(Busch Stadium) The St. Louis Cardinals held a press conference this afternoon to announce the promotions of John Mozeliak to President of Baseball Operations and Michael Girsch to General Manager. The decision to make the changes were based on a simple phrase that Bill DeWitt Jr. regularly challenges baseball operations with.
“What’s our competitive advantage?,” shared Mozeliak. “How do we separate ourselves from 29 other organizations? That’s something that I do feel over the last four or five years, that I haven’t focused on.”
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“For it to be a competitive advantage, it’s something we keep internal but it’s something that we start to address,” continued Mozeliak. “I assume from my day-to-day life, it’s going to be one where I can take a more high level view of what’s happening in our operation and drill a little deeper on how we can improve it, make it better, or more efficient.”
“Good organizations, whether it’s baseball or business or any organization, needs to develop good people underneath the top level and continue to give them opportunity,” said DeWitt. “Whether it’s Girsch going from Assistant GM to GM or the group under him going from assistants to directors. We got picked over a little bit the last number of years, so we need to be cognizant of that. I think we’ve done a very good job of hiring excellent people, but once they do their job, we need to move them on.”
With the promotions, Girsch will now handle the day-to-day operations of the Cardinals while Mozeliak will focus on more strategic aspects for the organization.
“All directors will report to him now,” explained Mozeliak of Girsch’s role which will include a more robust role in player moves, transactions, and trades. “These are all things that he will have his fingerprints on. Certainly, when you think about the impact of some of these decisions, we will certainly keep Bill in the loop and get his blessings on anything that’s a major decision that could affect the franchise. And certainly Girsch will keep me in the loop on anything he’s thinking about or any ideas.”
Mozeliak has been with the Cardinals the last 22 years and spent the last 10 as General Manager. Girsch joined St. Louis 11 years ago and spent the last seven as an assistant to Mozeliak.
