It\u2019s hard to tackle a topic like this without unintentionally disrespecting the current manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, but I have to wonder if Yadier Molina might be the leader the team needs once the ongoing rebuild is complete. But, I also have a few reservations about why I fear that it might not be the great idea many of us think it is.<\/p>\n
Let me be clear that I am not an anti-Oli Marmol person. While he\u2019s not my favorite St. Louis Cardinals manager ever, I realize he\u2019s been working with a roster that has been lacking to say the least. Oli did a good job handling a tricky lineup in 2022 when Albert Pujols rejoined the Cardinals for his final season, but let\u2019s not talk about his bullpen use during the playoffs that year against the Phillies. No matter what you think of Oli as a manager, I think many in the Cardinals fanbase will forever view him as a remnant of the John Mozeliak era no matter if that\u2019s fair or not. My point is I want to look at Yadi\u2019s capabilities and not Oli Marmol\u2019s faults.<\/p>\n
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We learned this week that the St. Louis Cardinals had hired Yadi again<\/a> as a special assistant to the President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom. The Cardinals said \u201cYadi will provide input on our catching program, will advise our staff on catching and game planning strategy and will give\u2026our front office valuable perspective from his unique vantage point.\u201d. The St. Louis Cardinals emphasized the need for Yadi to communicate his \u201cchampionship mindset\u201d to the players. My mind immediately began wondering if the team will someday turn to Yadi to execute that as the manager.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s pretend there will be no work stoppage after the season because the owners and players can\u2019t get together on a new collective bargaining agreement. For the sake of argument, let\u2019s also say the foundational aspects of the St. Louis Cardinals rebuild is in good shape after just a couple of seasons. If the team decides that Oli Marmol is not the manager that\u2019s needed when the Cardinals are ready to seriously contend again, should Yadi Molina be the next St. Louis skipper? I have created a pros and cons list because there are some real concerns.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the obvious pros. Yadier Molina has elite levels of tactical knowledge. Tony La Russa once said that he considered Yadi as an extra coach<\/a> on the field. He said that Yadi \u201cthinks and manages a game and a pitching staff as well as anybody ever has\u201d. I can\u2019t think of anyone I would want handling the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen for a full season than Yadi. He\u2019s also a proven leader, not just during his Cardinals playing career but also as a manager in the Puerto Rican winter league. Yadi was the on-field leader that helped bring world championships to St. Louis in 2006 and 2011. There is no aspect of team and field management that he does not possess.<\/p>\n The cons list isn\u2019t substantial, but there are a few potential hurdles that would give me pause before I offered Yadier this opportunity. The first and most significant is his ability to commit to a full season and all that requires when his involvement with the team over the past couple of years has been limited by family needs. I also wonder if Yadi has the patience needed to deal with the media on a day-to-day basis. While I was often entertained by some of the tense Tony La Russa post-game interviews<\/a> (especially after a loss), it\u2019s vital that a manager be able to handle media responsibilities. Would Yadi\u2019s sometimes intense demeanor have the patience for that? That would be interesting. A modern day manager needs to understand how to incorporate all of the new data and technology that\u2019s available into decision making and I\u2019m not aware of how Yadi feels about that.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n One thing I do not question is Yadier Molina\u2019s drive to accomplish something that he sets out to do and it\u2019s clear that he envisions himself as a major league manager someday. I think his new \u201cspecial\u201d assistant role with the Cardinals could be the key step to preparing him for that opportunity. If his family demands allow him to be a full-time manager, I believe he might be the perfect next leader of the St. Louis Cardinals. When you factor in how much the St. Louis Cardinals fanbase loves Yadi, it\u2019s a marketing team\u2019s dream for him to someday become the manager. Let\u2019s watch this coming season and see if Yadi is a more visible presence with a bigger time investment. If that happens, we could be seeing the transition of a legendary Cardinals player into the future manager he so longs to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to tackle a topic like this without unintentionally disrespecting the current manager of the St. Louis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[7268,5,160,4,40,673,67,4311,4310,70723,7269],"class_list":{"0":"post-534012","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-cardinals","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-phillies","13":"tag-st-louis","14":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","15":"tag-stlouis","16":"tag-stlouiscardinals","17":"tag-yadi-molina","18":"tag-yadier-molina"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115943052698204646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534012","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=534012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}