Yadier Molina made his major league debut on June 3, 2004, as a fresh-faced 21-year-old catcher from Puerto Rico, and he spent 19 unforgettable seasons in the majors earning a reputation as one of the best catchers in baseball history.
His spot in Cooperstown, as a Hall of Famer, is secure.
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To commemorate his impending retirement — after the Cardinals’ playoff run ends, which could be with a World Series title — and the end of an era in St. Louis, we asked four ballplayers, with four very different perspectives on his life and his career, for Yadier Molina stories. We were not disappointed.
These stories have been lightly edited for clarity and continuity.
The Brother: Bengie Molina
The Molina catching legacy really is amazing. Bengie, the oldest of the three brothers, played 13 years in the majors, winning the World Series in 2002 with the Angels. Jose, next in line, played 15 years in the majors, winning the World Series in 2002 with the Angels — how cool is that? — and again in 2009 with the Yankees. Combined, the trio played 4,532 regular season games and 163 postseason games. Bengie wrote about the man who raised all three in 2015, with his book, “Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty.” Bengie was sitting in Yadier’s house, with their mother there, when he chatted with The Sporting News on the phone.
This is the one really sticks out, the one that I think made Yadi who he is today. When he was like 15 he was playing in his normal league. Yadi had been with these teammates since he was like 4 or 5. They were playing their rivals, from a rival town. Something had happened the game before, and then in this game somebody got hit and another other guy got hit and things like that. The guy batting in front of him — remember, like his brother, they grew up together — he had one thrown up to his head, with Yadi in the on-deck circle. He just charged the mound, man, and here we go, you know.
Before his buddy stood up in the batter's box, Yadi was already on top of the pitcher, fighting with him. After that, he got suspended, and he went to an amateur league where the average guy in that league is 30 and over. Remember, he was like 15 years old. My dad said, ‘OK you’re gonna fight, you’re going to play in this league. You want to be a man, OK, here’s a man’s league for you. Let’s see what you do.’ It was the Coliceba league, for a team called Hatillo. It’s like 40 minutes away from our hometown. I played on that team, too, long before him. And he was a catcher, dealing with grown-ups, all grown-up men and facing these guys that had been playing ball for so long, representing Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican amateur baseball team and things like that. And here’s Yadi, facing these guys and catching those guys.
That team went one game away from winning the championship. It was really weird how it happened. I have to tell you a story later because it takes a little longer. To be one game, one out away from winning the championship at 15 years old with all these big, big dudes, you know, older dudes? I really do believe that that’s when Yadier Molina was made. That’s where he got a lot of his maturity in baseball, and what got him over the top to be a Hall of Famer like he is today. That’s why, when you saw Yadi in 2004 in the World Series, he was so young but he was taking charge like he was a 30-year-old. It was because he already had done all these things, had the maturity to do all these things.
Remember, me and Jose signed in ’93 and Yadi was signed in 2000. My dad was very vocal with us. He would tell us how Yadi was growing into a man. That’s what he kept saying to us, “Your brother is growing into a man right now. He’s just making his transition from a kid to a man.” That stuck with me. I would ask my dad how Yadi was playing. He would say, ‘Man, he’s playing well, doing great. His skills are growing up all the time.’ And so my dad was always telling us how he was improving at all times, improving on every single aspect of the game. Every aspect. Playing in that league really made him, I really do believe that.
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The Battery Mate: Adam Wainwright
Wainwright and Molina set the record for most starts as a battery this season (325), finishing with 328. It’s a mark that likely never will be broken. And even if the record eventually falls, the bond between the two certainly never will. The duo were together for some of the most iconic moments in recent Cardinals history, especially in the 2006 postseason, when Molina caught series-ending Strike Three pitches from Wainwright both in the NLCS against the Mets and in the World Series against the Tigers..
He’s a huge country music fan. Oh, yeah. He loves Zac Brown, Luke Bryant, knows every word of their songs. We went to a Zac Brown concert a few years ago and he was howling every lyric of every song Zac Brown had. It was just hilarious to see him kind of let loose. He’s a guy who’s pretty guarded in his everyday life, just because he kinda has to be. When he lets loose every once in a while, it’s a real treat to see.
Over the years, I’ve been intentional about treating him normal, not like he’s YADI but treating him like he’s a normal friend. I think he appreciates that, being able to joke with people, be able to cut on him a little bit. Everybody needs that, especially people who don’t get to share that with lots of people in their workplace because they get treated differently. We’ve been together a long time, so we both have sort of our own ability to sneak into each other’s lives.
Right from Triple-A, I knew he was a special defensive player. Honestly, I didn’t know how good he was going to be at hitting. I thought he was going to be a scrappy singles-type guy with a couple of homers a year, but he turned himself into a great hitter, too. And that’s because he works. He works at it. He’s the first one in the clubhouse, the first one in the batting cages working on receiving drills.
Every catcher that we’ve ever signed as a free agent has always said the same thing. They’re always surprised how much time he spends on the little things to remain great. Not just to be great, because he’s already great. But he remains there. It takes a lot of mental fortitude and passion for the game. His dad got him on that path. His brothers got him on that path of wanting to be great, not playing the game just to play it, but playing it to be great.
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The Rookie: Kolten Wong
Wong was drafted by the Cardinals in 2011 and made his big league debut in 2013. He played 852 games with St. Louis before signing with Milwaukee as a free agent before the 2021 season. His return to Busch Stadium was emotional, for Wong and for Cardinals fans.
The first time I met him was right after I signed with the Cardinals. I came to St. Louis to take BP and sign my contract. It was a quick, ‘Hi, how ya doing?’ He was a legend, and I was a kid. I was just trying to stay out of his way as they were getting ready for a game. It was one of those things where it took you a minute to get in his good graces. He was a legend when I got here, and I played with him for seven years. To see what he did in my quick seven years here was amazing.
I got in his good graces after the 2014 season, the first season where I played a full season in the bigs, playing almost every day because there were a lot of injuries going on with us. When you’re breaking into the league, you’re always an up-and-down guy until you can sink your feet in. I was able to get a decent amount of games in, and he saw how I played the game, saw how I went about my business and opened up to me a little more. I mean, it’s Yadier Molina, so you’re not going to force anything. You’re just going to earn his good graces and get to that point. I was happy it happened that early, and from that point I was able to build a relationship and learn.
That was the biggest thing I wanted from him, to pick his brain and understand the game through his eyes, a first-ballot Hall of Famer to me, someone I look up to. It was learning what makes him so special, what can I take from him and add to my game to be able to last close to as long as he does.
For him to step out and give way and allow the fans to give an ovation, that’s really cool. It seems like every single time I come here, he does it at least for my first at-bat. It’s the same, every single time. I’ve talked to other guys who went through that, and they say the same thing. You don’t expect that from Yadi, and when he does, it’s such a heartfelt thing. You just feel like you don’t deserve it. The Cardinals fans here are amazing for giving you that kind of reception, but at the end of the day you feel like it’s not needed, like I haven’t really done anything to earn that. And on top of that, to have Yadi do that? You can’t ask for anything more. It’s incredible. Obviously I appreciate everything he did for me, but to step out every single time the way he does, I’m like, ‘You don’t need to do that, dude. You can take a knee back there and I’ll say my little hi and that’s it.’ But he does it anyway.
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The Opponent: David Ross
Ross, now the manager of the Cubs, carved out a 15-year career in the majors as one of the most respected backup catchers in the sport, earning a reputation for his defensive skills and his knowledge of the game. A two-time World Series champion — 2013 with the Red Sox and 2016 with the Cubs — Ross played for the Braves, Cubs, Reds, Red Sox, Dodgers Padres and Pirates, and he played more games against Molina and the Cardinals than any other regular-season opponent (63 games).
He gave me a moment in 2016, my last year. My last home game was “Sunday Night Baseball.” I got a lot of cheers, and I just remember him walking around the plate, taking his time so a backup catcher could get five seconds of fame and love, and that meant a lot. I’ve thanked him for that, I think, a gazillion times. But it was really important to me, how he handled that for me. I’ll always respect him for that. I didn’t expect that. I think that’s just who he is at heart. He wants what’s good for baseball and for people.
Obviously the lineage in his family and who he’s been around, his brothers, they raised him the right way to respect the game. Anytime you meet a Molina, it’s pretty clear that they’re warm, welcoming people who know baseball really well and were really good players with good experience. All of them have got World Series rings, so they’ve played at the highest level.
I tell this story privately all the time. The Cardinals knocked me out of the playoffs every year until ’13 with Boston. When we played them that year, all I thought was, ‘Yadi’s going to do it to me again.’ I lost to them with L.A., with San Diego, the wild-card game in Atlanta. They had knocked me out enough.
I’m extremely grateful for, one, competing against him, and the level at which he played. I came up and Mike Matheny was the catcher in St. Louis. I remember Mike gave me a nice word of advice one time about dealing with umpires, and then watching Yadi take over for him, with that consistent defense. I was like, ‘Wow, they do a nice job in this organization’ because they feel very similar. Now, obviously, Yadi’s gone on and had his own career and done amazing things. This guy embodies what a catcher is. He’s good for the game. He respects the game. He demands that the game is respected by the guys around him. He can throw, he can hit. He can do a lot of things really well.
Ross broke out a huge smile as he said this:
And, I’m tired of talking good about Yadi, so we should stop right now.
