Former Cardinals and Reds general manager Walt Jocketty has passed away at age 74, as initially reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Jocketty was a fixture within baseball front offices for more than four decades, and he was the architect of the St. Louis team that won the 2006 World Series.
Cardinals chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. issued a statement in memory of Jocketty, stating “On behalf of the entire St. Louis Cardinals organization, I would like to offer our condolences to Walt’s family and his many friends. Walt was our first GM when we purchased the ball club, and he helped to lead our baseball operations through some of the franchise’s most successful and memorable years. He will be sorely missed, but long remembered for his distinguished career in baseball.”
Jocketty began his career working in the Athletics’ front office in 1980 as their director of minor league operations, and soon moved into another role as the director of baseball administration. During Jocketty’s 14-year run in Oakland, he helped draft and develop the core group of players that led the A’s to three straight AL pennants from 1988-90, as well as the 1989 World Series title. Jocketty moved on from the A’s to work with the Rockies in an assistant GM role for part of the 1994 season, but in October of that year, he received his first GM job when the Cardinals hired him to run their baseball operations department.
Tony La Russa was the Athletics’ manager for much of the team’s successful run in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and Jocketty’s past relationship with the skipper led to La Russa being hired as the Cardinals’ new manager prior to the 1996 season. That year saw the Cards win the NL Central and fall just short of the pennant with a seven-game loss to the Braves in the NLCS. 1996 was also one of only two winning seasons in Jocketty’s first five years with the Cardinals, though the team continued to amass talent — most notably another ex-Oakland staple in Mark McGwire, who launched his then-record 70 home runs in a St. Louis uniform in 1998.
Known for being a canny trader, Jocketty brought McGwire and many other star names to St. Louis during his 13-year run as the Cardinals’ general manager. Franchise icons Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina were also drafted and developed during Jocketty’s tenure, and this combination of both internal and external production again turned the Cardinals into a perennial contender. The Cards reached the playoffs six times in seven years from 2000-06, capturing two NL pennants and winning it all in 2006 for the Cardinals’ first championship since 1982.
Ironically, the 2006 team might have been one of the weaker Cardinals teams Jocketty put together, as the club won only 83 games in the regular season before catching fire in the playoffs. After the Cards posted only a 78-win season in 2007, Jocketty was fired following the season, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that there was something of a clash within the front office between Jocketty’s more old-school approach and the more analytical approach of then-Cardinals VP and future Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow.
It took Jocketty only a few months to land with the Reds in an advisory role, and just a few months after being hired, Jocketty was promoted to the GM job barely a month into the 2008 season. The Reds had losing records in every season from 2001-09, but in Jocketty’s third year on the job, Cincinnati got back on track by winning the NL Central crown. That was the first of two division titles and three overall playoff appearances for the Reds from 2010-13, as Jocketty again relied on an experienced veteran manager (Dusty Baker) and a homegrown star first baseman (Joey Votto).
Jocketty’s title changed to president of baseball operations following the 2015 season, as Dick Williams was promoted to the GM job as the first step in the Reds’ succession plan. A year later, Williams became Cincinnati’s PBO and Jocketty moved into an advisory role, and continued in various advisory capacities within the organization through the 2024 season.
We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to Jocketty’s family, friends, and colleagues.
