Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 04, 2007
Jockeying for Jocketty's Job

In a surprise move, the Cardinals fired Walt Jocketty today.

Citing a widening front office split, Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. dismissed Jocketty, the longest-tenured GM in club history, during a Wednesday morning meeting at DeWitt's Clayton home.

Jocketty had received no indication of a pending move regarding his status before DeWitt invited him to Wednesday's 45-minute meeting.

Many within the front office were unaware of the move until the club issued a press release at about 3 p.m.

"To say he was not 100 percent happy would certainly be accurate," DeWitt said.

I bet. Walt struck me as one of the better GMs in the game. I didn't always agree with the way he built his team. He liked to bring in veterans who should be in decline, but the Cardinals usually seemed to get good seasons out of them. But I guess DeWitt felt the same way:

The move, which was first reported on STLtoday.com, occurred less than one year after the Cardinals secured their first World Series title in 24 years, but was more directly influenced by DeWitt's installation of a new front office model less than 13 months ago.

Jocketty's refusal to embrace the new structure brought scrutiny that culminated in his ouster, according to DeWitt, despite a successful 13-year run highlighted by two World Series appearances and five trips to the playoffs the last seven seasons.

Reflecting greater organizational emphasis on signing and developing its own talent, an expedited search will likely focus on assistant general managers with a strong background in scouting and player development, according to the team chairman.

I'm sure some organization would be more than happy to hire Walt to run their operations. I'm sure we'll hear more about this story in the coming days.


Posted by David Pinto at 12:46 AM | Management | TrackBack (0)
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