St. Louis Cardinals: Molina and Matheny have yet to clear the air

St. Louis Post-Dispatch beat writer Derrick Goold tells (PressBox, 590 the Fan) that according to sources around the St. Louis Cardinals, Molina and Matheny have yet to clear the air between them regarding Yadi’s Instagram post five days ago.

This situation needs to be solved and it needs to be solved now. The feud between St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny and All-star catcher Yadier Molina has gone on for too long, and it needs to be handled quickly.

The team and clubhouse is already in a poor situation with how they have underperformed all season and they do not need this distraction looming over them as they begin a very important stretch of the season.

As reported by MLB writer for the Cardinals, Jenifer Langosch, this all began when Matheny made some comments about Yadier looking tired before Thursday’s game against the D-backs.

“Yadi’s caught a lot,” Matheny said. ‘Yesterday, just kind of watching him go around the bases, too, you could tell that he’s you know…”

Yadi then fired back with a post on Instagram stating in the caption: “I train to play 174 games because that’s what it takes to be Champion, I’m not tired and the day I feel I’ll express it myself. #misinforming”

Do I think Yadi handled this situation correctly? No I think as veteran leader on this team he went about this in the completely wrong fashion. Molina should have talked to Matheny face-to-face behind closed doors and not brought this out into the public.

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With the this altercation out in the public, it is breaking apart the clubhouse. Players including Dexter Fowler, Tommy Pham, Greg Garcia, Kolten Wong, and Kevin Siegrist all “liked” Molina’s post.

Does this mean Matheny has lost some of the veterans’ trust? Not necessarily. I think a lot of the frustration shown by the players has stemmed from the lack of consistency in play this year and the overall struggles of this team as a whole. If this team were 5.5 games up, this would have been a non-story because winning cures all.

Since this issue between Matheny and Molina has yet to be cleared, where do we go from here? In my opinion, this situation can go one of two directions. The first being that the two can continue to let this stir within the clubhouse and it will only get worse. If that happens, I could see a separation among the players in two groups, ones that agree with Molina and those that side with the manager.

Cardinals management is then going to be tasked with making a decision on who stays and who goes? Do they stick with the soon to be hall of fame catcher who has brought them two world titles? Or the former catcher who has consistently gotten worse each year he’s been manager? The answer is simple.

The other possible path this feud takes is simple, Molina and Matheny sit down as men and figure it out face-to-face, and this team is able to focus on how to get back into the division race instead of who posts what on Instagram.

Next: Quiet Cardinals can still impact season

It cannot be good for this St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse to have its most beloved star calling out its manager over an Instagram post. I know it may seem stupid that two grown men are fighting over social media, but that is the world we live in today.