John Mozeliak's comments on Roki Sasaki clearly show Cardinals have given up

It's not exactly been a banner offseason thus far for St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. More pointedly, it's not been a banner last few years for Mozeliak either. But we may not have really understood how bad it's gotten for the lame-duck executive in St. Louis until this year's Winter Meetings. But, oh buddy, it's brutal out there.

With Nolan Arenado trade talk dominating many conversations around the Cardinals right now, Mozeliak obviously had to address that. When asked about what the team's plans were regarding such a trade, he dropped a gem of a defeatist line by saying, "It's my intention to try." Thanks for making it sound so great out there!

As bad as that was, though, it's only gotten worse. This time, Mozeliak was asked about another big name buzzing about the Winter Meetings, Roki Sasaki. The Japanese superstar pitcher at just 23 years old has been posted from the Chiba Lotte Marines of the NPB and will now be a coveted commodity. So, naturally, the Cardinals exec was asked about St. Louis' involvement.

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John Mozeliak's comment on Cardinals' Roki Sasaki plans is beyond brutal

When asked about Sasaki, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mozeliak sounded even more defeated by simply saying, "We will make a pitch."

Just off the bat, I sure as hell would hope you would make a pitch if you're Mozeliak. Not only has Sasaki displayed ace-caliber stuff at such a young age but the young right-hander is a rarity in terms of Japanese stars coming to MLB. Coming over at 23 years old means he will be signed using international bonus pool money, meaning he'll be cost-controlled and won't require breaking the bank to sign him now. That puts virtually all 30 MLB teams into play.

So the Cardinals being involved, especially with so few young and sure answers in the rotation right now, would make sense. But all that Mozeliak can offer is that they will make a pitch? What exactly are you going to pitch? Are you going to send Sasaki the meme of the broken record player with the message "Broken, but could be fun to fix"? Because the way Mozeliak is talking, that almost seems like the way he currently views the Cardinals.

Further making the optics of this look that much worse is the fact that Mozeliak, as mentioned, is a lame duck in all of this. It's already widely known he'll be out after this year and Chaim Bloom, his successor, is already in the building. So to make such disinterested comments about a potential superstar who would actually fit the timeline in St. Louis makes him look that much worse.

He may have already given up. I'm not sure what other way you could read his comments on Sasaki, especially after the previous "intentions" comment regarding Arenado. And if you're a Cardinals fans, I wish I could tell you that things will change for the better. They might but, for the next year with Mozeliak moving like this, it might take some time.