Willson Contreras has joined some rare company in his first season with the Cardinals

Yadier Molina- 22 home runs in 2012 and 20 home runs in 2018

The guy who recommended the Cardinals to sign Contreras after he retired, had a couple of highly productive seasons in the power department.

As I mentioned earlier that catcher is widely known as a defensive position, Molina might be the best defensive catcher of all time. In 19 seasons with St. Louis, he won 9 gold gloves, including 8 in a row from 2008-2015, and his ability to throw out runners attempting to steal basically shut down any strategy by the opposing teams to try to steal off him.

There was a three-season span from 2011-2013 where Molina was one of the best-hitting catchers in the league along with his stellar defense, including 2012 where he hit 22 home runs and had, at the time, career highs in batting average (.315), on-base ( .373), SLG (.501), RBI ( 76), and extra-base hits ( 50). That season he finished 4th in the MVP voting.

2018 came as a surprise to most as he hit 20 home runs in his age-35 season. He also did this in playing only 123 games, his lowest in 5 seasons, he drove in 74 runs, and he won his final gold glove that year as well.