Oli Marmol all but guaranteed his demise with possible glimpse into Cardinals future

St. Louis Cardinals fans have been dreamin since Yadier Molina's retirement of their legendary catcher returning to be the manager and guide the franchise into the future. Of course, current manager Oli Marmol is standing in the way of that. However, whether he realizes or not, he just helped ensure the end of his own tenure in that role as he's bringing Molina into the Cardinals dugout and giving fans a glimpse into the future that they've long wanted.

As reported by John Denton of MLB.com and multiple other St. Louis beat writers, Molina was in the city on business at the same time the Cardinals are set to square off with the rival Cubs. As such, Marmol invited the longtime catcher to join the team and spend two games in the clubhouse, the dugout and in full uniform with the team.

Considering that these were the first two replies to Denton's report of Molina being with the Cardinals this weekend for the rivalry series from fans, it's not hard to see where this conversation was always immediately going to head toward.

Not the first time and certainly not the last time during Cubs-Cardinals that we're going to be hearing that sentiment.

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Oli Marmol invites potential replacement Yadier Molina into Cardinals clubhouse

Molina has not been shy about his desire to begin his managerial career in MLB, and has been dipping his toes in the water even before his retirement in 2022.

He first managed the Puerto Rico U-23 team in the U-23 Baseball World Cup back in 2018, but has also managed in Venezuelan and Puerto Rican leagues as well. His biggest opportunity to date, however, came in the 2023 World Baseball Classic when he was named the manager of the Puerto Rico squad. While they were ousted in the quarterfinals, he was still praised for his efforts in tournament.

As far as MLB goes, though, the Cardinals have also made the most sense, and perhaps now more so than ever. Marmol has all but entirely proven that he's not the right man for the job in St. Louis, which has brought about questions of his job security for well over a year at this point. While he remains the manager, the organization is now in a transition period that, frankly, Molina would be perfect for.

Yadier Molina would be ideal to help build the Cardinals future

With the front office transition from John Mozeliak to Chaim Bloom already in place after this season, that in turn means that a proverbial youth movement is coming for the Cardinals. The pushing out of veterans has already begun and will surely continue the offseason while St. Louis builds a young, strong core that Bloom and fans hope is not dissimilar to what we're seeing right now with the Boston Red Sox, where Bloom was previously the President of Baseball Operations.

If you're a Cardinals fan, who better to guide the next generation of the team and these hopeful young stars than a player who was long praised for his uncanny smarts in the game, his consummate professional behavior at one of the sport's toughest positions, and who has already built up years of goodwill with the fan base? It really does seem like the perfect match with opportunity and person.

Whether or not Bloom and the Cardinals agree with that assessment is another matter entirely, of course. However, when fans see No. 4 back in the St. Louis dugout against the Cubs, it's going to be incredibly hard to quell the calls from the fan base to make Molina the next manager of the club — and that probably wasn't going to be easy already.