Sep 17, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn (31) reacts as he walks off the field after the sixth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Cardinals Legend Calls Out Fans Who Blame John Mozeliak For 202

Originally posted on St. Louis Cardinals on SI
By Curt Bishop | Last updated Sep 19, 2025 4:00 PM ET

The St. Louis Cardinals sit five games below the .500 mark with just one home series remaining on the 2025 regular season schedule and a six-game road trip. More than likely, St. Louis will miss the postseason for a third consecutive year and finish below .500 for the second time in the last three years. Prior to 2023, the last time they had recorded a losing season was 2007.

Not much was done to improve this year's team. Only one free agent, Phil Maton, was signed, and he is now with the Texas Rangers. John Mozeliak has caught a lot of criticism in recent years for the team's failures.

However, former Cardinals pitcher and 2011 World Series champion Lance Lynn rushed to Mozeliak's defense and had some strong words for people criticizing him for what happened in 2025.

Cardinals Legend Calls Out Fans Who Blame John Mozeliak For 2025

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

"If he gets blamed for this year, I find it to be horses**t. That's the way I'm going to put it." Lynn said. "If that's how you want to look at him as a fan, that's nonsense. You need to go back and look at every other year when he put the winning product on the field and when ownership gave him the ability to spend money. He went for it. This year, he didn't get any of those things and he had to sit with it being his last year, so I think he got kind of a raw deal at the end here."

Mozeliak isn't entirely to blame for how things have gone in 2025. Ultimately, what took place was an organization-wide failure, and not to put together a winning team. What the Cardinals failed to do was pick a direction on where they were headed in the future.

With Chaim Bloom taking over for Mozeliak at the end of the year, the focus is now on a rebuild and trying to strengthen the future for St. Louis. At the trade deadline, it appeared that the direction had finally been selected.

But had the Cardinals committed one way or the other before the 2025 season, it might have softened the blow of what has been yet another disappointing season in St. Louis.

Fans will be looking forward to the end of Mozeliak's tenure, which now is just over a week away. We'll see how fans react when assessing the season.

This article first appeared on St. Louis Cardinals on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: