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MLB WORLD SERIES: RANGERS v CARDINALS

October 24, 2011

John Mozeliak

ARLINGTON, TEXAS: Game Five

Q. I'm from New York, and a few years ago Brian Cashman called Dave Dombrowski in Game 1 of the World Series and initiated the talks that got him Curtis Granderson that winter. So I'm wondering even as you're watching the World Series, are you already looking or working at all toward next year?
JOHN MOZELIAK: You know, it's funny because getting into the postseason this year was somewhat of a surprise for the St. Louis Cardinals. So we were starting to begin a lot of preparatory work as far as looking at 2012, and so when you look as we start to approach November, from the St. Louis Cardinals' perspective, we certainly understand some of the things we'd like to see accomplished this offseason. But of course given the excitement of the last three weeks, it's been somewhat slowed down because of that.
But I think part of the emphasis we tried to do leading into October was get Carpenter signed back up to that extension, obviously getting Berkman done. So we tried to knock off a few of the things that was going to be on our list of things to accomplish this offseason.
So as we start to approach the real trading season, if you will, looking at partners and what might line up there, we're not that deep into that at this time, but we certainly have some ideas on what we might be able to do.

Q. Can you share those ideas with us?
JOHN MOZELIAK: I don't think I'll do that at this time.

Q. In that context, how much is what has happened in the past few weeks altered at all your assessment of some of these players who you're assessing and some of your needs? It's safe to assume that this team is not going to be -- you're not going to be able to bring everybody back, right?
JOHN MOZELIAK: No, but when you look at our offseason strategy, it hasn't changed dramatically just due to the postseason success. There's certainly some things that when you look at putting this club together, the big question marks are going to be, will we get Albert Pujols re-signed or not? But with that said, our rotation should be intact, you have two young pitchers that might look to compete for a spot with Rzepczynski and Lance Lynn in the rotation. In terms of just dramatically reshaping this club, I think we're pretty fortunate as we look to 2012 that we have a lot of the key components that we can just put into play.
As far as just the last month goes, it really hasn't changed how our outlook is.

Q. Tony has talked about a few times, the way we do things around here. Do you have any sort of definition for that, or can you speak more broadly about what that sort of Cardinal way is, if there is such a thing?
JOHN MOZELIAK: I think when you think about the St. Louis Cardinals, there's obviously just a steep history of success, and really when you look at Tony's tenure in St. Louis, it's been about winning. I think when players decide they want to play here or look to play in St. Louis, there's certain expectations that a player wants to see done. Our goal as a front office, as coaches and a manager, we're just trying to make sure that the atmosphere is a winning atmosphere and one that's catering to what they believe and what they expect from this organization.
And so when you think about building a business, you want that culture to represent success, and when we look at things and you hear people say, "Cardinal way", it's about tradition, it's about respect, and it's about doing things right, and that's what we try to really impart onto our players.

Q. I think a lot of people identify Albert as closely with this team as any other person. From a competitive standpoint, if he's here, I think everybody knows what this club looks like. If that doesn't work out, how big of a variable does that represent in terms of this club maintaining a competitive or contending presence within the division? I know you've worked the model both ways, I just didn't know how you saw the second model.
JOHN MOZELIAK: I assume you're referring to if he's not here. Clearly we still think we have a lot of core players, elite type players, part of this organization. One of the things that we've tried to really focus on over the last four or five years is really making sure that our Minor League system is going to be able to produce some everyday players or middle to top-of-rotation type starters. So happy to say, we believe our pipeline is very strong, and so if this is an Albert-less club in the future, we still think we have a lot of positives coming.
But there's no doubt, he's been the identity of this organization for the past decade, and trying to just push one button or try to say you're not going to feel that loss would be very difficult to say, especially in this environment.

Q. How much of a question for you are Tony and the coaching staff? And are those things you hope to have completely squared away before you go any further with player movement?
JOHN MOZELIAK: You know, as far as handicapping that, I think I'm not going to go down that path, but obviously having a manager in place and that staff in place, that would be probably something that we need to do right away, because obviously it's a very difficult task if we were to have to replace Tony. So at this point, hopeful that we can wrap that up rather quickly. And right now as far as what's going to happen, every time he and I start to sit down and talk about it, we always realize and we sort of pinch ourselves that here we are in the World Series or having success in the postseason. So we just really haven't stopped to focus on it at this time.

Q. It seems in recent years there's almost this "you have to win it all" mentality or the season is not a success. Like the Yankees, for example, said they won 97 games and said it was a bad year. Do you feel that that's fair to any organization to say that if you don't win it all, it's not been a successful season?
JOHN MOZELIAK: Well, I hope not. I think when you look at the different ways teams are put together and what people are expecting really determines the outcome of whether it's a success or not. I think in our case, when we lost Adam Wainwright, I think a lot of people figured that we weren't going to be players in this. As we sit here today, here we are. So I think when you take a step back and really reflect on 2011 from the Cardinals' perspective, it has to be considered a success.

Q. There was the press release in the first round that said I think it was 5.2 million as far as the economic impact on the metro region with each postseason game that you guys had. I was just curious if there's any sort of numbers or equation that you have as far as what the team will actually benefit or how that could translate to future payroll.
JOHN MOZELIAK: Well, as I told you before, as far as payroll goes for next year, I don't see a major deviation from where we are this year. And as far as additional revenues to our postseason success, it's a fairly large delta and one that I'm not real comfortable yet trying to nail down. But certainly the deeper you go in the postseason, you do benefit. And the fact that we know there's going to be a Game 6, I think in general there's going to be more revenue in baseball.

Q. As I sit here listening to you talk, you're two games away from a World Series victory, and yet after the last out you've got to try to sign your manager, you've got to try to sign your marquee player. How tough is that? You've gotten to this point and as soon as you celebrate your victory or whatever happens you've got to go back to work in minutes --
JOHN MOZELIAK: It doesn't seem fair, does it? When you look at this job, it's sort of -- getting here and just trying to enjoy this moment as best you can. But sitting there this morning in my hotel room staring at my calendar going, hmm, not a lot of time for other things because there are going to be other duties that are going to take time and that are required for my attention. Special as this is, it's going to ultimately be a fleeting moment. And in time it's going to be right back to it and roll up our sleeves and address the things that we have to do for the following year.

Q. I know you're wrapped up in the heat of battle, so to speak, but are you able to appreciate the entertainment value of this series, two teams so evenly matched and guaranteed to go at least six weeks?
JOHN MOZELIAK: From a fan standpoint, and I do consider myself a fan, I think it's been captivating baseball. I'm purely looking at this from the lenses of the St. Louis Cardinals, but going back to Game 5 with Carpenter and Halladay, just to really the drama we've seen throughout. The World Series has done nothing but just add to it.
From a fan standpoint and from a baseball executive standpoint, I'm just proud to be a part of this game because I think from just a baseball standpoint it's been fun to watch.

Q. You've got a really big statue of Stan Musial out front and a bunch of little statues of some of the other great players. In the free agent era, does it change how important it is for a player to end his career with one team? How does the organization now view this, particularly in Albert's case?
JOHN MOZELIAK: Well, I think the question is more for the player, but from my perspective, having a player play for 15 or 20 years with one organization I think maybe might be considered more special at this point because it's so rare. In the days of free agency where you see so much turn from rosters, I think it's refreshing where you can have a player be identified with one organization and one that when you look back to like the Stan Musial era or the Red Schoendienst era, this is just a different time, and to have something where a player ends up like a Cal Ripken, play somewhere for as long as he did for one organization I think just -- it's an anomaly at this point. Hopefully we can accomplish another one.

Q. You pulled off a pretty big trade this summer that really sort of made a big difference. Do you feel like you have to pursue trades more given where you are in terms of payroll, you can't just go out and buy whoever you want? Because there aren't a lot of big trades that happen anymore.
JOHN MOZELIAK: Well, I think the best answer is you'd like your pipeline to be providing you with the talent, but there are times where you can try to leverage an asset to try to help your club. This summer we took advantage of that. Even though I have a history of being part of a lot of trades, it's not something that we actually look to do very often. It just happens to be that it's one answer to get to where we need to go.
I think traditionally doing three-player trades are more difficult, more complex, but this year we were fortunate because we had a couple parties involved that were looking to accomplish the same thing.
So when I look at, like, this offseason and looking to replenish talent, trade is one market you can go to, free agent market is another, and then obviously you have your internal market. I think when you look at efficiencies and effectiveness, you have to be players in all three to really be effective.

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