St. Louis Cardinals: Give Yadier Molina his two final years here

While Yadier Molina’s contributions at the plate have waned, but the St. Louis Cardinals would do well to let the franchise icon finish his career here.

There is a very deep duality with the situation involving the St. Louis Cardinals and Yadier Molina. How do you transition a franchise away from an icon that has had him at the helm of the team for nearly two decades? By all accounts, Yadier Molina is not done playing. In fact, he wants two more years.

The Cardinals need to give them to him.

On paper, resigning an offensively declining 38-year-old catcher whose knees have shouldered over 16,500 innings doesn’t make any sense. However, the St. Louis Cardinals would not be the same if Yadi was still playing but was in another uniform.

His .268 average over the past two seasons combined shows he can still hit for average, but his power and walk rate has steadily been declining. Yadi fell from having a .711 OPS in 2019 to just .662 this season.

As you can see, Molina doesn’t rank very well in terms of many offensive stats, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is still the most clutch Cardinal. As we have seen time and time again, he comes up in the big moments when the team needs him.

Even as his offense continues to decline, he provides much more value than what is on the stat sheet. He is the pitching staff’s quarterback, he is the leader of the team, he is the face of the franchise.

All signs point to the Cardinals being interested in signing him for those two years though. Internally, I have been leaning towards hoping the Cardinals let Yadi walk. This is something he has said he’s willing to do.

Again, on paper, resigning Yadi makes no sense and it’s frustrating to see a young catcher like Andrew Knizner trapped in his shadow. However, recent articles from other publications about their teams signing Yadi gave a taste of what it would feel like to see Yadi in another uniform.

And those are just the beginning. Clearly, Molina has value on the open market. If the Cardinals don’t offer him enough or are not willing to go a second year, odds are someone else will be. I don’t think fans would be able to stomach Molina playing in another uniform. I don’t think I could stomach it.

It won’t take two years at $20M a year, but it also won’t be two years for $10M total.

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If the Cardinals do resign Molina, they really need to trade Andrew Knizner to upgrade another position. Knizner is heading into his age-26 season and if they continue to hold onto him, his trade value will dwindle.

If there is one thing that Molina proved in 2020, it is that if he is on the active roster, he will be starting. Molina said earlier this year that in the second year, he’d be open to taking a reduced role, but for 2021 at least he would be the full-time starter.

That 2022 timeline lines up well with the arrival of budding top-100 prospect Ivan Herrera, but it all depends on what the Cardinals want to do. Based on how the team usually operates, I would expect that resigning Molina will be the first item on the docket this winter.

In the short term, the Cardinals need to give Molina his two years. No other Cardinal will ever wear number four, he will get a statue, and he should be a lock for the Hall of Fame. It’s not the best move on paper, but for his leadership, his clutch factor, and his in-game management, the Cardinals need Molina back.