The longtime director of the Cardinals’ farm system and assistant general manager who received the team’s highest honor for player development in 2018, Gary LaRocque will retire at the end of the season, the team announced.
His departure from the role assures that there will be some change to the team’s leadership structure going into the 2025 season.
LaRocque, 71, will stay with the club in an advisory role for a year.
A baseball executive or coach for five decades, LaRocque joined the Cardinals in 2008, and he has guided the team’s player development structure for 12 seasons. According to the team’s research, his tenure overseeing the minor leagues is the second-longest in club history to only Hall of Fame executive Branch Rickey. Under LaRocque’s guidance, the Cardinals had one of the most successful pipelines of pitching talent to the majors in the industry.
He received the George Kissell Award for contributions to player development in 2018.
During his leadership of the system, the Cardinals graduated 113 homegrown players to the majors and affiliates won nine league championships. The farm system also produced the Cardinals' past two managers in Mike Shildt and current manager Oliver Marmol, both of whom worked closely with LaRocque as minor-league coaches and managers before moving to the majors.
Cardinals farm director Gary LaRocque, left, then-manager Mike Matheny and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak talk during a workout at spring training in February 2018.Ìý
LaRocque’s retirement is the first change of what could be an offseason of shifting roles and voices for baseball operations.
John Mozeliak, the president of baseball operations, is entering the final year of a contract that he has said several times will be his last in his current role. Former Boston and Tampa Bay executive Chaim Bloom has spent this season as an advisor for the Cardinals, working his way through the organization and auditing it for areas of potential improvement and change.
Throughout his dozen years with the Cardinals, LaRocque was approached by other teams for a variety of roles, including general manager. The Arizona Diamondbacks sought LaRocque for a restructuring of its front office under Tony La Russa’s leadership, and the New York Mets also interviewed LaRocque for their vacant general manager position within the past decade.
Since the 2020 shutdown of the minor-league system, the Cardinals’ farm system has not been able to keep pace with other rivals.
The Cardinals’ farm system promoted Masyn Winn, Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson and others to the major leagues and, in part due to their advancement, slipped from a top-10 ranking entering the 2023 season to No. 21 at midseason this summer, according to Baseball America. In 2021, the Cardinals’ farm system had one of the worst combined winning percentages in the history of organized minor-league baseball. The club traced that lack of success to the decision to push players ahead one level, as if they had played the 2020 season.
In recent seasons, the Cardinals have not filled several staff openings in the minor-league system, including field coordinator, and they also have not expanded their minor-league coaching staffs or support groups like other organizations. Some of the positions or programs trimmed during the pandemic have not returned like the Cardinal Core program.
To the position of farm director, LaRocque brought a varied resume that included managing and other roles in uniform. That experience informed his commitment to the fundamentals and principles the Cardinals had long taught in the minor-league system through Kissell’s influence.
LaRocque also emphasized the importance of contending in the minors and preparing for the challenge of postseason play in the majors.
During his late-season meetings with individual affiliates, he was known to ask players how they felt in August or September as the minor-league system neared an end. He wondered if they felt the effects of the long season. He would then ask them how they planned to have energy for October.
He would the deliver his message: “Because Cardinals play in October.â€
“On behalf of the entire 50¶È»ÒÊÓƵ Cardinals organization, I would like to congratulate Gary on his long and distinguished career in baseball,†Mozeliak said in a statement. “Gary’s leadership and direction has made a tremendous impact on the Cardinals' organization, always striving to do what was best for our players and staff to help make them the best at what they do — both on and off the field. Gary has not only been a great farm director for us, but he has also been a great friend to myself and many others.â€
LaRocque played in Milwaukee’s system and spent nearly 20 years as a coach and manager in the Dodgers’ organization. He moved to scouting in 1980s and joined the Mets, where he served as a vice president overseeing scouting and player development and also pro scouting before coming to the Cardinals.
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