Yadier Molina begins his work in the Venezuelan baseball league

Caracas. With the presence of Puerto Rican Yadier Molinajust two weeks after ending a successful 19-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) and now venturing into the role of manager, the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP) tournament kicks off on Saturday.

Molina, a former wide receiver for the St. Louis Cardinals, was fired Oct. 9, when his team was swept in two games by the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL wild-card series.

The seasoned baseball player, who played his entire career with San Luis, barely let a few days go by to get back into uniform and take the reins of the Navegantes del Magallanes, one of the two most popular teams in Venezuela and which holds 13 baseball championship titles. Venezuelan winter and two crowns in the Caribbean Series (1970 and 1979).

“I am very excited to be in Venezuela and even more with a traditional and winning team like Magallanes.”, Molina told the press, highlighting that the opportunity came after a conversation with former Venezuelan MLB player Pablo Sandoval, who did everything in his power to get him to speak with the Navegantes management.

Sandoval, along with Venezuelan ranger José Martínez, who played with San Luis (2016-2019), fueled Molina’s desire to become a helmsman in this new stage of his career. In just one night, the agreement was reached to lead the Venezuelan team.

Molina is aware that he lacks experience as a manager, but feels capable of assuming that responsibility.. The knowledge accumulated after directing prestigious pitchers for 19 years serves as the basis for starting.

He also values ​​the knowledge gained from managers like Tony La Russa that he now hopes to apply as a manager.

He recounted that from La Russa — the manager with the most wins in Cardinals history, with a total of 1,408 in 2,591 games and the third all-time in the major leagues with 2,728 wins — he learned how to run the game and be in tune with each of the players.

The nine-time Gold Glove winner and 10-time All-Star will also lead Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in March 2023.

Molina, without hindrance, has set himself the goal of being champion in Venezuela and in the next Caribbean Series. And he could achieve that goal with a team that managed to clinch the local tournament crown last year even with a US suspension in tow — which prevented him from having key players who play in US baseball.

In the present campaign that obstacle was forgotten, at least for now.

The Venezuelan league announced in September that the Navegantes and the Tigres de Aragua team received the license from the United States Department of the Treasury, which reverses the almost three-year blockade on the participation of players affiliated with MLB in those two local ninths.

This administrative measure allows both teams to reestablish their legal system before MLB and their reintegration into the Winter League Agreement, in order to use all the personnel that militate in organized baseball, something that they had not been able to do since 2019.

It was not clear when the licenses expire or if they can be revoked or modified at any time, as was established in December 2019, when the US Treasury Department authorized the participation of players and coaches affiliated with the major leagues in six of the eight teams —Caribes de Anzoátegui, Leones de Caracas, Tiburones de la Guaira, Bravos de Margarita, Cardenales de Lara and Águilas de Zulia— after considering that these novenas had no link with the Venezuelan government.

In August 2019, the Venezuelan league was initially suspended when then-President Donald Trump’s administration expanded sanctions against Venezuela at a time when he was trying to pressure his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro to step down.

The previous authorization excluded Tigres and Navegantes on the grounds that they had links with the Maduro government. Both teams have the legal figure of foundations attached to the governments of the states of Carabobo and Aragua, which for years have been in the hands of allies of the president.

The US sanctions, which include the freezing of Venezuelan government assets in the United States, prohibit Americans and related foreign companies from doing business with the Venezuelan government, their family members, or those with business ties to government companies or officials.

The 2022-2023 season —where once again the Lions, Cardinals and Caribes are favorites to fight the Navegantes— will be played under the all-against-all format adopted during the pandemic. In the postseason to define the two finalists, five teams will also play under the same elimination format.

The Final Series will be played, as usual, with a maximum of seven games. The winner will be the representative of Venezuela in the next Caribbean Series, which will be held from February 2 to 9, 2023.