The Cardinals have hired a former member of their front office, Dan Kantrovitz, as director of amateur scouting less than four weeks after Jeff Luhnow's departure to become Houston Astros general manager.

Kantrovitz, 33, had served as Oakland A's coordinator of baseball operations and international operations until contacted last month by Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak.

Drafted in the 25th round as a collegiate outfielder by the Cardinals in 2001 and hired in 2004 as the organization's director of college scouting, Kantrovitz becomes the final piece in a front office that no longer lists a vice president in charge of player development and scouting. Luhnow held those titles until hired by the Astros on Dec. 7.

Kantrovitz possesses a background in analytics fostered as an undergraduate at Brown University, where he starred as a shortstop, and further developed as a graduate student at Harvard, where he earned a master's in statistics.

A graduate of John Burroughs, Kantrovitz assumes amateur scouting responsibilities held by Luhnow since 2005. Those duties include overseeing and coordinating the first-year player draft and may also carry some influence within international scouting. The Cardinals became increasingly reliant on both instruments during Luhnow's term, featuring six players on the World Series roster they drafted and developed since 2005.

Kantrovitz's playing career was curtailed because of a shoulder injury suffered in college. He later left the Cardinals' front office to attend Harvard and joined the A's upon completion of his degree.

Just as oversight of scouting and player development became a vice president level position upon Luhnow's ascendance, the title evaporated upon his departure. John Vuch was promoted to farm director in September 2010 and took control of day-to-day operations as Luhnow's responsibilities skewed more heavily toward scouting.

Mozeliak is now the only executive in baseball operations to hold the title of vice president.

Luhnow's exit created a further ripple in the Cardinals' front office as director of amateur draft analytics Sig Mejdal followed Luhnow to Houston. The Astros on Tuesday announced Mejdal as their first director of decision sciences. Mejdal earned two engineering degrees at Cal-Davis before working at Lockheed Martin and NASA.