Cardinals announce hiring of new hitting coach, assistant GM

The Cardinals announced that they have hired Brant Brown as their new hitting coach. They also announced the hiring of Jon Jay and a new role for Willie McGee, which were reported on Monday. Additionally, they announced that Robert Cerfolio had been hired as assistant general manager of player development and performance. Cerfolio was previously with the Guardians as director of player development. Katie Woo of The Athletic reported on Cerfolio’s hiring earlier Tuesday, while John Denton of MLB.com identified Brown on X as a leading candidate for the hitting coach job before the official announcement.

It’s been well-known for a while now that 2025 will be a transitional year for the Cards. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak will be giving his job to Chaim Bloom after the upcoming season, with the next year or so serving as a slower-than-usual passing of the torch. The franchise presumably hopes this will be a smoother transition than the traditional route of an abrupt firing and/or resignation followed by a hasty search for a replacement.

The club is planning to have a lower payroll and a larger focus on its player development pipeline, so plenty of changes will come throughout the club's various facets. One of those changes will be the addition of Cerfolio. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat on X noted that Cerfolio is a Yalie, like Bloom, chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and president Bill DeWitt III.

But his hiring surely goes beyond just his alma mater. As noted by Woo, Cerfolio was hired by the Guardians in 2015, an organization known for having a strong player development pipeline that has allowed it to succeed despite consistently low payrolls. The Cardinals were known for that earlier this century, though that reputation has faded recently. A clearly stated goal of this current pivot for the Cardinals is to get back to being that type of organization.

As Mozeliak handles the day-to-day operations of the Cards for the next year and Bloom focuses on that player development apparatus, he has brought Cerfolio aboard to help modernize things for the club. Woo says Bloom is expected to make dozens of hires as part of this process, so Cerfolio is just one piece of the puzzle.

Turning to the coaching staff, it was reported earlier this month that hitting coach Turner Ward would not renew his contract for 2025, creating a vacancy Brown is now filling. Now 53, Brown played in the majors from 1996 to 2000. He then pivoted to coaching, starting with gigs in the minors. He was hired by the Dodgers going into 2018 and was on that club’s staff through 2022, first as an assistant hitting coach and then as a hitting strategist.

He spent 2023 as the hitting coach of the Marlins, then jumped to the Mariners before the 2024 season, getting the title of offensive coordinator in Seattle. However, at the end of May 2024, the M’s parted ways with Brown even though he had only been hired in December. Offensive struggles were a key part of the narrative for the Mariners in 2024, and the director of hitting strategy, Jarret DeHart, who had taken on a larger role when Brown was fired, was dismissed in August.

It’s always difficult to separate player performance from the contributions of a coach. While the Mariners struggled under Brown’s brief tenure, they also had notable problems the prior year, making it fair to ask if any coach could have made a meaningful difference with how the roster was constructed. The Dodgers performed well during Brown’s time there, while his one season in Miami was their only full-season playoff berth in the past 20 years. The club had a subpar 92 wRC+ in 2023, but that was still a bump relative to their 83 in 2022 and 86 in 2024.

Time will tell what kind of club the Cardinals will field in 2025, but it’s generally expected that their planned retooling period could lead to some trades of veterans that aren’t likely to be part of the next competitive window. If that comes to pass, Brown could guide a relatively young roster of players looking to take steps forward at the major league level.