Q & A With John Mozeliak

This month, the gentleman that pulls the strings on the St. Louis Cardinals’ roster and operations, John Mozeliak, sat down and answered a long list of questions from various United Cardinal Bloggers. Some questions were sent in twice but he answered all of them. Whatever you think about the general manager, at the end of the day(his famous catchphrase), Mo is a good sport and doesn’t hide much with his answers. I found this out in January at the Winter Warmup. He was the first guy to don the media chair and take questions from a hungry group of reporters(including this rookie). He didn’t seem taxed or worried. He was as cool as a cucumber and didn’t hesitate with his answers. I like honest guys in suits. Mozeliak can’t always answer a question fully, and that is evidenced below when I tried to ponder the future of Jason Motte and Pat Neshek, but he does his best and I respect that.

Here are his answers to my five questions submitted.

1.) After such an amazing season out of nowhere, what kind of contract do you approach Pat Neshek with that is fair to him and the team?

We don’t comment on free agent players.

MattAdams

2.) Do you still view Matt Adams as a full time first baseman heading into the future?

I do.  I think he is going to be given every opportunity to do that, and you look at some of his late-season success against left-handed pitching, it was encouraging.  

3.)In a time of tragic circumstances, is there any better manager to guide this team into the future than Mike Matheny, a player who has experienced loss on a baseball field in 2002 with Darryl Kile?

When you have a tragedy in an organization, leadership does matter.  And anyone who had the opportunity to read what Mike wrote upon Oscar’s passing should realize that Mike has the compassion and understanding to assist our club to get through this.

MLB: St. Louis Cardinals at Washington Nationals

4.) With such a crowded rotation going into 2015, what are the chances we see Jaime Garcia on the bump next season?

Our expectations are TBD.  He’s currently rehabbing from thoracic outlet surgery and right now we are encouraged on how that’s going.  But until we see him on the mound and see him in spring training, we won’t know exactly what we have until he’s cleared to throw.
5.)Is Jason Motte a pitcher on your radar at the moment?

No comment on free agents.

There you are folks. Straight from Mozeliak. As a writer and blogger, you learn new things every day and with these set of questions, I found out that it’s not the right place to ask Mo about free agents at this point of the year. Being a fan of Motte as a person and his potential as a late inning reliever, I felt the need to ask the question. The same went for Neshek, who had an amazing 2014 season but will carry a far heavier price tag in 2015.

When it comes to it, getting answers straight from the source with this round of questions was another great new aspect to being a part of the United Cardinal Bloggers. In last week’s roundtable finale, I was asked what I was most thankful for this time of the year when it came to the Cards. Well, for me it’s simple. I am thankful I was invited into such a special group of scribes and storytellers. This was just the latest perk of being a member.

Thanks for reading and have a good start to the week. For more instant doses, find me on twitter.

 

  • Carlin November 24, 2014, 6:15 pm

    You forgot to ask him about plans to retrofit the stadium with a manual scoreboard!

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