Meet the man who Chaim Bloom hired to transform Cardinals' player development

The St. Louis Cardinals forecasted major changes to the organization when they announced their leadership transition plan from the John Mozeliak era to Chaim Bloom over the course of the 2025 season. While Bloom does not take over as president of baseball operations until the end of the season, he's already been overhauling the organization, including introducing new voices into their player development process.

None of whom are more significant than Rob Cerfolio.

Cerfolio, who Bloom hired to be the Cardinals' new assistant general manager, player development and performance, has been tasked with leading the most significant project within the Cardinals' organization during this regime change.

Rob Cerfolio has already begun transforming the Cardinals' player development since Chaim Bloom hired him this offseason

Prior to the end of the 2024 season, several anonymous Cardinals team employees opened up to Katie Woo of The Athletic regarding the Cardinals' player development woes, as "all described an outdated player development department, one that hurt players like (Jordan) Walker". One staffer went as far as to say "We no longer develop winning players", while another stated that “We’re in trouble. This is not easily fixable within the next year, or year after. This is going to take some time."

Item number one on Bloom's agenda for fixing these systemic issues was hiring a new director of player development, with Gary LaRoque, who had overseen the Cardinals' farm system for the last 12 seasons, retiring at the end of the 2024 season.

In came Cerfolio, who was highly sought after within the industry due to his tremendous work with the Cleveland Guardians front office over the last decade. A graduate of Yale University, Cerfolio oversaw player development in Cleveland for a number of years after rising up the ranks of their organization. The Guardians have been one of the model organizations in the realm of player development for some time now, and Cerfolio was the man tasked with leading that charge.

Now he brings that expertise to St. Louis, and alongside Bloom, the two player development gurus have been on the hunt to add more and more dynamic minds to their brain trust.

I spoke with Cerfolio on my podcast, Dealin the Cards, earlier this week, and the 32 year old opened about that transition to St. Louis, harmonizing the history and tradition of this organization while also seeking growth and evaloution to not only catch up with the rest of baseball, but get back to being on the cutting edge as well.

I asked Cerfolio about what sold him on uprooting his family from Cleveland to join the St. Louis front office, and I think his answer will be music to Cardinals fans' ears.

"When you work on a project for a long time, and for me, that was the development of our players and the building of a team and staff in Cleveland, like you feel high ownership over that, and it's really hard to walk away from it," Cerfolio shared. "But obviously, my family and I decided to do so, and I think that speaks to just the incredible history of success and the quality of people that the St. Louis Cardinals have. And some of those values that were non-negotiables for me of being a people-first organization, but also wanting to be on the cutting edge and do things at a way that kind of helps pace the industry, that's what I want to be known as.

That's a group that I want to work with. And obviously, having had a chance to interview with Chaim before when he was over in Boston, I knew him a little bit, and just really enjoyed the people that I interacted with during that week or ten-day period where I was going through the interview process.

Unsurprisingly, Cerfolio's vision for what the St. Louis Cardinals can be moving forward seems to be in lockstep with what Bloom is looking to usher in under his leadership. When Bloom gave his opening remarks following his announcement as the POBO in waiting, he ushered in a similar sentiment.

"More than anything, the remarkable success this organization has enjoyed for much of the two-plus decades was fueled by its homegrown talent pipeline," Bloom shared at the Cardinals' end-of-season press conference. "This year, I saw some of the reasons why. I saw the pride in what's been accomplished here over the years, the passion for teaching the game, the care for the organization, for what it stands for, and especially for our players.

And I saw in many of our staff a hunger to learn, to grow, to get better, to change. That's a good thing, because that's what we need, that's what this game demands. The competition in this area of our industry has been absolutely relentless over the past decade. It takes boldness and humility to get on top and to stay there. And if you stand still and you rest on your laurels for even just a moment, you get beat."

The very next thing Bloom forecasted following those comments was the coming hire of a new head of player development, the person who would work alongside Bloom in implementing those changes and overseeing player development under his regime, the role that Cerfolio now holds.

Cerfolio also spoke at length with us about his desire to gather voices from different organizations around baseball, particularly ones at the cutting edge of player development and performance, in order to become that organization that both he and Bloom are forecasting. This has been reflected in their subsequent hires this offseason as well.

Matt Pierpoint, who the Cardinals hired as their director of pitching, came over from the Seattle Mariners, where he had been serving as a pitching coordinator. Seattle is among the best organizations in baseball at producing young pitching, with Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, and Bryce Miller all among some of the best young arms in today's game.

Larry Day, who is the club's new director of player development and will work closely with Cerfolio in St. Louis, came over with Cefolio from the Guardians organization, where he had experience as a field coordinator and minor league manager.

Carl Kochan, the director of performance, was hired from the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he had been serving as a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and had previously worked with the San Fransicio Giants for ten seasons. Kochan was named the 2016 MLB strength coach of the year during his time with San Francisco, which won two World Series during his time there.

While Cerfolio was clear that he values the Cardinals' desire to develop their own people and hire from within, he's also someone who knows the benefit of adding the best minds from around the game of baseball into their braintrust whenever possible, something that will be key in moving the Cardinals toward their preferred future.

I also found Cerfolio's thoughts on the Cardinals' unique transition plan especially interesting. Most of the time, when an organization is transitioning a position like the president of baseball operations, that usually includes a quick dismissal of the previous regime and swift implementation of new staff. Instead, Mozeliak has been forecasting his own finish line for quite some time, allowing Bloom to have two full seasons under his belt to assess the organization and implement changes before he even has to take over as the new POBO. Cerfolio saw great value in that model, and I understand why.

I highly encourage you to check out our interview with Cerfolio if you want to hear more in-depth about the Cardinals' changes within player development, as it seems to have excited both fans and media who have listened to that conversation thus far. Cerfolio offered a level of transparency and openness about the Cardinals behind the scenes processes in a way that we have rarely seen in recent years, and I think most fans will find that extremely refreshing.

Only time will tell whether or not Cerfolio, Bloom, and the new Cardinals' regime will be a successful era or not, but the early returns are promising. The Cardinals are off to a surprising 32-24 start, fueled by their young talent that has taken a massive step forward this year. Cerfolio and his team don't just work with prospects, they work hand in hand with the Major League coaching staff and players as well to create actionable items and game plans in order to become the best possible players they can be. Cerfolio shared about that process with us as well, and recently opened up about some of those action plans with Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Exciting things are happening in St. Louis both on and off the field, and just months into his role with the club, Cerfolio already seems to be a significant reason as to why there seem to be brighter days ahead for the Redbirds.