It was good to see St. Louis president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom and living legend Yadier Molina make a deal that formally reestablishes the catcher’s relationship with the franchise he loves. And Molina will have a presence in a baseball town that reveres him.
Molina agreed to the role of Special Assistant to Bloom. We’ll see how it goes. Molina will have a variety of duties at every level of this organization.
If Molina embraces the work and sticks with it, and makes a meaningful impact, this job could lead to more substantial responsibilities with the Cardinals – and possibly lead to opportunities to coach or manage in the big leagues. There’s a lot on the line for him.
With the Cardinals immersed in a rebuilding project, it’s a great time for Molina to come home. He’s one of the smartest and most resourceful baseball men ever employed by the Cardinals.
As a catcher who ran the pitching staff, controlled games, was a de facto coach and served as a clubhouse touchstone for two decades, Molina was truly an extraordinary leader during a remarkable era of Cardinals baseball.
If I may recap a few things … just because it makes me happy to do so.
WAS THIS MAN A WINNER?
We can say that.
Yes. Definitely a winner.
– From his MLB debut in 2004 through his final year, Molina competed in 13 postseasons in 19 seasons.
– Molina holds the Cardinal franchise records for most postseason games played in (104) and most postseason games won (52).
– Molina’s 104 postseason games and 52 postseason victories are the most ever by a National League catcher. And second overall to Jorge Posada (Yankees.)
– In MLB history, the only catcher with more postseason career hits than Molina (102) is Posada (103). And Molina ranks 2nd in the postseason for most career doubles and is 4th for the most postseason RBIs.
– According to the Stathead search engine, only Stan Musial appeared in more regular-season games won by the Cardinals than Yadier Molina. The Stathead count: Stan the Man 1,653 wins, and Molina 1,244.
– Stathead also told me this when I ran a search, and I hope Stathead wasn’t messing with the old man here … most regular-season team wins by a National League catcher in league history? That would be Yadier Molina. Overall, in both leagues, that distinction belongs to Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez, who played for six different MLB teams.
– Without a doubt, we can say this: no catcher has ever set up behind the plate for more regular-season wins by his team than Yadier Molina.
For a young and rebuilding team, I think it’s beneficial to have Yadi around. I don’t know if you can teach a young team how to win … but other than Musial, no Cardinal won more games than Molina.
WAS THIS MAN A WORKER?
WAS HE MORE THAN JUST A DEFENSIVE CATCHER?
– The only players to play in more regular-season games for the Cardinals in team history were Musial and Lou Brock.
– Molina ranks 3rd in franchise history with 2,168 hits – behind only Musial and Brock.
– Molina is fourth all-time in franchise history in doubles, sixth in RBIs, and 5th in the FanGraphs version of Wins Above Replacement.
– The only Cardinals with more career value (WAR) than Yadier are Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Albert Pujols and Ozzie Smith.
– Among MLB catchers, Molina ranks 5th all-time in hits, 6th in doubles, and 13th in RBIs. Yes, they’re counting stats, with longevity that leads to these compilations. But the stats count, right? They mattered, yes? We’ve already talked about how many winning St. Louis games regular season and postseason – had Molina behind the plate.
– Call me Fredbird, but I think it’s cool that Molina had more hits than fellow catchers Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, Mike Piazza, Gary Carter, Joe Mauer, Buster Posey, Gabby Hartnett, Bill Dickey and Mickey Cochrane.
– I think it’s cool that this “defense-first” catcher knocked in more runs than 10 Hall of Fame catchers.
– During his playing career (2004-2022) Molina had three of the top 30 individual offensive performances by a catcher over that time.
– From 2011 through 2016, his 116 wRC+ was the third best by a National League catcher. And from 2009 through 2016, Molina ranked 4th among NL catchers with his 111 wRC+. Too many national media types missed his above-average offensive performance over an eight-season stretch.
– Ah, but the defense. The only catchers in big-league history to win more Gold Gloves than Molina (9) are Pudge Rodriguez (13) and Bench (10).
– The Platinum Glove award is more recent, but for the record, no catcher has won more of those than Molina (4.)
– In Molina’s 18 years as the team’s primary catcher (2005-2022) the Cardinals had the second-best ERA in the majors overall, the No. 2 ERA among starting pitchers, and the fifth-most quality starts in MLB.
– In MLB history only Pudge Rodriguez caught more career innings than Molina, and only Pudge started more games at catcher than Molina.
Listen, I know I’m missing a lot here.
But this Cardinal Lifer has returned, and it’s a wonderful thing.
Molina was drafted by the Cardinals in 2000. Beginning his pro baseball career with their rookie-league team at age 18, Yadi excelled for the Cardinals until retiring as one of the greatest defensive catchers in baseball history after the 2022 season. By then the future Cooperstown Hall of Famer was 39.
Molina can ease his way into his new gig. He won’t be required to travel or be at the ballpark on a daily basis. He didn’t show up for a similar arrangement as an adviser to John Mozeliak, so that raises at least some doubt about what we can expect now.
I know this: Bloom would have never hired Molina for this role unless he believed Molina was serious about making the most of it.
Bloom can help Molina get up to speed with analytics. He can open a new gateway. And y’all can squawk all you want about analytics – which is another word for information – but if Molina wants to manage in the big leagues, he must be well versed (and open-minded) about analytics. And to try and claim otherwise is ludicrous. It’s 2026, for cripe sake. Knowledge is … good!
“We are happy to welcome Yadi back to the Cardinals organization,” said Bloom in a statement. “He is an elite competitor, a consistent winner, and one of the greatest ever at his position, and we look forward to many contributions during his visits with us in this new role, both in and out of uniform.
“Yadi will provide input on our catching program, will advise our staff on catching and game planning strategy, and will give me and our front office valuable perspective from his unique vantage point.
“Perhaps most important, he will help us nurture in our players the high standards, attention to detail, and championship mindset that are so critical to winning.”
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach.
Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.