Cardinals make additions through Rule 5 Draft, ink Molina as special assistant to Mozeliak

The Cardinals made five official additions to their organization on Wednesday as the Winter Meetings approached their conclusion, one of which is sure to generate considerably more excitement than the others while another will have every opportunity to directly contribute on the field in 2024.

After weeks of conversations and seeking the right role and fit, the team announced that Yadier Molina is officially back in the fold, acting as a special assistant to the President of Baseball Operations, John Mozeliak.

The team then selected right-handed reliever Ryan Fernandez from the Boston Red Sox in the Major League portion of the Rule 5 draft and added infielders Johnfrank Salazar (Boston), Miguel Villarroel (Texas) and pitcher Benito García (New York Mets) in the minor league portion.

No players were selected from St. Louis in either phase of the draft.

By rule, Fernandez must spend the entire 2024 season on either the Cardinals’ active roster or the injured list, or be offered back to the Red Sox before he can be optioned to the minors or placed on waivers.

Molina’s return comes at a moment when the Cardinals are seeking to recover some of the cultural advantages which they believe have made him a destination in years past, and also comes as Oliver Marmol enters the final year of his contract as the team’s manager.

Molina has managed winter ball teams in each of the last two years and helmed Puerto Rico during last year’s World Baseball Classic, and has expressed a desire to manage in the big leagues in the future.

Family obligations in Puerto Rico precluded him from taking a full-time in-uniform role in the dugout for the time being, removing at least the immediate specter of potential replacement which will as a matter of course follow a currently-lame-duck manager who led the team to its worst season in more than 30 years.

“Depending on the speed Yadi wants to walk, I think it will really dictate the job description for him,” Mozeliak said Monday. “Any impact, positive impact he could have with pitchers, catchers would be something we would welcome. We’d be foolish not to.”

The team intends for Molina to work with players throughout the roster, not just in the pitching and catching group, during spring training and as the season unfolds. His title is equivalent to that of Joe McEwing, who had his responsibilities shifted out of the bench coach’s seat when the team hired Daniel Descalso for that job.

The makeup of that pitching group continues to evolve. As the team seeks a trade fit that might include relievers in exchange for Tyler O’Neill – the Kansas City Royals are among the teams interested – they’re also directing their focus on the free agent market, Mozeliak said.

Wednesday’s selection of Fernandez represents another possibility, mirroring many of the same high upside traits the club saw in Wilking Rodríguez one year ago.

Fernandez, 25, struggled in his first turn at Triple-A last summer, posting a 6.75 ERA in 30 ⅔ innings. He did, however, strike out 35 hitters in those innings against just ten walks, and his ERA in 20 ⅓ innings at Double-A prior to his promotion was 1.77.

“He pitched well at Double-A, scuffled a little bit at Triple-A,” general manager Michael Girsch said. “He’s got a really good slider, throws hard. Just your typical Rule 5 right-handed reliever who has a chance to come in and make the team and pitch his way into hopefully a key spot in the bullpen.”

Indeed, Fernandez’s fastball was regularly in the 98 to 99 miles per hour range, according to Mass Live reporter Christopher Smith’s coverage of the Red Sox. He pairs that pitch with a cutter and a tight slider that the Cardinals believe is the key to sustaining his strikeout rate at the next level.

“We think [the slider] is a big league pitch,” Girsch said. “The fact that his ERA in 18 to 20 innings at Triple-A…not that worried about ERA from a relief pitcher in only a dozen innings or whatever.”

Work continues with other relievers, including lefty Yuki Matsui and righty Go Woo-suk. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported on conversations between the team and righty Phil Maton, a native of Chatham, Illinois who most recently pitched for the Houston Astros, though several team officials strenuously denied the sides were close to an agreement in the face of false reports on social media to the contrary.

Mozeliak said several times this week the team is seeking “back-end” pitching, and acknowledged that international free agents could play a role in that pursuit.