Ranking the Cardinals top managerial options if they fire Oliver Marmol in season

2. Yadier Molina

Having Yadier Molina come back as a manager would be another dream scenario for Cardinals fans. Molina's playing career came to an end after the 2022 season, but his coaching career actually started before he hung up his cleats.

In 2017, Molina was named the manager of the Puerto Rican U23 National Team for the 2018 World Cup. In 2022 he was the manager of the Navegantes del Magallanes in the Venezuelan Baseball League and he wanted to base how that went on if he would eventually want to manage in the States.

And then we saw Molina manage team Puerto Rico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, it seems obvious that this is something he wants to do for the time being. For the 2024 season, Molina will be back in the Cardinals organization in a small role as a special advisor in the front office. He will not be with the team all the time, as he still has business duties in Puerto Rico, including the basketball team he owns there, but just having him back in any capacity is a plus.

So why is Molina so high on my list without any major league coaching experience? Ask anyone who played with him or against him, ask any coach that he played for, ask even the common fan of the game, Molina was a coach on and off the field. When he was behind the plate, he worked with the pitchers better than probably anyone that's ever played, and his leadership was infectious, it just comes naturally to him.

I can confidently say that wherever Molina ends up he would instantly gain the respect of the players and his presence would be something to behold, similar to Pujols, but if I had to pick between the two on who makes the better manager, Molina is the easy choice for me. I think Marmol has to at least be thinking about the fact that Molina is back in the organization waiting in the wings, and how quickly everybody would be on board to put him in charge of things.