Cardinals president calls out Dexter Fowler for poor effort

John Mozeliak is not pleased with his $82 million man.

Appearing on Monday with St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Dan McLaughlin on the podcast “Scoops with Danny Mac,” the Cardinals president spoke harshly about outfielder Dexter Fowler and Fowler’s perceived lack of effort.

“It’s been a frustrating year for everybody involved,” said Mozeliak of Fowler, per Brett Taylor of Bleacher Nation. “Here’s a guy who wants to go out and play well. I think he would tell you it’s hard to do that when you’re not playing on a consistent basis. But I’ve also had a lot of people come up to me and question his effort and his energy level. You know, those are things that I can’t defend. What I can defend is trying to create opportunities for him, but not if it’s at the expense of someone who’s out there hustling and playing hard.

“I think everyone just needs to take a hard look in the mirror and decide what they want that next chapter to look like,” Mozeliak added. “And in Dexter’s case, maybe taking a brief time out, trying to reassess himself, and then give him a chance for a strong second half is probably what’s best for everybody. I’m hopeful to touch base with him in the near future and decide what makes the most sense, but clearly he’s not playing at the level we had hoped.”

The 32-year-old Fowler is in perhaps the worst slump of his MLB career, batting a miserable .171/.276/.278 with five homers and 20 RBIs this season. He also has the lowest fielding percentage of any Cardinals outfielder (.962), and the combination of the two has led to Fowler’s team-worst WAR of -1.2.

Fowler, who is still owed roughly $66 million after signing a five-year, $82 million deal with St. Louis in 2017, was cracking jokes about his slow start earlier in the year. But now that he is getting publicly rebuked by one of the highest up in the organizational hierarchy, it’s clear this is no laughing matter.