado Rockies in their inaugural year in 1993. Just a few games into the first homestand, he was waved over by Rockies veteran catcher Joe Girardi, asking where he could find a good pizza joint.
“Well, I don’t know, but I’ve got a guy who I coached in high school ball who works as a manager at a pizza place,’ Darnell told Girardi.
Mozeliak, working at Angelo’s Pizza in the Gunbarrel area of Boulder, got the call from Darnell, made a pizza, drove 45 minutes to Mile High Stadium and personally delivered it to Girardi in the Rockies clubhouse.
“Girardi fell in love,’ Darnell said. “He always liked Mo after that pizza delivery.’
A day later, Rockies pitcher Bryn Smith asked Darnell if he knew anywhere he could go fishing on their off day. Darnell called Mozeliak again. Mozeliak took him out and Smith came back and raved about how many fish they caught.
The next day, Rockies equipment manager Dan “Chico’ McGinn told Darnell he could use extra help in the clubhouse. He couldn’t pay anything, though. Again, Darnell called Mozeliak.
“He got hired for a roll of Copenhagen (chewing tobacco),’ Darnell said, “and some cleats.’
And on that same homestand, Rockies manager Don Baylor called Darnell into his office and said the team needed a left-hander to pitch batting practice.
Darnell called Rick Harig, the local baseball coach at Fairview High School, and asked for a recommendation.
“Rick tells me, ‘You’re not going to believe it, but Mozeliak’’’ Darnell said. “I say, ‘Come on, I’m not going to bring in Mo to pitch to Andres Gallaraga, Dante Bichette and those guys.’ Mo, he was just an ordinary first baseman and pitcher in high school. But Rick doesn’t even blink and says, ‘He throws the most beautiful batting practice you’ve ever seen.’
“Well, we bring him in, and I’m sweating bullets standing at the batting cage. I’m praying he doesn’t hit someone. And wouldn’t you know, he does throw the most beautiful batting practice.’
Mozeliak spent two years in Colorado doing everything from washing jockstraps and carrying towels, to being in charge of the stadium radar gun readings, to running spring training camp to transferring the scouting information from paper to computer spreadsheets.
“I remember Don Zimmer saying, ‘This kid is unbelievable,”’ Darnell said.
When Rockies assistant GM Walt Jocketty was hired in October 1994 to be the Cardinals’ new GM, guess who he took with him?
Yep, Mo.
So, after starting with a Joe Girardi pizza delivery and a Bryn Smith fishing trip, and after turning the Cardinals into one of the game’s elite powers by winning the second-most victories in the National League, Mozeliak is calling it quits.
At least for now.
“Staring down at the end now,’ Mozeliak says, “is different. Most people, as you know in this world, get fired. So, you’re kind of told when to pack it up. I imagine when that happens to people it’s pretty instant. Who knows how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking? Whereas this is an orchestrated exit.
“So, as I sit here in my office, kind of thinking, ‘What do I need to do? What don’t I need to do?’ That part is different, but in the end, I know it’s the right time.’
The Cardinals had a winning season in each season during Mozeliak’s tenure until 2023, but as they began embarking on a rebuild and cutting payroll, this likely will be their second losing season in the last three years. The Cardinals are expected to take a further step back and reload for the future.
Mozeliak, who hired former Boston Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom 19 months ago, will let Bloom do the dirty work as he heads for the exit.
“I don’t fear going through (a rebuild),’ Mozeliak says, “but I do think it’s time for a fresh voice. I felt like where the organization was, something had to give. I felt like it started with me, and it was either really trying to do a major reset or let someone else come in and give it a shot.’
Mozeliak, who traveled more with the Cardinals during the season and less to see the minor league affiliates, has slowly been soaking in the memories all season. He took out the entire coaching and traveling staff to dinner last week at Carnevor steakhouse in Milwaukee, reflecting on the good times and of course, the greatest remembrance of all.
The 2011 World Series championship and in particular, Game 6 in which the Cardinals were twice one strike from elimination only for David Freese to rescue them each time and force Game 7 – which the Cardinals won to complete their magical ride.
“It’s pretty hard to beat Game 6, just the ups and downs of what took place that night, the emotional roller coaster,’ Mozeliak says. “When you sit at that seat, are the one presented that trophy and get that rings, it’s pretty special. It’s amazing. It wasn’t like we were necessarily the best team, but it got healthier, things started to click, and the timing was amazing. You just can’t replicate that.’
There are plenty of special mementos in Mozeliak’s office, but the one that perhaps has the most sentimental value is an autographed baseball from Yadier Molina. He actually bought the ball at an auction in Molina’s rookie season, and after nine Gold Glove awards, four Platinum Gloves and 10 All-Star appearances, needless to say Mozeliak made a good investment.
“I’m looking at it now, and the sun has really faded the autograph, so it’s probably worthless now,’ Mozeliak says, laughing. “No one knew who he was yet. Now, he’s likely a first-ballot Hall of Famer.’
Then, of course, there’s the other Hall of Famer who was drafted under Mozeliak when he was the scouting director, a kid in the 13th round from a Kansas City community college.
The name?
Albert Pujols, perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter of his generation with his 703 home runs, 2,218 RBIs, a .296 batting average, .918 OPS and two World Series championships.
Mozeliak said it hurt like hell when Pujols left as a free agent, signing a 10-year, $250 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels, but oh, did it ever feel good when they brought him back for a glorious swan song, hitting 24 homers and becoming only the fourth member of the 700-home run club.
“That was storybook,’’ Mozeliak said. “It was not only cool he came back to St. Louis, but just how productive he was.’’
Mozeliak says he’ll forever be indebted to Jocketty, former Rockies GM Bob Gebhard and Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt, and being the steward of a franchise to generations of the St. Louis community is something he’ll cherish forever.
“St. Louis is just a storied franchise, with so much passion, and such a beautiful baseball city,’’ Mozeliak says. “It has such a generational fanbase. They really do appreciate baseball, but they also demand winning. It’s hard to do it year in and year out. But the consistency of sustained success, we achieved that. I really hope that when people look back at my time here, they appreciate that.’
Baseball is much different from when Mozeliak first moved into his office in 2007, with analytics and metrics determining everything from lineups to matchups to defensive positioning, and everyone racing to find the next great tool to one-up the competition. Yet, Mozeliak changed right along with it, and thrived, reaching the postseason five consecutive years.
“The game has changed so much,’ Mozeliak says, “and compared to what it looked like 20 years ago, the game’s moved a lot. The information we used to collect in a year, we collect in a night now. Some people get frustrated how the game looks today, how decisions are made, and what front offices are evaluating. These tools are done to hopefully make better decisions and smarter decisions.
“Even with just some of the public information that’s out there today allows you to make better decisions than you could have 20 years ago.’
Now, for the first time since he was delivering pizza, Mozeliak will be on the outside looking in, soon sitting in his living room, enjoying a glass of wine, and tuning into Cardinals games like the rest of the Midwest who grew up listening to KMOX.
“St. Louis is home,’ he says. “It’s a special place. It’s a storied baseball town, and even though it’s not a big market, the fanbase that allowed us to punch above our weight.
“I’m not going to miss the games, but I’m really going to miss the people.’
Around the basepaths
– It would be one of the most seismic shifts in baseball economics history if Commissioner Rob Manfred delivers on his vow to have all local broadcast rights to be under MLB’s control by 2028. It could mean that the Milwaukee Brewers would have the same TV revenue as the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.
The Dodgers earn $280 million a year from their local TV rights while more than half of baseball earns less than $50 million.
Needless to say, owners are skeptical that teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays would ever be amenable to such a plan.
“I don’t see it happening,’ one owner said, “but I will say that for those of us who have lucrative long-term deals, there’s no way we’re going to see all of that money in today’s landscape. It’s going to be interesting.’
In the meantime, just in case you don’t think there will be a lockout after the 2026 season, good luck finding TV and radio broadcasters getting contracts from their club extending into the 2027 season.
– While the baseball scouting community is mourning the death of Texas Rangers veteran scout Scott Littlefield from an apparent heart attack, fellow scout and close friend Mike Anderson perhaps best described Littlefield’s passion for baseball.
“He was a scout’s scout, and loved baseball and being a scout more than anyone I have ever met,’ Anderson told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s the only job he ever wanted, and he did it for 34 years.’’
– While Jim Marshall’s son, Craig, was speaking at Marshall’s celebration of life Thursday, he became emotional when received a text message from home-run king Sadaharu Oh, conveying his sympathy over Marshall’s passing.
“I’m deeply saddened to hear about your father’s passing,’ Oh wrote in his text message. “I still vividly remember his time playing for Chunichi and during my active career. I sincerely pray for the repose of his soul and also for his generous education on how to play first base.’’
Marshall was the first player to go directly from the major leagues to playing in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons in 1963, before becoming manager of the Chicago Cubs and the Oakland Athletics.
– Teams are upset that the Dodgers will have one more pitcher than everyone else on their roster since there’s a special exemption for Shohei Ohtani as a two-way player. If Ohtani is a starting pitcher, he can remain in the game as a DH once he’s replaced on the mound. But if he starts the game as a DH and pitches out of the bullpen, the Dodgers would lose the DH once his relief appearance is over. The only way Ohtani could stay in the game would be moving to the outfield, where he hasn’t played since 2021.
This is why it’s far-fetched that Ohtani will have any role in the postseason besides a DH and starting pitcher.
– Angels starter Kyle Hendricks, who helped lead the Chicago Cubs to the 2016 World Series championship, has informed friends that he expects to retire after the season.
– The question for the Phillies is not whether they will bring back outfielder Nick Castellanos, but how much will it cost when they trade him away, realizing they will have to eat a substantial portion of his $20 million contract in 2026.
While Castellanos is saying that he wants to do everything possible for the Phillies to win the World Series, he is also increasingly outspoken about his displeasure as a part-time player and criticized manager Rob Thompson’s communication with him.
“Communication over the years has been questionable, at least in my experience,’ he said. “There’s just been times where things have been said, and then, over the course of years, I’ll have expectations because I’ll latch on to what’s being said and then actions would be different. And then I’m kind of left just thinking and whatnot. But again, like it is what it is. …
“I don’t really talk to Rob all that often. I play whenever he tells me to play, and then sit whenever he tells me to sit.”
– MLB’s qualifying offer will increase to about $22 million from $21.05 million of a year ago, as the New York Post first reported. Only 13 players have ever accepted the qualifying offer, with only Cincinnati Reds pitcher Nick Martinez accepting it last year.
– How stunning is the Cleveland Guardians’ meteoric rise back into contention, going from 12 ½ games out on Aug. 25 to 1 ½ games behind the Detroit Tigers entering Saturday evening?
Not a single contender was advance scouting Cleveland until this weekend.
– New York Mets right fielder Juan Soto became only the third player in MLB history to hit at least 40 homers with 100 RBIs, score 100 runs, walk 100 times and steal 30 bases, joining Barry Bonds and Jeff Bagwell, who achieved the feat twice apiece.
– This could be the first season in MLB history that five players hit 30 homers and stole 30 bases in the same season, with Soto, Jazz Chisholm and Jose Ramirez already accomplishing the feat. Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll is just one stolen base and Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong needs just one homer to join the 30/30 club.
– If MLB had adopted the three-team wild card tier in 2012, the Milwaukee Brewers, who have qualified for the playoffs in seven of the past eight years, would have even more of a glossy resume with two more postseason appearances.
They would have made the playoffs in 2014 with an 82-80 record and in 2017 with an 86-76 record.
– Veteran starter Charlie Morton, who has yielded a 7.09 ERA in his nine starts since joining the Detroit Tigers, may call it a career after this season.
– If the Guardians pull off this miracle comeback, the Guardians should immediately erect a statue of Jose Ramirez alongside Bob Feller, Larry Doby and Jim Thome at Progressive Field.
No one is more responsible for their historic comeback bid, with Ramirez producing his second consecutive 30-homer, 40-stolen base season.
Let’s see, they trailed the Detroit Tigers by 15 ½ games on July 9.
They trailed the Tigers by 12 ½ games on Aug. 26.
They trailed the Tigers by 9 ½ games on Sept. 10.
Now, after going an MLB-best 42-23 since July 7, they have fate in their own hands with three games left against the Tigers in Cleveland this week.
If the Guardians win the division, it would be the greatest comeback in MLB history, eclipsing the Yankees’ 14-game deficit in 1978 to overcome the Boston Red Sox.
– Dodgers three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, 37, who has been flirting with retirement since the Dodgers won the World Series in 2020, is going out in style with his 10-2 record and 3.55 ERA in 21 starts this season.
He announced that it would be his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium, and it may be unlikely that he makes a postseason start, after reaching the postseason in Kershaw’s final 13 seasons.
Kershaw leaves with 222 victories, a 2.54 ERA and 3,045 strikeouts.
Next stop: Cooperstown.
– Pretty cool seeing Kershaw’s former teammates show up for the sendoff: Austin Barnes, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Trayce Thompson, Jimmy Rollins, A.J. Pollock, and yes, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, his high school teammate. They all wore No. 22 Dodgers jerseys.
– Kudos to MLB for sending out a memo this week prohibiting teams from scouting and filming high school players from Oct. 15 to Jan. 15, and collegiate players from Nov. 15 to Jan. 15, hoping that amateurs use the time to rest and recover to help reduce the rash amount of pitching injuries.
The memo says that “teams are still allowed to interact with players and their families in a non-baseball capacity, including visits to a player’s home. Team employees can also attend games involving relatives as long as they’re doing so in a “non-professional capacity.”
Now, let’s see just how many teams circumvent the new rules with distant cousins suddenly showing up holding radar guns.
– Favorite Kershaw stat? Kershaw was the starting pitcher in 301 Dodger victories and 149 Dodger defeats.
The only other pitcher in baseball history to start at least 300 victories with fewer than 185 team losses is Lefty Grove since 1893.
– The Cubs’ success, with the third-best record in the National League, is quite remarkable considering the woes of center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and right fielder Kyle Tucker in the second half.
Crow-Armstrong is hitting .214 with four homers, 19 RBIs and a .623 OPS while Tucker is hitting .242 with five homers and 17 RBIs and a .777 OPS, and has been sidelined since Sept. 2.
– The Phillies did try to sign DH Kyle Schwarber before the start of the season, but the two sides never came close to reaching an agreement.
– The Kansas City Royals are likely to pick up All-Star catcher Salvador Perez’s $13.5 million club option in 2026 considering it’s an $8.5 million paycut after producing 30 homers and 95 RBIs this season.
Perez is one of only eight catchers who have hit 300 or more home runs in their major league career, and six are in the Hall of Fame.
– Baltimore Orioles ace Trevor Rogers won’t win the Cy Young award this season, but no one in the American League has been so dominant since missing the first two months of the season with a partially dislocated kneecap.
Rogers, who has pitched only 106 ⅔ innings this season, has made 17 starts, and given up just 16 earned runs for a 1.35 ERA to go along with his .178 opposing batting average and 0.87 WHIP.
His ERA is the second-best among pitchers with at least 16 starts since 1920, trailing only Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in 1968, who yielded a 1.12 ERA.
– The San Diego Padres expect shortstop Xander Bogaerts to return Monday Sept. 22 after missing almost a month with a fracture in his left foot.
– You know the Arizona Diamondbacks have had a bizarre season in which they had a historic four-homer game from their third baseman, score 10 runs in a single inning at Wrigley Field, and had a pitcher throw a one-hit shutout for nine innings.
And lose all three games.
– Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, who on non-disciplinary leave until further notice while being investigated for gambling, are training to play winter ball for Estrellas in their native Dominican Republic.
While Clase and Ortiz can’t pitch for the Guardians, there are no restrictions in the CBA to prevent them from pitching winter ball.
“We have no say in the matter,” Guardians GM Mike Chernoff told reporters.
The players, however, do have a say in voting on playoff shares and it will be fascinating to see if they get a full share if the Guardians reach the postseason.
– This is the first time in Tigers’ franchise history – well, at least since the inaugural 1965 draft – that they’ve had three homegrown players hit 25 homers in the same season: Riley Greene (34 homers), Spencer Torkelson (31 homers) and Kerry Carpenter (26 homers).
– Thank you for the laughs, the insight, and the friendship, Scott Littlefield.
Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale
_