Cardinals' latest hires should threaten Oli Marmol and give Chaim Bloom support he needs

With John Mozeliak entering his final year atop the front office and seemingly the entire roster in question after an 83-win season, we knew big change was coming to the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason. Chaim Bloom has been brought in to reevaluate everything about the team's player development and evaluation process, while names like Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt could be playing elsewhere by next spring.

We're still waiting on the first big domino to fall in St. Louis. But before Hot Stove season really gets rolling, the organization has made a couple of hires that should allow fans to read the tea leaves — and get a sense of where this coaching staff and front office could be headed in the near future.

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Cardinals add notable names to coaching staff, front office

The first piece of news is a familiar face: Per Katie Woo of The Athletic, St. Louis is hiring former Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay as part of Oli Marmol's coaching staff for the 2024 season. Jay had served as first-base coach for the Miami Marlins for the past two years, but was let go as part of Peter Bendix's offseason purge. It's unclear what role he'll play for the Cards — the team for whom he spent six of his 12 Major League seasons as a player, helping St. Louis capture the 2011 World Series — but we do know that both base coach positions (Stubby Clapp at first, Pop Warner at third) are already spoken for. Jay was a well-regarded part of Skip Schumaker's coaching staff in Miami, so it's not hard to view him as future managerial material down the line — a relevant note, considering the turmoil surrounding Marmol's job status.

The other hire might be even more impactful. According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, St. Louis is adding Rob Cerfolio to its front office as an assistant GM. Cerfolio comes from the Cleveland Guardians, where he started as an intern back in 2015 before working his way up to director of player development in 2022. That's an impressive rise, especially considering the success Cleveland has had identifying and developing cheap talent of late — including young pitchers like Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams. Considering its budget constraints, arguably no team has had a higher rate of success producing homegrown arms, and that surely was part of the reason why Cerfolio was an enticing proposition for Mozeliak and Co.