{"id":13107,"date":"2025-05-09T10:52:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T10:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/13107\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T10:52:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T10:52:38","slug":"st-louis-cardinals-facing-potentially-significant-albert-pujols-yadier-molina-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/13107\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis Cardinals Facing Potentially Significant Albert Pujols-Yadier Molina Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cardinals<\/a> are in the midst of what they are calling a \u201creset\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already confirmed that 2025 is John Mozeliak\u2019s final year as the Cardinals president of baseball operations and that Chaim Bloom will be taking over his role in 2026.\u00a0The bigger question lies with who the club\u2019s manager will be for the next season.<\/p>\n

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In a recent article<\/a> for The Athletic, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal<\/a> included Cardinals skipper Oliver Marmol as one of nine managers whose job could be in question by the end of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Marmol is in his fourth season as the Cardinals manager. After a 93-69 record and NL Central division title in his first year, the Cardinals have failed to make the playoffs the past two seasons. With a 7-8 start to 2025, Marmol\u2019s career managerial record sits 254-247.<\/p>\n

If the Cardinals are to move on from Marmol, where do they look first?<\/p>\n

Two names that immediately come to mind are fan-favorites and future hall of famers, Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.<\/p>\n

\"Yadier<\/p>\n

Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols are honored in their final series at Dodger StadiumGary A&period; Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Since retiring, both Pujols and Molina have spent time managing in the Dominican Professional Baseball League. They’ve each expressed interest in managing at the MLB level and believe they’re ready for the job.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m well-prepared right now,\u201d Molina said in an interview with Katie Woo<\/a> prior to the 2025 season. \u201cI\u2019ve been managing the last three years in different places, I learned a lot from different people. And I feel ready. I feel like I\u2019m ready right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always held on to that desire, and if the opportunity is right and they open the door for me, I\u2019ve always said it openly, I want to have the opportunity to be a manager here in the big leagues,\u201d Pujols said<\/a> at the Angels<\/a> 2025 spring training camp.<\/p>\n

Pujols will manage the Dominican Republic in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, while Molina will once again serve as team Puerto Rico\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n

Rather then having to choose between the two legends, a “safer pick,” as Rosenthal points out would be 11-year MLB veteran Skip Schumaker, who spent eight years (2005-’12) with St. Louis and has previous managerial experience. He was named NL Manager of the Year after taking the Marlins<\/a> to the playoffs in 2023. After being let go by Miami after the 2024 season, he’s currently a senior advisor to the president of baseball operations for the Texas Rangers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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There’s still a very good chance Marmol – whose contract runs through 2026 – is the one leading the Cardinals next year.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the 2025 season could also play a factor in the front office\u2019s decision, but with Pujols, Molina and Schumaker being intriguing candidates for other MLB teams as well, if the Cardinals want to make a move on one of them, it\u2019s going to have to come sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Related: Cardinals Place Winn on IL, Activate Nolan Gorman<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Former Cardinals Headline Loaded Team USA Coaching Staff For 2026 WBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cardinals are in the midst of what they are calling a \u201creset\u201d. It\u2019s already confirmed that 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[7268,5,7270,160,4748,778,4,5943,673,67,4311,4310,69,7269],"class_list":{"0":"post-13107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-albert-pujols","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-baseball-operations","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-ken-rosenthal","13":"tag-miami","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-oliver-marmol","16":"tag-st-louis","17":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","18":"tag-stlouis","19":"tag-stlouiscardinals","20":"tag-texas-rangers","21":"tag-yadier-molina"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114477501181744797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}