ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The Cardinals revamped player development staff under new Assistant General Manager Rob Cerfolio has taken shape.
The Cardinals announced Wednesday the hirings of Larry Day as its new farm director, Carl Kochan as the team's director of performance and Matt Pierpont as the Cardinals' director of pitching.
Katie Woo of The Athletic was first to report of the hirings Wednesday morning.
All three will report directly to Cerfolio, who was hired by the Cardinals earlier this offseason to oversee player development and performance.
Day will replace the recently retired Gary LaRocque, who was a part of the Cardinals organization since 2008 and served as the Cardinals Director of Player Development before retiring at the end of the 2024 season.
Day has a history with Cerfolio, with Day working with Cerfolio in the Cleveland Guardians organization, most recently as a assistant field coordinator.
Prior to his time with Cleveland, Day coached at Ohio University and Vanderbilt University, and he played in the New York Yankees’ farm system.
Kochan joins the Cardinals organization after the past six seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, most recently as minor-league strength and conditioning coordinator. Prior to that, he spent a decade with the Dodgers' rival San Francisco Giants, where he was part of the Giants 2012 and 2014 World Series-winning teams, serving as a major-league strength and conditioning coach during those championship years.
Pierpont joins the Cardinals after almost four years in the Seattle Mariners organization, a club that has had a resounding success with developing pitchers over the last few years. Pierpont joined the organization as a player coach in 2021, then worked his way up to become a pitching coordinator for the Mariners.
Pierpont posted on his personal X, formerly known as Twitter, account on Nov. 27, thanking the Mariners organization for his time with them and announced himself that he was "excited for the next chapter with the Cardinals."
According to Woo, following these hires, the Cardinals now look set to begin to expand their coordinator positions and data analysts, a year after the Cardinals carried only five full-time coordinators, last season which was one of baseball’s smallest field coordinator staffs in the sport.