John Mozeliak is more focused on himself than Cardinals at winter meetings

John Mozeliak will step down from his post after the season, thus remaining with the St. Louis Cardinals in some capacity. Mozeliak has been the President of Baseball Operations since the 2017 season. Starting in 2025, Chaim Bloom will take the reigns.

Mozeliak is aware this is the end of an era for him. While one can't blame him for reflecting a bit, having that sentiment overshadow his actual offseason to-do list speaks volumes of where his head is at. The Cardinals have chosen their direction, and that is to retool around their young players. Paul Goldschmidt is a free agent and good as gone. Nolan Arenado is likely to be traded in the near future. The bullpen and rotation needs revamping.

Rather than going quietly about his business in the direction the franchise agreed upon, Mozeliak has taken multiple interviews discussing, among few other things, his last months as president of baseball operations.

“For me, it’s more of a sunset with a focus on trying to get things right,” Mozeliak said., per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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John Mozeliak is more focused on himself than the Cardinals plans

We're off to a flying start. Mozeliak prefers to talk about the talk, rather than the present, if only because he's left the Cardinals in a worse spot than when he took over as President of Baseball Operations.

“For our organization and arguably my career — there is no doubt coming out of that 2011 season,” Mozeliak said. “When you’re in my seat, any time you can win a World Series, it’s extraordinarily special. And then when you couple that with the events that unfolded — Tony (La Russa) stepping down, hiring of Mike Matheny, coaching changes, to have your most iconic player for at least two decades leave the franchise. Those were really challenging times. I think we navigated it well.”

Have they navigated it well? St. Louis won its last World Series in 2011. Mozeliak took over in 2017, and since then the Cardinals have gotten progressively worse. They've missed the postseason the past two years, and are ridding themselves of Goldschmidt and Arenado, two players Mozeliak hopes would take the torch from Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.

Mozeliak's comments strike me as somone in denial. It's easier to leave such a desirable post if you believe you've done a good job. Mozeliak, at least of late, has not. And that has to sting.