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This deserves its own thread. The initial report of discussion between Molina and the Cardinals came from Martin Kilcoyne of FOX-2. Katie Woo now adds that the interest is mutual.
(It is a minor point, but her final sentence is incorrect. Molina has a number of years of experience managing in winter ball in Puerto Rico and Venezuela.)
I would think most Cardinal fans would view this as a positive development if it happens although it will be interesting to see what the actual title and role will be assuming it happens.
I assume he would join the coaching staff as the catching instructor? Or might it be something else? Bench coach? Being groomed as Marmol’s successor? Bullpen coach?
Depending on your viewpoint, a manager could be considered a member of the “coaching staff.” In any event, I can’t imagine Yadier Molina answering to the current Cardinal manager unless it was answering with a kick in the backside…Haha!
From MLBTR:
His potential role with the Cardinals next year isn’t exactly clear, but Woo relays that it’s expected it would be an everyday position. It doesn’t currently appear as though any of the current coaches are in jeopardy, with Molina likely to be an addition rather than a replacement. Woo points out that the club had one of the smaller staffs in the league in 2023, with some players apparently expressing that there “simply wasn’t enough coaching to go around,” in Woo’s words.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/10/cardinals-have-discussed-coaching-job-with-yadier-molina.html
¹Yadi could go the Dave Duncan route and help on the pitching side.
Or he could go the Whitey Herzog route as manager and general manager. Now that would be a housecleaning.
While it sounds great on first glance, I wonder if Yadi would be able to submit to Marmol’s authority. Obviously he played a year under Ollie and the team won 90+ games, so he likely has some respect for him.
But my own sense of things is that Ollie is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to running a big league ball club. However, I will say that when Leo Durocher was a coach under Walt Alston in Los Angeles, he questioned Alston a lot, and at least from his book “Nice Guys Finish Last”, Leo makes some good points about debatable moves Alston did. Still the Dodgers won several championships under Walt and kept him at the helm for over 2 decades.
Yadier Molina was interviewed in Puerto Rico a few days ago by @VoceroPR and he was asked about the Martin Kilcoyne report that the Cardinals Met with Yadier on the final day of the season to see if he can join the coaching staff in 2024. Here is what Molina said. #STLCards pic.twitter.com/0sLbTRDwxG
— Luis Nolla/550 KTRS (@luisminolla17) October 18, 2023
Its an exciting possibility, but I can’t see how the dynamic would work. As seems to be the case generally, the Cardinals would be looking at defined role with a narrow lane. It is hard to see how that would be appealing to Molina, or even how he could even fit within that parameter. And of course, no matter who says what, the expectation would be that he would displace Marmol, sooner rather than later. How does that work in the mean time?
The only way I see it happening is Yadi comes in as Manager. I could live with that very easily. (Matt Holliday would look good in McEwing’s seat.) As Harry might have said, “Holy Cow”.
I’m of the same mindset in the sense that any offer from the Cardinals other than as field manager would be a waste of Yadier Molina’s time. I hope Yadier has a similar view of any potential offer.
Another view from John Denton. “Molina often prefers to operate on his own terms.”
Like it or not, an effective MLB manager has to be a politician to survive. Could Molina do it? Would he?
Look, I love Yadi, you love Yadi, we all love Yadi. And nobody can question his commitment as a player. (Until those final couple of seasons, at least.) But despite the enormous popular sentiment, this does not scream "reliable coach" to me. #STLCards https://t.co/c5qsZFG4s3 pic.twitter.com/fVimBOUUe4
— JBIF Stupid Town ™ (@johnrabe) October 18, 2023
From MLB Trade Rumors:
The Cardinals were recently reported to have interest in bringing longtime catcher Yadier Molina back into the fold just one season after his retirement, this time as a member of the coaching staff. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat provided more details on the situation this morning, indicating that Molina reportedly has interest in acting as the club’s bench coach. As Jones notes, the contract status of current bench coach Joe McEwing is unclear, though he adds that it’s believed the Cardinals at least hold an option on his services for 2024. Jones also notes the difficult situation that Molina’s presence as bench coach could create for manager Oli Marmol; Marmol is entering the final year of his contract with the club next season and would likely face greater pressure in 2024 with a player of Molina’s status within the organization acting as his number two, particularly after Molina got his feet wet in a managerial role as skipper of team Puerto Rico during the World Baseball Classic earlier this year.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/10/central-notes-cubs-molina-royals.html
It seems like that whole thing is a matter that needs to be sorted out very shortly after the WS is over. Of course, that may not suit Yadi’s personal schedule.
It will be interesting indeed. If Yadi becomes bench coach then Marmol definitely becomes a lame duck.
Here is the link to Jeff Jones’ original article. It may be more illustrative than MLBTR’s recap of it.
https://www.bnd.com/sports/mlb/st-louis-cardinals/article280768090.html
These are the problematic parts for me:
“They have the knowledge of my willingness (to assume a position in the management or coaching staff).”
The interview took place in Puerto Rico and was in Spanish. So what we are getting is a translation. So far, so good. But the key part is not a translation of a direct quote. It is in parentheses, so it is either a paraphrase of a translation, or a translation of a paraphrase, or perhaps something else, but it is not Molina’s exact words. So we don’t know what, if anything, he actually said about a full time coaching or managing job. What we know he did say is “several points were discussed”. That is given as a direct quote translated from Spanish.
“What’s not clear is precisely what position on the staff Molina would take. Two sources described Molina’s interest in becoming the bench coach,”
As to interest in bench coach specifically, it is attributed to two unnamed sources. Who knows what sources, or even if they are in the U.S. or Puerto Rico, and whether it comes to us after translation or paraphrasing or both. We don’t even know who claims to have direct knowledge of what the supposed sources said and who is just repeating what they heard or read somewhere.
As of now, I put this on a shelf with the highly prioritized front office/player development rebuild, but I accept that both or either could be real news.
Don’t know about the latest Molina quotes, but I can vouch for two classic Yadier Molina quotes that I heard with my own ears while watching and listening to a live interview. These two are verbatim and are priceless…
1. In a post game interview following a dust up with the Reds back in August of 2010…”He call my team lots of bad names and then he want to be my friend? I tell him he not my friend and you saw what happened”….Haha!
2. In a July 2011 post game interview after being removed from a game by manager Tony LaRussa during and while he was still in the midst of a PA and still situated in the batter’s box on a day that the tough as nails catcher had been squatting behind HP for 7 innings during a day game in St. Louis in which the temperature had exceeded 102 degrees…”Tony come out and ask if I okay after I see a couple of pitches from the pitcher…I tell him I’m okay, but when I look out at the pitcher, I see two pitchers, so he took me out of the game”…Haha!
The only thing that may have been better than “Tony TV” was an interview with the great Yadier Molina. I sure do miss him already.
Does anybody on this Forum think that Molina would make a great manager?
Sorry, I do not.
r/Esteemed Rat
I’m not sure, Rats. He seems to me like he’d be the heir apparent to Ozzie Guillen. He might not end up being a great manager, but I’m pretty sure it’d be fun to watch him try.
If we judge Yadi by what he sees rather than what he says, it paints a better portrait of his abilities.
I’d say so, Nigel. No question he possesses an inate ability to see and understand the multiple possibilities regarding what may or may not happen on the field of play during a baseball game.
Who here thinks Oli is going to metamorphise into this great manager and leader? Oli complies to the front offices wishes without making waves. It’s a legitimate opinion that Yadi might not be managerial material. But if he is? What a huge boost for the whole organization. At the very least, we need a new wave of real baseball guys around the team. They are the guys who made the Cardinals legendary. Not Mo and Oli. As I say that, I give BDW some respect for taking care of the Wainos and Yadis. He took plenty of criticism for it. At the end of the day, maybe there’s a part of the game that’s more than wins and losses, and Bill sees the value in that.I wouldn’t worry about making Oli nervous.
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