While Bill DeWitt III and Anuk Karunaratne were awarded promotions that will make them more active in the business and baseball sides of the St. Louis Cardinals, 84-year-old chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. made a couple of things clear on Wednesday at Busch Stadium.

First, he reiterated that his passion for rebuilding the Cardinals into a consistent winner -- on an off the field -- is as strong as ever. Secondly, he held firm to his roles as the Cardinals’ chairman and principal owner, refusing to relinquish them. And finally, he noted that all decisions – business and baseball – will continue to be made collaboratively between himself, Bill III, Karunaratne and president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom.

“Nothing’s really changed; obviously, I stay in touch with Bill III, baseball stays in touch with me as Chaim and I talk all the time,” a feisty DeWitt Jr. said. “I may not be here (based in St. Louis full time), but I’m here in spirit and I’m available 24/7. I’m still in touch with all the things we’re looking to do and that’s worked out pretty well.”

DeWitt III was promoted to the club’s chief executive officer and one that will allow him to grow into being involved in as many future baseball decisions as he’s been a part of on the business side over the last decade. That is an area where he wants to grow more confident in absorbing and he feels the strong relationship already in place with Bloom will help assist in that process.

Karunaratne, who joined the Cardinals before the 2024 season, was promoted to the president of business operations where he will oversee the team's ticketing, marketing, corporate sales/partnerships, broadcasting, business analytics and IT departments. Prior to joining the Cardinals, Karunaratne served as the Executive Vice President of Business Operations of the Blue Jays where he co-led the team's sales, marketing, fan experience, facilities and business administration operations.

Karunaratne said the Cardinals will continue to make all decisions with the well-being of the organization’s dedicated fanbase at the forefront.

“Their support is not something we can assume, and we have to earn it every single day,” said Karunaratne, who was behind the organization’s creation of “Friday Night Live” to try and breathe energy into Busch Stadium and a Sunday event centered around families with small children. “That means putting our fans at the center of every decision we make and every action we take. That’s the focus of our business organization.

“My job is to make sure that we’re aligned, discipline, accountable, one that can support a consistent winner on the field and one that earns the respect of our fans. That’s going to show up in how we make decisions together and how we deliver for our fans every day. It’s our job to give (fans) a reason to show up and to make the ballpark an experience worth your time and money and make it easy to stay connected to this team and to make sure Cardinals baseball matters to the next generation.”

DeWitt Sr. said nothing of any consideration of ever selling a franchise that his father was involved in while working alongside Branch Rickey decades ago and one that he purchased in 1995 and led to storied success. In fact, DeWitt III hinted that the long-term goal is to keep the franchise in the family and possibly have a third generation of DeWitts running it down the line.

Since the DeWitt family's purchase, the Cards have won World Series crowns in 2006 and '11, captured National League pennants two other times, won 11 NL Central Division titles and reached the playoffs 15 times. After winning 93 games and an NL Central title in 2022, the Cardinals finished last in their division for the first time in 30 years and saw their 15-year run of winning records end in 2023. They also missed the playoffs in 2024 and’25, but have been encouraged by the rebuilding work put in by Bloom, who traded veterans Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan, and reset the franchise’s foundation around Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, rookie JJ Wetherholt and a host of 20-something pitchers in the rotation and out of the bullpen.

“This team has been really fun to watch, and we’ve got a lot of young players who are coming into their own and maybe we’re a little ahead of where we were (projected),” DeWitt III admitted. “There’s still a long way to go this year, but if they can keep this up, it could change a little about how we think about things.”

Bloom said even though the Cardinals came into Wednesday 42-35 and in possession of the top Wild Card slot in the National League, the club will not allow short-term goals – such as making the playoffs this season – cloud the ultimate goal of being a championship contender in the coming years.

“I sat here in the fall and I’ve said it plenty of times since then that we have pretty ambitious goals and we want to make sure that we have a good plan to get there and we don’t get distracted,” said Bloom, one of the favorites to win MLB’s Executive of the Year award with the work he’s done in reconstructing the Cards. “I still feel that way. Shortcuts aren’t going to get you where you want to go. I did say that we are willing to make those hard decisions (about whether to trade veteran players in late July), but at no point are we going to walk in this building and not wanting to win.

“The cool thing that’s happened to this point – in part because of what we did in the offseason – we did it with the focus and ambition on a certain goal. The success we’ve come by, we’ve come by it honestly and not through shortcuts or cheap thrills. We’re really trying to build something. We have to keep that in mind. We still have a lot of time between now and when the deadline action really heats up. But we want to have success through building toward something.”

DeWitt Jr. hopes the road the Cardinals are on will ultimately lead to a 12th World Series crown for the franchise and a third during his ownership. He acknowledged that the collapse of local cable networks and the sharp downturns in attendance have made the club’s cost certainty less clear each year, and new rules in a new labor deal could change so much about how the Cards do business in the future.

Still, he said, he has the hunger to try and win it all again.

“Everybody aspires to winning a World Series and we’ve been fortunate to win two of those and been there two additional times,” he said. “At my age I can look back as well as look forward and know this is a great baseball town and it continues to have the baseball spirit because we’ve won. …

“My father started with the Cardinals in 1913, so our family (connection to the club) goes back pretty far. We’re all in. We just had lunch with our grandson, who happens to work for the Cardinals. We’re excited, not only about what has happened to date, but also about what the future is.”

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