Grab the popcorn, because if you aren’t a St. Louis Cardinals fan, this is entertaining.
Heading into the offseason, the Cardinals faced something they haven’t for 17 years: the possibility of playing without catcher and leader Yadier Molina. The 38-year-old backstop is a free agent for the first time in his career, and he has made it very clear that he’d like to get a two-year deal to wrap up his career. Everyone more or less assumes it’ll eventually get done with the Cardinals, but there have been all kinds of rumors of wider interest, and now we hear that the Cardinals’ first offer to their beloved catcher was, um, not well-received.
From Mark Saxon at The Athletic: “A recent conversation between the Cardinals and the representative for Yadier Molina about a contract extension didn’t get far, according to a source, with Molina’s side balking at an offer they deemed ‘ridiculous.'”
It’s difficult to say what level offer would be deemed ridiculous for Molina, who is probably going to be paid like a very good back-up – but what’s the market for that type in his financial environment? Historically, you might expect a guy like Molina to get two years and, say, $12-14 million? This year, maybe less? I don’t know, is that ridiculous? Did the Cardinals offer just one year at a very low salary? We know they are crying poverty at every turn.
Saxon writes that Molina is believed to be seeking at least one year at $10 million, plus an option for 2022. It’s not hard for me to imagine that the Cardinals did something like one year and $5 million with some incentives as a starting point.
But in a market without too many available catchers, and a guy like Molina who could really help your other catcher(s) and your pitching staff, to say nothing of his yeah-still-really-good game behind the plate, it just isn’t that hard for me to see some team at least meeting him at the two-year request. Some young up-and-coming team will see Molina as their David Ross, whom the Cubs signed before the 2015 season to a two-year, $5 million deal to be the back-up catcher on the field and something much more in the clubhouse.
And to turn that on its head, you wonder: how much would the Cardinals lose without Molina? We literally haven’t seen it in 17 years, so it’s pretty darn tough to say what the impact would be on their pitching staff and in their clubhouse. We can say whatever about Molina, but clearly, he’s important to the Cardinals’ success.
So, like I said: popcorn. Either Molina and the Cardinals wind up with a messy divorce, or he returns on a deal that causes them to stretch further than they want.