The St. Louis Cardinals didn’t wait for first pitch to make headlines before their Saturday game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The team announced a pair of promotions at the top of the organization, elevating Bill DeWitt III to CEO and naming Anuk Karunaratne the new president of business operations.
Bill DeWitt Jr., who has been the face of ownership since buying the club in 1996, will stay on as chairman and principal owner. So this isn’t a full changing of the guard. More like a formal recognition of what DeWitt III has been doing for years.
DeWitt III has been with the Cardinals since that 1996 purchase, when his father and Stephen F. Brauer bought the team from Anheuser-Busch. He started in marketing, moved up to senior vice president of business development, then oversaw the design and construction of Busch Stadium which opened in 2006. Lately he supervised everything from sales and finance to game-day production and baseball operations. CEO is basically the title that matches the job he already had.
Karunaratne steps into the president role that DeWitt III held. He joined the Cardinals in 2024 after working with the Toronto Blue Jays. So he’s still relatively new to St. Louis but clearly made an impression fast.
On the field the Cardinals are sitting at 42-35, good for second place in the NL Central and currently holding a Wild Card spot. That’s a decent spot but nothing locked in. The Diamondbacks series matters for keeping pace in a crowded NL race.
Nolan Arenado got an ovation from the home crowd earlier in this series, which is weird to type out loud given he’s playing for Arizona now. But that’s where we are. The Cardinals are trying to win games and sort out their front office at the same time.
The timing of the announcement right before game three feels deliberate. No press conference drama. No drawn-out farewell. Just a post on X and let’s play ball. That’s pretty on brand for an organization that tends to do business quietly and then move on.
Leave a Comment