Cardinals shuffling continues: Mozeliak moves to president of baseball operations – CBSSports.com

The St. Louis Cardinals held a press conference on Friday afternoon to make some small changes to their front office. They have promoted general manager John Mozeliak to president of baseball operations. With that, they also promote assistant general manager Mike Girsch to general manager. 

Both have contracts that now run through 2020. 

So the internal promotion of two from within the organization isn’t huge news, but it’s noteworthy. It’s somewhat cosmetic, but the role of Mozeliak is expanded to oversee everything in the organization while Girsh’s duties expand as well. 

“Mike Girsch is more than ready to take over the daily operations of this department, while I am excited to focus on more strategic goals of the organization,” said Mozeliak. “Our entire group is fortunate to work for Bill DeWitt Jr, a visionary leader who has invested heavily in creating an organization that values innovation and demands excellence in every aspect of its operations.”

The model of having a president and GM is becoming more and more common. The Cubs employed the setup with Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer. The Dodgers have Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, respectively, in those roles as well. 

The biggest takeaway here, though, is that the Cardinals ownership obviously still has lots of confidence in their current front office. If there was any chance in the world that the slow start put Mozeliak’s job in peril, this wouldn’t be happening. In fact, Mozeliak and Girsch have been given extensions. 

“It is as important to maintain outstanding talent in the front office as it is on the playing field,” owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said. “Our success as an organization is built upon our continuity in leadership and today’s announcement ensures we keep two of the best young talents in our game for years to come.”   

See? The front office is very safe. 

It should be noted here that the Cardinals did shake up the coaching staff earlier this month in an attempt to snap out of a funk. Mozeliak announced those changes in a press conference. The team has gone 11-9 since then. 

The Cardinals are 37-41 this season and that’s certainly a disappointment. The NL Central is so down, however, that the Cardinals are only 3 1/2 games out of first place entering Friday.