In addition, all pages on Bizapedia will be served to you completely ad freeĪnd you will be granted access to view every profile in its entirety, even if the company chooses to hide the private information on their profile from the general public. Nearly every baseball person you come across swears by Molina as a Hall of Famer and gold standard for what a catcher should embody.Your entire office will be able to use your search subscription. I'm not going to say you can't find any, because no one is perfect, but the pickings are slim here. Go back through these 18 years and try to find players, coaches, managers, front office people, etc., who don't consider Molina a Hall of Fame difference maker. He's rarely been the best player, sure, and we can't prove that this run of success with the franchise has much to do with him, but we also can't prove it had little or nothing to do with him.

Throughout all this time with Molina as their catcher, and most of the time as their clubhouse leader, the Cardinals have had a losing record one time in 18 seasons. The only catchers with more are Ivan Rodriguez, Carlton Fisk, Ted Simmons, Gary Carter, Bob Boone and Bench. The next game Molina catches will put him beyond the great Yogi Berra in career games. With 983 RBI, he's 17 away from becoming the 15th catcher to get to 1,000. His 397 doubles are seventh and he has a shot to get to third (Mauer is currently third with 428). His 2,090 career hits are 10th among catchers, sitting above the likes of Johnny Bench, Bill Dickey and Gabby Hartnett. Longevity has to count for something, though, and Molina's racked up some impressive counting stats, given his position. If we go strictly by WAR, Molina is 20th and still well below the average Hall of Fame catcher, sitting the ballpark of Kendall and Posada. Gene Tenace and Bill Freehan are among other non-HOF types rating well ahead of Molina here. Joe Mauer is seventh and Buster Posey is 14th (and counting). In JAWS, Molina ranks 22nd all-time among catchers, well below the average Hall of Fame catcher and trailing contemporary players like Jason Kendall and Jorge Posada. His case is a perplexing one at the intersection of numbers and the so-called intangibles. Once Molina has been retired for five years, he'll be on the Hall of Fame ballot.

It's a career that includes 10 All-Star Games, nine Gold Gloves, four Platinum Gloves, two World Series titles and plenty of adulation from the St. Once his farewell tour ends, it will bring to an end a 19-year career all with the Cardinals. Earlier this week, venerable Cardinals backstop Yadier Molina announced that - after signing a one-year extension with the Cardinals - 2022 would be his final season.

12 by Russell Molina