Reports broke on Thursday evening that the St. Louis Cardinals and catcher Yadier Molina were close to agreeing to a new contract, that would keep him a Cardinal. On Sunday, they officially signed off on the contract. Molina signs a new contract for thee-years, worth $60 million. It runs through 2020. He becomes the highest paid catcher in baseball with his new contract. Molina, 34, is entering his 14th season in the MLB. He's been a Cardinal forever. The Cardinals drafted him in June 2000, in the 4th round (113th overall). He ended up making his MLB debut on June 3, 2004 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Since then, Yadier Molina has developed into one the best catchers to ever play the game. He's appeared in 7 All-Star games (2009-2015), 3 World Series (winning 2 of them), 8 gold glove award (2008-2015), 4 platinum glove awards (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015), and 1 silver slugger award (2013).
His offense didn't fully show when he first came up, he was more known for his defense. His offense started to show a bit in 2006, during the Cardinals run to the 2006 World Series.
Molina's career stats: 1,611 games played, 541 runs, 1,593 hits, 308 doubles, 6 triples, 108 home runs, 703 rbi's, 47 stolen bases, and a career batting average of .285.
Great move by the Cardinals at keeping Yadier Molina around. He's an icon in St. Louis, and maybe as big as Yogi Berra was, even though he never played for the Cardinals but was from St. Louis. Molina is a future Hall Of Fame catcher. The Cardinals have never had a Hall Of Fame catcher spend their entire career with the team, Molina looks like he'll become the first one.
Only two Cardinals players have had their number retired by the Cardinals, who didn't play with any other teams: Bob Gibson, and Stan Musial. Yadier Molina could very well become the third player to never where a different uniform.
Happy Opening Day to everyone!
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