One of the greatest players in St. Louis Cardinals history will be working with the organization in a new role in 2026.

The Cardinals hired former catcher, 10-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion Yadier Molina to serve as a special assistant to president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom in 2026.

As part of his new role, Molina will work with the organization's minor league catchers and will help develop a system for the young backstops.

This could end up being one of the most important non-major league jobs St. Louis has in 2026. The team has five top 100 prospects according to the first top 100 list of the year from MLB Pipeline.

Two of those prospects, Rainiel Rodriguez (No. 37) and Leonardo Bernal (No. 98), are catchers. Bernal is projected to make his major league debut in 2027 and Rodriguez is predicted to play his first game in the majors in 2028, per MLB Pipeline.

Under Molina's guidance, those two backstops could end up becoming foundational players for the Cardinals as they look to rebuild their roster back to being contenders.

One former player thinks Molina helping the catchers develop could have another positive impact on the organization.

Matt Holliday, who played with Molina from 2009-16 with St. Louis, shared his opinion on the Cardinal Territory podcast on how the development of the catchers could help the team put together a competitive roster.

"Having him around (Ivan Herrera) and some of these catchers — If you can develop catchers, they carry tremendous value in the trade market," Matt Holliday said on the podcast. "Some of these young guys, he can help develop these guys into potential All-Stars. You can trade some of these young catchers maybe for bigger holes that you have at other places. The idea that he can come in and sort of be a catching whisperer and, like I said, turn some of these young catchers into valuable pieces that you can use to help build this roster back to a World Series roster, is something that I'm intrigued about."

At a certain point, the Cardinals will have tough decisions to make when it comes to the many catchers they have on their roster.

St. Louis has five catchers currently on its 40-man roster: Herrera, Bernal, Jimmy Crooks, Pedro Pages and Yohel Pozo.

The Cardinals have already dealt several of their more notable veterans in the past year: closer Ryan Helsley, starting pitcher Sonny Gray, first baseman/catcher Willson Contreras and third baseman Nolan Arenado. If the aforementioned backstops do get better and have value under Molina's instruction, then Holliday's prediction could very well come to pass.

Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!