The Cardinals announced this afternoon that longtime catcher Yadier Molina has returned to the organization as a special assistant to President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak. Following the announcement, Mozeliak spoke with reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat) regarding Molina’s role in the organization. Mozeliak suggested that Molina will spend time as a uniformed member of the Cardinals dugout this coming season, though that won’t be his full-time role. While Molina will spend time with the club’s minor league affiliates his main focus will be working with the big league club’s players and coaching staff.
The news comes after a lengthy period of speculation earlier this offseason that Molina would be returning to St. Louis in some capacity, including suggestions that Molina could join manager Oliver Marmol’s coaching staff as bench coach. The #2 job in the dugout eventually went to former Cardinals infielder Daniel Descalso, leading Molina to rejoin the Cardinals in his current role. Molina has been candid in recent years about his hopes of becoming a big league manager at some point, and his return to the Cardinals organization just one year after his retirement from playing is sure to spur speculation regarding the future of Marmol, who the team has not engaged in extension talks with prior to the final year of his current contract.
Looking beyond the club’s reunion with Molina, the club’s willingness to move outfielder Tyler O’Neill has been well-documented this offseason, with Mozeliak previously indicating that the club hopes to bolster its bullpen in return for O’Neill’s services. Ben Fredrickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggested in a live chat with readers yesterday that the Royals are among the teams with interest in O’Neill this offseason. While it might register as a surprise that the Royals would be interested in a rental player coming off a 101-loss season in 2023, the club’s outfielders slashed a pathetic .229/.293/.392 last season, leaving them with an 82 wRC+ that registered as the worst among all major league clubs.
Given that dearth of production, the Royals are perhaps better situated than most clubs to roll the dice on O’Neill, a 28-year-old slugger who flashed elite power and defense during a 2021 campaign that saw him slash .286/.352/.560 in 537 trips to the plate while finishing in the top ten of NL MVP voting. Unfortunately for both O’Neill and the Cardinals, things have taken a turn for the worse since then. Injuries and under-performance have plagued O’Neill the past two seasons, as the slugger has slashed a mediocre .229/.310/.397 (98 wRC+) in just 168 games over the past two seasons.
O’Neill is something of an odd trade candidate thanks to his combination of youth, upside, limited team control and recent struggles. It’s easy to see why Kansas City may be particularly interested in his services, however. O’Neill could be offered consistent playing time on the lowly Royals next season, with Kansas City able to offer the struggling slugger plenty of runway to re-establish himself as a quality bat. If O’Neill is successful in doing so, he could be a valuable asset for the club to flip at the trade deadline next summer in the event the Royals find themselves out of the race by midseason.
O’Neill isn’t the only Cardinals outfielder who could be on the trade block this offseason, as Mozeliak spoke to reporters (including John Denton of MLB.com) about the future of young outfielder Alec Burleson, who has reportedly drawn trade interest in recent days. Mozeliak seemed to be more reluctant to part with Burleson than O’Neill, saying that the club “definitely like[s]” Burleson and that they “think there’s a spot for him” on the club’s 2024 roster. That said, Mozeliak acknowledged the fact that regular playing time is unlikely to be available for Burleson as things currently stand, noting that “something else might have to happen first” in order for Burleson to get everyday at bats next season. Burleson struggled in 347 trips to the plate last season with a tepid slash line of just .244/.300/.390, but the 25-year-old youngster isn’t far removed from his days as a top-100 prospect in the sport.
So are the Winter Meetings over now, or is there still one more day?
I believe they all go home in the morning so there’s still tonight for a big drunken shaker!
They are over. The Rule V draft always signifies the end of the winter meetings
Can Yadier please keep the eye black in his new role? Awesome
Maybe! I want one!
Bad day to be Marmol
I want to see if Contreras and Molina can get along, Molina being a master of his craft and Contreras caring only about hitting.
They get along great. Molina wanted him to sign with the Cardinals.
Yady will be Cards manager before Spring Training 2025. Book it.
Next year? I give it until this July. Marmol better hope for a quick start.
I just said this earlier this evening. If the Cards aren’t in 1st place by the All-Star break, Oli is gone.
He will never manage in St. Louis, Can you imagine if they had a different direction they wanted to go and they fired Molina? They would burn down Busch if tried to fire him!
Marmol might be feeling that hot seat in 2024, especially if he starts having public spats with his players again.
Marmol is a loser. He’s the guy that waits to be fired instead of leaving.
Liking Burleson was a big reason we stunk last year. Marmol liked him so much he played Burly way too often. Even had him batting 3rd in the lineup with zero justification.
Yeah…Burleson was the problem last year…the dude didn’t even get 350 PA. And he’s a BIG reason why they stunk? Sure. Couldn’t have been the pitching. Or O’Neil. A lot of those AB’s came after the team was out of contention.
Burleson was the worst position player on the team. He was a factor for sure.
Not at all. When your 5th OF is one of your worst players it’s not a surprise. So many other layers had to do with the cards failure, not pinning it on him. Goldy regressing was a bigger impact than anything Burleson could hVe done.
If Burleson was treated like a 5th outfielder it would have been OK bit he was treated like a guy who needed playing time.
And Goldschmidt won the MVP the year prior. What was he supposed to be get better?
The problem is the manager.
Burly lol. That’s like calling Matt Carpenter Carp. Don’t do that.
Yadi absolutely bigfooting Marmol.
Can see Marmol being exited quick next season. Tired of hearing O’Neil maybe traded soon do it already!!!
Molina Molina!!!! Next cards manager
They’ll be some epic arguments with umpires for sure.
Cardinals need to shake things up make a proper blockbuster trade for a star pitcher. All I’ve seen is sideways moves. You replaced Monty, Flaherty, Wainwright, and Hudson with Gray, Lynn and Gibson. Cardinals have developed young controllable position players or Arenado and Goldy have trade value your not changing the landscape offering to trade the players that you don’t want.
“in the event the Royals find themselves out of the race by midseason.” Generous of you. Should be “when”.
So Molina is the de-facto Skipper now? Cool!
The Cardinals are going to have to get out of their comfort zone and get two high leverage arms in the bullpen and another top of the rotation starter! They have to be willing trade some guys they may not want to so they can get some quality arms. The bullpen was awful last season and they have to do whatever it takes to make it better!
Burleson seems like the kind of guy the cards would regret trading at some point. The guy has hit at every level besides the majors. He is young with a great track record. Seems like he deserves a longer leash.
He is part of the post Goldschmidt 1B platoon.
say what you want about Molina’s numbers, if the cardinals pitching is suddenly good again because he’s in the dugout, then it’s pretty clear the guy just knows how to make pitchers pitch better.
O’Neill is not well liked by his teammates or by his peers around the league. He has a very aloof demeanor.
I think Marmol made a huge mistake when he publicly criticized O’Neil for not hustling. I think that move showed the lack of leadership by Marmol especially with so many young players on the team who need that veteran leadership in a manager. This team was relying player leadership in the form of Goldschmitd, Areanado, Mikolas, and Wainwright. I think it’s good to have vetrans who can lead but way too much fell upon their shoulders last season. Circling back to O’Neil I think that relationship is not salvageable so they have got to move him. I think he does have value in being he’s shown flashes finishing 8th in the 2021 mvp balloting and brought home his second consecutive gold glove. However I don’t think he would be good enough to be the centerpiece of a deal for Bieber, Cease, or Glassnow. He may be able to be an add on in a big deal but it will take more than him and some other small pieces to obtain a top end starter. As for Burleson he’s a back up outfielder, first baseman, dh. I think his stats were horrible but we really didn’t have a consistent role for him. Our outfield was a bit of a revolving door last season as well as the d.h spot. I think with a more set in stone starting outfield and dh Burleson will show improvement knowing his role will be the 5th outfielder and backup first baseman. The player who intrigues me most is Carlson I think he’s our best option for using as a key piece in acquiring a legitimate ace. He’s a young switch hitter who can play all three outfield spots and is still under contract beyond this season. I also think he may best useful to the Cardinals to trade because I think he’s more productive being a everyday starter than just a guy who starts a couple times a week.