All of this time at home has given Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina a chance to rethink his stance on playing for the Cardinals and the Cardinals only or, as he once said, “I’ll go home.”
Talking with ESPN on Wednesday, Molina explained how the coronavirus pandemic and the indefinite stoppage of baseball has fortified his wish to play another two seasons — and offered him the time to reflect on the possibility of being a free agent and signing elsewhere. As recently as this past March, as his agent and the Cardinals discussed the framework of an extension, Molina had said he would play for the Cardinals or retire.
“I previously said that, if it wasn’t with St. Louis, that I would go home. If we were unable to come to an extension agreement, that I would retire. But the situation with this pandemic has changed everything. Right now, I’m thinking of playing two more years,” Molina told ESPN baseball writer Marly Rivera. “Obviously, St. Louis is my first option. But if they don’t sign me, then I’m willing to go into free agency. This situation has changed my mentality and all I want to do is play.”
Molina’s is in the final year of a three-year, $60-million extension. At the time he signed that extension, he thought it would be his final contract.
As the 2020 season neared, he notified the Cardinals that he felt he had two more seasons left — and that his body felt good enough to remain the team’s starting catcher to the age of 40.
He told the Post-Dispatch this past spring that if the Cardinals wanted him to re-sign him and have him compete for the everyday job, he would prove to them he could do it. He also expressed a willingness to share the job, if needed, with a rising young catcher like Andrew Knizner.
He reiterated to ESPN a previous statement that he was confident the Cardinals and his agent would come to an agreement.
Those talks have been mostly tabled since the stoppage as the Cardinals and the front office shifted to the present crisis and delayed season.
Molina has remained with his family in the Jupiter, Fla., area, where he has an offseason home. After the Cardinals and Major League Baseball shuttered the facility, Molina was still seen doing his daily run around the complex and the Abacoa neighborhood the Cardinals call home every spring.
No Cardinals catcher has more innings or more starts behind the plate than Molina, and he is rising toward the all-time lead in innings caught and games at catcher while also chasing a third World Series championship and a 10th Gold Glove.
The Cardinals have described the importance of retaining Molina as what ownership calls a “legacy” player, and believe his career is on course even his eventual induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Before this terrible situation happened, I thought there was a 50/50 chance that the 2020 campaign would be my last. Not now,” he told ESPN. “The most important thing right now is people’s health and getting past this pandemic. It’s a very difficult situation. After we accomplish that, after we’re able to start the 2020 season, then I’d like to have that conversation.”
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