St. Louis Cardinals: Yadier Molina needs a break

Everyone that has ever took played through a competitive baseball season, whether that be at the high school or major league level, they have went through a slump at some point. The St. Louis Cardinals should keep this in mind when deciding who should be in the starting lineup.

In St. Louis Cardinals’ catcher Yadier Molina’s last 51 at-bats, he has only tallied six hits. Six! If that is not a slump then I have no idea what is. Two of those hits came in last night’s outing against the Reds, when he went 2-4 with a double, and came across to score twice. I am not one to make excuses for professional athletes, but the eight-time defending gold glove winner needs to receive some time on the pine to recoup.

Molina has been resilient at being able to stay on the field throughout his entire career, appearing in at least 110 games in every season since his second year in the league (appeared in 51 games when he was a rookie).

However, father time is undefeated when it comes to sports and it is time for Matheny to start thinking about getting Yadi more rest even if his backup is Eric Fryer. Molina’s last day off came May 29th against the Washington Nationals as the St. Louis Cardinals had to travel to Milwaukee to play a day game the next day.

Fryer may have went 0-4 with a strikeout in the game on the 29th, but he is still has a batting average of over .400 and is slugging over .500, mostly thanks to a ridiculously hot start that compares to Greg Garcia in 2016.

I am not sure who is to blame here, Matheny or Molina himself, regardless if the opportunity presents itself to get Yadier Molina back-to-back off days, like the case was when the St. Louis Cardinals were playing the Giants and then had a travel day to Cincinnati the next day, then the organization needs to take it.

A simple use of strategy could have been extremely beneficial to the veteran catcher as he was coming off a series where he went 1-11. You may remember that the Giants used this strategy with their all-star catcher Buster Posey.

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Yadier Molina has undoubtedly been fighting “it” (whatever it happens to be), so Matheny needs to take control of the situation himself and sit down Molina for a game or two before his production continues to dip.

The Puerto Rican product had seemed to turn the corner from his injury by getting off to a fire start, that had him sitting with a slash line of .333/.412/.431 after a trip to the west coast in mid-May. Since returning to play a long home stand to present day, Molina’s slash line has dipped to .261/.341/.350. Let me say it again, if that does not scream slump, then I do not know what one is.

Earlier this week, I wrote about Brayan Pena starting his rehab assignment from a knee surgery. The maximum a rehabilitation assignment can go is 20 days total. John Mozeliak has expressed that they will not rush Pena back to St. Louis to make his debut, so it is possible we see him last nearly the entire 20 days. Pena has went 0-5 with a walk and a strikeout through two games played in Springfield.

Personally, I would say that Molina should see at least two days off from games if his struggles continue. The Cardinals have three days off from games in the next two weeks for traveling purposes before starting a grueling trip to Seattle after a three game series with Chicago, just to return three days later to the Midwest to play the defending World Series champion, Kansas City Royals. There are ample opportunities for Matheny to take advantage of and rest his future Hall of Fame catcher.

Next: What catchers could the Cards look at in the draft?

In case you have not seen it yet, the Cardinals lineup tonight has Jhonny Peralta, who just returned from a rehab assignment of his own, getting the day off, along with Matt Adams. Both of which happen to have had an amazing series against the Reds in Cincinnati. I cannot seem to find the logic here.