RetroSimba

The Cardinals continue to span the globe for talent.

In January 2020, the Cardinals’ 40-man winter roster had players who were natives of nine countries or territories. In alphabetical order, those are Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Korea, United States and Venezuela.

One of the Cardinals’ key acquisitions for the 2020 season was left-handed pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim, a South Korean.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is leading the franchise’s efforts to grow its global reach. In January 2020, Mozeliak answered questions from bloggers by e-mail. The opportunity to ask questions of Mozeliak came about through the efforts of Daniel Shoptaw, founder of United Cardinal Bloggers.

Mozeliak thoughtfully answered my two questions regarding the Cardinals’ international approach. Here are those questions and his answers:

Q.: What will be the long-term impact of the Cardinals’ Dominican Republic Academy on the major-league organization?

John Mozeliak: “Great question. We continue to invest in Latin America, specifically in the Dominican Republic. We’re currently operating two Dominican Summer League teams, and part of the reason for that is trying to create opportunity for finding more talent.

“I think, as you look at overall operating costs and what we’re also trying to manage through on the minor-league side, at some point I hope we get back to one team down there, but the impact we’re hoping for from the Latin America program is very real. These are measurable. Are you getting contribution from that program that’s contributing to the major-league side, or helping you with trades?

“Right now, we feel that our international operations has done a very good job of finding us talent and we continue to hope to enrich that by making investments and educating our staff to help them grow.”

Q.: How important will the Pacific Rim become as a talent source and how will the Cardinals be a player in that region?

John Mozeliak: “Well, clearly, we are a player in the region. I think you’re going to see more and more players have interest in coming here.

“A couple of things have changed over the last 10 years. I think the posting system (created to allow Asian teams to get compensation for players who want to go to the U.S. majors leagues) is much more fair. It’s more fair for everybody involved, not only domestic teams, but also teams in Korea and Japan.

“Players are able to see the game more, too. If you think about why New York, Boston or Los Angeles were the teams that seemed most attractive, I think part of that was because those were the teams that were on television in Asia. But now, with the ability to stream, players can see all the games, so their interest in other
baseball teams has become very real. You saw that with the Kwang-Hyun Kim signing.

“(Seung-Hwan) Oh (who pitched for the 2016-17 Cardinals) certainly didn’t hurt in that, being from Korea and speaking positively of the Cardinals, but also it was a team that he could see. I think how people watch the game of baseball now has helped our game grow.”