Yadier Molina
Yadier Benjamín Molina is a Puerto Rican professional baseball manager and former catcher who is the manager of the Navegantes del Magallanes of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. He played his entire 19-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball and he is currently the team's Special Assistant to the President of Baseball Operations. Widely considered one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time for his blocking ability and caught-stealing percentage, Molina won nine Rawlings Gold Gloves and six Fielding Bible Awards. A two-time World Series champion, he played for Cardinals teams that made 12 playoff appearances and won four National League pennants. Molina also played for the Puerto Rican national team in four World Baseball Classic tournaments, winning two silver medals.
When he retired after the 2022 season, Molina ranked first all-time among catchers in putouts and second all-time among catchers with 130 Defensive Runs Saved ; among active players, he ranked first with 845 assists, 40.21% of runners caught stealing, and 55 pickoffs. Along with pitcher Adam Wainwright, Molina holds the records for most games started and won as a battery. As a hitter, Molina accrued more than 2,100 hits, 150 home runs, and 1,000 runs batted in ; he batted over.300 in five seasons. Other distinctions include selection to ten MLB All-Star Games, four Platinum Glove Awards, and one Silver Slugger Award. He was a two-time selection to the All-WBC Tournament Team and was a member of the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series.
The product of a baseball family, Molina was born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. His father was an amateur second baseman and the all-time hits leader in Puerto Rican baseball, and his two older brothers, Bengie and José, also developed into standout defensive catchers with lengthy MLB careers. The Cardinals' fourth-round selection in the 2000 MLB draft, Molina entered the major leagues in the 2004 season and quickly showed one of the strongest and most accurate arms in the game. Over his career, he earned a reputation as a team leader, eventually formulating pregame plans to handle opposing hitters, including pitching strategies and fielder positioning.
Molina appeared on five NL Most Valuable Player Award ballots, including finishing fourth in 2012 and third in 2013. When Hurricane Maria ravaged the island of Puerto Rico in September 2017, Molina began relief efforts for victims of the catastrophe, consequently receiving the Roberto Clemente Award in 2018.
Early life
Yadier Benjamín Molina was born on July 13, 1982, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, the youngest of three boys to Gladys Matta and Benjamín Molina, Sr. He attended Maestro Ladislao Martínez High School in Vega Alta.–Baseball in Puerto Rico is a significant part of the island's culture. Molina's father played second base as an amateur and worked as a tools technician 10 hours per day in a Westinghouse factory. The all-time hits leader in Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente history, the elder Molina delivered a.320 career batting average and gained election to the Puerto Rican baseball hall of fame in 2002. Molina's two older brothers, Bengie and José, also developed into distinguished defensive catchers with lengthy careers in Major League Baseball, and each of the three won at least one World Series championship.Each day when he completed work, Molina's father went directly home, ate dinner with his family, and crossed the street from his family's home with his sons and his son's friend Carlos Diaz to Jesús Mambe Kuilan Park, spending countless evening hours teaching them the fundamentals of the sport. He remained hopeful that his sons would become professional baseball players.
Molina's catching aptitude showed as early as age five and developed quickly. Nonetheless, he developed great competence in playing all over the baseball field and, as older brother Bengie recalled, always seemed to "be the first player taken in the youth league draft". Molina concentrated on infield positions until about age 16, when he began to develop the familiar Molina physique: as of 2013, he stood 5'11" and weighed 220 pounds.
Molina's father also sought to accelerate him on the diamond. Following Yadier's suspension from a youth league about age 15, he anticipated the desistance would stagnate his development, so he searched for an alternative. Against the wishes of coaches, family members and friends, he scheduled Yadier for a workout with the Hatillo Tigres, an amateur league team. Molina made the team after a single workout and immediately became the starting catcher. The Tigres' first baseman, Luís Rosario, was the one who recommended him to the organization. The Tigres played in a league composed mainly of players 10 or more years older than Molina, well before he was eligible for the MLB draft.
Professional career
Draft and minor leagues
scout Edwin Rodríguez followed and scrutinized Molina starting in high school. He observed that Molina's skills closely resembled that of both his older brothers—both accomplished major league catchers—and decided that his defense was "polished" enough to be considered more advanced than most high schoolers in the United States. However, Molina's hitting lagged behind his defense. The initial report on his skill set was "defensive catcher, great arm, weak bat"; the closest comparable hitter as catcher was one whom the Cardinals eventually placed at the top of their organizational ladder, his future manager Mike Matheny.Before he was drafted, Molina worked out for the Cincinnati Reds. He put on a spectacle at Riverfront Stadium with his arm and bat that grabbed the attention of executives, scouts, and prominent former Reds players, including Johnny Bench and Bob Boone. As Molina recalled, he left the session with the impression that Cincinnati intended to draft him. Undeterred by the universal reservations about his offensive ceiling, the St. Louis Cardinals instead took Molina in the fourth round of the 2000 MLB draft and signed him for $325,000.
The Cardinals then invited Molina to major league spring training camp. Described as "raw", the young catcher worked to emulate Matheny. At one point in that extended spring training, instructor Dave Ricketts observed Molina from a golf cart during a game. Molina allowed a passed ball through his legs with a runner on third base, and raced to the backstop to retrieve the ball. Still hoping to prevent the runner from scoring, he instead found Ricketts in the golf cart parked on top of home plate. Ricketts, who had a reputation for becoming upset when minor league catchers allowed balls to bounce between their legs, removed Molina from the game and drove him to the batting cage. There, Molina later recalled, Ricketts batted 150 to 200 ground balls to improve the young catcher's ability to block pitches.
Molina began his professional career with the Johnson City Cardinals of the Rookie-level Appalachian League in 2001, playing 44 total games and batting.259. He advanced one level in each of four seasons in the minor leagues. Even without highly developed offensive skills, Molina proved difficult to strike out. Mainly a singles hitter who favored hitting the ball the other way, he batted.278 with 14 home runs and 133 runs batted in with 118 strikeouts in 1,044 at-bats in four minor league seasons. In his first three seasons, he threw out 111 base runners attempting to steal while allowing 133 stolen bases, for a caught-stealing percentage of 45%.
St. Louis Cardinals (2004–2022)
2004–06
Molina's first chance in the Major Leagues came when the incumbent catcher, Matheny, went on the disabled list with a strained rib in the Cardinals' pennant-winning season of 2004. Molina made his Major League debut on June 3. One of his first game-winning hits occurred on August 7. He stroked a broken-bat single to shallow center field in the bottom of the ninth inning against the New York Mets. On the play, the center fielder, Mike Cameron started towards the outfield wall based on Molina's full swing, not immediately realizing that he had made only partial contact because of the broken bat. By the time Cameron charged the ball, it was too late; it fell in for a hit, scoring Jim Edmonds. Three weeks later, on August 29, the Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6–4, thanks in part to two plays in which Molina tagged out the runner at home plate, including a collision with Ty Wigginton.Molina appeared in 51 regular-season games and batted.267 with two home runs and 15 RBIs in 151 plate appearances. He threw out more than half of would-be base-stealers. In the World Series against the Boston Red Sox, manager Tony La Russa elected to start Molina over Matheny in Game 4. The Red Sox swept the Cardinals and claimed the title that game, their first in 86 years. The following offseason, Matheny signed a three-year, $10.5-million contract with the San Francisco Giants, clearing the way for Molina to become the Cardinals' starting catcher.
In 2005, Molina struggled with injuries and saw a drop off in the offensive performance in his rookie season. He doubled and scored on David Eckstein's go-ahead single on his way to three hits in a June 12 defeat of the New York Yankees, 5–3. Molina returned from a 33-game absence on August 19 induced by a hairline fracture of his left fifth metacarpal bone from being hit by a pitch on July 7. Starting pitcher Chris Carpenter, attempting to extend a winning streak to ten games on an August 19 game versus the San Francisco Giants, found himself in a 4–0 deficit in the ninth inning. Capped by Molina's three-run home run, the Cardinals rallied and won 5–4 in the ninth. The next day, Molina's suicide squeeze bunt scored Mark Grudzielanek, tying the game and allowing the Cardinals to win 4–2. Those were just two wins of 100 as St. Louis made their way to another division title following 105 wins the season before.
In 114 games, Molina posted a.252 batting average with eight home runs and 49 RBIs with just 30 strikeouts in 421 plate appearances. Defensively, he registered career-highs of nine pickoffs and a caught-stealing percentage of 64 from throwing out 25 of 39 would-be base-stealers. According to Baseball-Reference.com, as of 2024, that percentage ranked as the 28th highest all-time season-single caught stealing percentage. Since 1957, only Roberto Pérez's 71.4% in the shortened 2020 season and Mike LaValliere's 72.7% in 1993 were higher.
Before the 2006 season commenced, Molina participated in the inaugural World Baseball Classic for Puerto Rico. After returning to the Cardinals, he changed his jersey number from 41 to 4. However, the regular season presented some of his greatest offensive challenges as he struggled through a career-worst.216 batting average in 461 regular-season plate appearances. It was a culmination of a decline over his first three seasons; Molina's on-base plus slugging percentages registered at.684 in 2004,.654 in 2005 and.595 in 2006. The low batting average was due in part to a deflated batting average on balls in play of.226, a career low.
In a May 27 game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego with the Cardinals holding a 4–3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, Molina picked Brian Giles off first to end the game, the first pickoff to end a major league game in nearly four years. The Cardinals faced the Padres again in the National League Division Series playoff game in the playoffs, he again picked a Padre off at first, this time Mike Piazza, while bailing pitcher Jeff Suppan out of a jam. For the season, he caught 41% of all base-stealing attempts and picked off seven runners.
Even as his bat languished, Molina's defense was instrumental in propelling the Cardinals to the National League Central division crown in a season heavily marred by injuries for the team. However, the following playoffs marked a turning point in his career offensive output. He posted a.358 composite batting average,.424 on-base percentage, two home runs and eight RBIs in 16 games as the Cardinals reached the World Series. He batted.308 in the National League Division Series,.348 in the National League Championship Series and.412 in the World Series.
One of Molina's landmark playoff performances came in Game 7 of the NLCS against the New York Mets, the final game of the series tied at three games each. Starting in the top of the ninth, he batted with a 1–1 score. In the sixth inning, Mets left fielder Endy Chávez had prevented the Cardinals from taking the lead when he leapt to catch Scott Rolen's near-miss home run over the left field fence. This time, however, Molina hit a two-run home run off Aaron Heilman over left field that was too high for Chávez to catch and gave the Cardinals a 3–1 edge.
In the bottom of the ninth, rookie pitcher Adam Wainwright – filling in as emergency closer – found himself in a two-out, bases-loaded situation against center fielder Carlos Beltrán, who had already homered three times in the NLCS. Molina called for a mound conference. Initially, he wanted a sinker from Wainwright but changed his mind because he suspected Wainwright would overthrow it and give Beltrán an easy pitch to hit. Molina made an unconventional choice by calling for a changeup to start the sequence against Beltrán. It was called for a strike. Had Beltrán successfully got a base hit, the scheme may have caused tension for the third-year catcher with La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan because throwing a first-pitch changeup ran contrary to Duncan's teaching. Molina then called for two curveballs. Beltrán fouled off the first, but Wainwright struck him out looking at a "bender that started up and away and bit hard to the low inside corner" for the final out of the game. The Cardinals' conquest of the NLCS gave them a return trip to the World Series after two years. They proceeded to defeat the Detroit Tigers in five games, giving Molina his first championship ring. His mask was turned in for display at the Baseball Hall of Fame.