Molina returns as Team PR manager for 2026 World Baseball Classic

Yadier Molina managed the Puerto Rico national team for the first time in the 2023 edition of World Baseball Classic, after captaining the team to runner-up finishes in the 2013 and 2017 tournaments.

By The Star Staff

The Puerto Rico Baseball Federation confirmed this week the appointment of former St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina as manager of the national team for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, marking his second stint at the helm of Team Puerto Rico.

“Yadier’s appointment is not a coincidence or sentimentality. It is a reaffirmation,” Federation President José Daniel Quiles Rosas said at a press conference.

Molina managed the national team for the first time in the 2023 edition of the tournament. He had previously made his managerial debut in 2017 with the U-23 national team, which won a bronze medal at the Panama Pre-World Cup and then qualified for the 2018 World Cup.

Present during the official announcement were figures such as Carlos Beltrán, the national team’s general manager; Joey Solá, operations manager; and former players Iván Rodríguez and Javier Vázquez, among other representatives of Puerto Rican baseball.

Molina expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to represent Puerto Rico again.

“I’m very happy with everything that’s been happening in my life lately,” he said. “I want to thank the Baseball Federation … for the opportunity to be here and represent the island where I was born.”

As a manager, Molina has also led teams in professional leagues in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where he led the Criollos de Caguas to a winter league championship within his first year in charge.

During his 19-year major league playing career with the Cardinals, Molina was a 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, a two-time World Series champion, and captained Puerto Rico’s national team to runner-up finishes in the World Baseball Classic in 2013 and 2017.