In a surprise piece of news on Tuesday night, the St. Louis Cardinals informed local media that they would be holding a press conference on Wednesday, June 24th at 1 p.m. Central Time to address important news related to “ownership and organizational leadership”, with Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr., President Bill DeWitt III, President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom, and Senior Vice President, Business Operations Anuk Karunaratne.
While we can only speculate at this point, in all likelihood, the Cardinals will be announcing an official succession plan from Dewitt Jr. to DeWitt III as the new Chairman and CEO of the Cardinals. DeWitt Jr. is the fifth-longest tenured owner in baseball, dating back to 1995.
#STLCards chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. is the fifth-longest tenured owner in MLB, dating back to 1995.
If this is indeed the beginning of a succession plan or an immediate shift, it’s the end of highly successful run, with his son, Bill DeWitt III, set to step into the role. https://t.co/m9rAvN5XQu
— Josh Jacobs (@joshjaco98) June 24, 2026
During DeWitt Jr.’s time as the Cardinals’ principal owner, they have won two World Series championships, four National League pennants, 11 trips to the NLCS, 12 NL Central titles, and 17 trips to the playoffs. During that time, the Cardinals drafted or acquired future Hall of Famers or legends like Mark McGwire, Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and many more.
It’s a truly iconic stretch of Cardinals history, and if it is coming to a close starting tomorrow, there will need to be a whole lot of celebrations for DeWitt Jr. in order.
The Cardinals ownership and leadership succession plan continues major changes in organization
Over the last 21 months, the Cardinals have seen seismic shifts to the organization, first beginning with the 12-month transition plan from former President of Baseball Operations, John Mozeliak, to Bloom. Mozeliak had been leading baseball operations since 2007, so the Cardinals had not seen this level of change throughout the organization in almost two decades.
Right around the time they officially announced Bloom as an advisor to Mozeliak back in January 2024, the Cardinals also announced the hiring of Karunaratne, who came over from the Toronto Blue Jays to lead business operations. With his participation in this press conference, it seems likely that he will step into either DeWitt III’s role as president, a job title shift, or at the very least, increased responsibilities overseeing the business side of the Cardinals’ operation.
While chatter about the future of Cardinals ownership has come and gone over the last few years, there has not been much in terms of official acknowledgement of an upcoming plan until now. DeWitt Jr. did comment on the elephant in the room back at Cardinals’ Winter Warm-Up, alluding to DeWitt III stepping into that role at some point.
I asked Bill DeWitt, Jr. in January if he’d considered a succession plan for ownership of the franchise, and he was blunt in acknowledging that “I’m not going to be around forever,” and said he expects Bill DeWitt III to “continue on for a long time”: pic.twitter.com/yKyicORpgY— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) June 24, 2026
For those wondering, it is highly unlikely that the Cardinals would be announcing a future sale of the team.
We’ll have you covered here on the site following the press conference with an update regarding the Cardinals’ ownership and leadership. It’s a lot of change for an organization that has been so steady and consistent for so long, but this has been coming down the pipeline for quite some time. The Cardinals seem to have been very intentional with setting this plan into motion, and now we will get a better picture of it on Wednesday.