By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Longtime St. Louis Cardinals' general manager Walt Jocketty is leaving the team.
Team officials announced today that it was a mutual agreement that Jockety would leave, despite having a year remaining on his contract. Cardinals' chairman of the board Bill DeWitt Junior says friction in the team's front office was a factor in Jocketty's departure.
"While I have said on several occasions that tension is in every organization, I do think it got to the point with the Cardinals that it was counterproductive and we couldn't achieve our objectives given what was going on inside the organization", Dewitt said.
Team President Mark Lamping says philosophical differences between Jocketty and the ownership had become too great,
"What has occurred over the past couple years is very well documented by many of you in this room is a division in baseball operations and continuity without common purpose just doesn't work."
Jocketty has been with the Cardinals for thirteen years, during which the team won six division titles, two National League pennants and a World Series. Assistant G-M John Mozeliak has been named the team's interim general manager.
Manager Tony Larussa, who also worked with Jockety in Oakland, has not made a decision yet on whether he will return to the Cardinals in 2008.