Yadier Molina is staying in the dugout in Venezuela — and he is bringing some familiar Cardinals flavor with him.
Navegantes del Magallanes announced that Molina will return as manager for the 2026-27 Venezuelan Professional Baseball League season, part of a two-year extension with an option for a third year. The move comes after Molina took over a last-place club in mid-November 2025, reversed the season, won LVBP Manager of the Year, and delivered Magallanes its 14th league championship.
For Cardinals fans, the more striking detail is who will stand next to him.
Molina’s staff for the upcoming winter campaign includes several coaches who work inside the St. Louis organization during the MLB season. Roberto Espinoza, manager of High-A Peoria, will serve as bench coach. Darwin Marrero, co-pitching coach at Triple-A Memphis, returns as pitching coach. Kleininger Teran, the Cardinals’ major-league bullpen catcher, will be the hitting coach. Stubby Clapp, St. Louis’ first-base coach, joins as Magallanes’ third-base coach.
That is not a coincidence. It is a pipeline.
Espinoza is a Cardinals lifer. Signed by St. Louis as a catcher out of Venezuela, he has spent more than a decade in the player-development system and is entering his second season as Peoria’s manager after previously managing the Florida Complex League club. In Valencia this winter, he moves from quality control into the bench-coach chair next to Molina.
Marrero, a Valencia native himself, has been one of the organization’s most durable pitching instructors. He spent years at Double-A Springfield before joining the Memphis staff and is slated to return to the Redbirds as a co-pitching coach in 2026. Winter ball gives him another stage to work with arms in a league that still values command, sequencing, and toughness as much as velocity.
Teran’s path is uniquely Cardinal. Signed as a teenager, he played in the lower minors before the organization converted him and eventually brought him to St. Louis as a bullpen catcher. He has been a fixture on the big-league staff for years — translator, extra set of eyes, extra pair of hands, and a trusted presence for Molina during the catcher’s final seasons as a player. Seeing him listed as Magallanes hitting coach is a reminder of how much the club has long valued the work he does away from the box score.
Clapp is the most recognizable name to Busch Stadium regulars. The former Redbirds manager and two-time Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year is in his eighth season on the Cardinals’ major-league staff as first-base coach. Magallanes will use him at third base, a different corner of the diamond but the same job description: baserunning, infield communication, and the kind of energy that has defined his tenure in St. Louis.
Endy Chávez will handle first base for Magallanes, with additional winter-league specialists filling bullpen, catching, and quality-control roles. The Cardinals connections, though, sit at the center of the group Molina is keeping together after a title.
Molina is still listed by the Cardinals as a special assistant to the president of baseball operations. Managing in the LVBP does not change that relationship. If anything, it extends it. Winter ball remains one of the places where St. Louis coaches can keep working, Venezuelan and Puerto Rican talent can stay in front of the organization, and a franchise legend can keep building a managerial résumé in a league that still treats October (and February) like a proving ground.
Molina has been clear about the standard. After the extension, he said the important thing is to stay together and treat every day like Game 7 — the same mentality that turned a last-place Magallanes club into a champion. He also said he wants to be part of more title runs, not just the one already in the books.
Cardinals fans have watched Molina call games, run a pitching staff, and set a clubhouse tone for nearly two decades. This winter they can watch a version of that work with a staff that already knows the organization: Peoria’s manager on the bench, Memphis’ pitching coach in the bullpen conversations, the big-league bullpen catcher in the cage, and St. Louis’ first-base coach waving runners around third in Valencia.
The Nave is chasing a repeat. The Cardinals fingerprints on the coaching staff make it a story that travels well beyond the LVBP.
