It’s the end of an era in St. Louis: After 13 years, Walt Jocketty and the Cardinals are no longer synonymous. And as the lynchpin to the coaching staff, Jocketty is likely only the first domino to fall.

As much as Jocketty did as general manager of the team, it’s probably best. In addition to the summer-long "rumors" of front-office conflict, Jocketty hadn’t been able to turn an effective trade since the Larry Walker waiver deal of 2004 and made some fan-friendly but ultimately unwise contact extensions last winter. Most recently, Jocketty lost a lot of credibility when he foolishly and unprofessionally defended Rick Ankiel after Ankiel’s cheating was discovered. It’s one thing to stick up for a player who is wrongly accused; it’s quite another to stake your reputation on defending the indefensible and, in doing so, alienating many fans.

Jocketty’s departure is probably more mutual than the headlines indicate. At some point in the 2007, Jocketty’s — and Tony La Russa’s — existence with the club turned into a hospital room of people waiting for the patient to die. The patient died, and no one really seemed willing to deal with the post-morterm. Until now.

Jocketty gets credit for bringing the core of the 2004-2005 lineup — Rolen and Edmonds — and locking up Pujols. But building around peaking/post-peak veterans requires constant vigilance, and it seemed that after the 2004 season, Jocketty was a bit complacent. Let’s review his trades since that World Series team, probably the best of Jocketty’s tenure:

^: 3-team trade
#: minor leaguer
PTBNL: Player to be named later

In the throes of the 2004 World Series loss, Jocketty overreacted and made the biggest mistake of his Cardinal career by trading away two of the team’s most precious commodities and a reliable middle reliever for an overvalued Mark Mulder. Jocketty can’t be faulted for Mulder’s subsequent ineffectiveness and injuries, but he is liable for essentially throwing good money after bad in signing Mulder to a two-year $13 million deal before Mulder had even thrown a single rehab pitch. Similarly, the success of the mid-oughts must’ve seemed more stable to Jocketty as he committed the team to costly extensions to Edmonds and Chris Carpenter, both on the decline side of their careers and no strangers to injuries themselves. Since the Mulder trade, Jocketty had been unable to repeat his skill of wise dealing and settled for a series of also-ran acquisitions who were more likely to fill the bench than impact the team’s future, as Rolen and Edmonds did.

In the end, the decision to end Jocketty’s Cardinal tenure must be evaluated by what is best for the Cardinals. If the internal tension that Bill DeWitt admitted — and perhaps Jocketty himself will by the bye — was enough to disquiet Jocketty to the point of not being able to optimally do his job, that’s enough to warrant the change. But whatever the reason, the Cardinals can now move forward, likely with an almost-entirely different coaching staff, as well. For a group that has brought much success but also much tumult, shadiness and, most recently, dishonor, we wish them well — in another organization.

This entry was posted by Pip on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 1:41 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.