Cardinals, John Mozeliak Catch Up in Anaheim Before Three-Game Series

John Mozeliak, a front office leader for the Cardinals for three decades before his departure at the end of the 2025 season, spent time with manager Oliver Marmol, members of the Cards' coaching staff and several players, prior to his former team facing off against the Angels on Monday.

Mozeliak, who was a part of 10 playoff teams, two National League pennant winners and a 2011 World Series winner in St. Louis, was hired as an interim general manager and baseball operations consultant by the Angels on June 26. Mozeliak, who hasn't committed to the Angels beyond 2026, is tasked with trying to lay down the framework of a turnaround for a franchise that has suffered through 10 straight losing seasons and is seemingly headed to an 11th in 2026.

Mozeliak took pride in seeing how the Cardinals have performed in 2026. St. Louis, which traded away Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan over the winter, has been one of MLB's surprise teams this season.

"I got to see a lot of friends and friendly faces today and it was nice catching up with a lot of guys," Mozeliak said when interviewed by ESPN during Monday night's game. "You know, even when I was out of baseball, I was keeping one eye on the Cardinals and it's nice to see the success that they're having. But now my responsibility is to find a way to do it here.

"I think everybody on that (Cardinals' coaching) staff was somebody I was connected to. So, yeah, it was cool."

Mozeliak admitted that it was awkward to be taking over the Angels' front office just weeks before the MLB Draft. He said the organization has a ways to go in terms of talent accumulation to turn things around and be a winner again.

"Obviously, we're not where we need to be and that's clearly obvious with our record, but there's also a lot of really good people here," Mozeliak said. "A key for us is identifying what people's roles are and leveraging their strengths. And we have to figure out how we want to go through this trading period. I think it's an opportunity for us.

"As we start to focus on 2027 and beyond, it's really about doing the things that we did in St. Louis -- scout well, develop well and ultimately have a pipeline of talent that comes up to support your big-league team."