We're a little more than a year removed from St. Louis Cardinals leadership realizing that things had been slipping through the cracks. The press conference that came at the end of the 2024 MLB season in St. Louis outlined the Cardinals' commitment to re-investing in infrastructure, in the areas the organization had fallen behind to lead to less desirable results in the standings in recent years.
It was a change in direction that could, eventually, lead to the club's return to consistent contending status.
At that point, Chaim Bloom was immediately authorized to make some key hires to the front office staff, and that's what he did last winter--even before officially taking over as the team's president of baseball operations. Folks like Rob Cerfolio, Larry Day and Matt Pierpont got started with revitalizing the Cardinals in their various roles.
Now, with Bloom's tenure as the Cardinals' lead baseball operations executive officially underway, the POBO is expanding that breadth of that department once again.
The Cardinals announced Friday a pair of new baseball operations executives, bringing in a Director of Pro Acquisition and a Senior Director for International Scouting. Joe Douglas and Jacob Buffa are the gentlemen named to those respective roles, expanding Bloom's empire in the early days of his leadership.
Douglas, who comes over from the Pirates after most recently serving as their Head of Player Analysis, will "oversee pro scouts as well as the Cardinals pro acquisition team, and will report to Randy Flores," according to a statement released by the Cardinals, announcing the hire.
Buffa--an STL area native--has been involved in player development and performance in the Houston Astros organization since 2019, and will join the Cardinals on the international scouting side, reporting to assistant GM Moises Rodriguez.
Sources: Jacob Buffa, the Astros’ farm director, is leaving the club to join the Cardinals. Buffa, who is from the St. Louis area, has been with the Astros since 2019 and for the last two years has had title of senior director of player development and performance science.
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) October 31, 2025
While these moves may fly under the radar given the names and roles probably weren't familiar to many fans before they were announced, it should be encouraging to the Cardinals' faithful that Bloom is continuing to see through exactly the type of process that was described as the goal more than a year ago.