Clock is ticking on Waino and Yadi’s time with the St. Louis Cardinals
Yadier Molina was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth round of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft on June 5, 2000. He signed his first contract that September 6, and has been a part of the Cardinals organization for 20 years and two weeks.
Adam Wainwright was traded to the Cardinals from the Atlanta Braves on December 13, 2003, famously while in the midst of asking his future father-in-law for permission to marry his future wife, Jenny.
From that day forward, nearly 17 years ago, the two have served as guideposts for an era of Cardinals baseball that’s seen two World Series championships and two additional National League championships. The organization has played in two ballparks for three managers across three presidential administrations (four for Molina) and a global pandemic.
There is roughly a week left on each of their contracts. Time moves on. The clock is ticking.
“I haven’t wanted to imagine it,” said Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, asked about a clubhouse without Molina and Wainwright. “I’ve been in this organization a long time and Yadi’s been here pretty much the whole time I’ve been here, or has been here the whole time I’ve been here and Waino pretty darn close.
“I don’t know why I would think about them not being here. They’re always here, I don’t have any reason to think about them not being here. I’m grateful they’re here.”
The aforementioned pandemic is perhaps the primary reason why Shildt would be well served to come around to that possibility. Extension talks for Molina were derailed in spring training by the encompassing uncertainty, and while he’s likely to accept a pay cut from his current contract’s $20 million salary, the extent of the cut may be in question.
Wainwright, on the other hand, has played the last two years under team-friendly deals after acknowledging he did not provide full value on his previous contract. He’s been a more than prudent investment in the last two seasons and likely has earned a high enough 2021 salary that the Cardinals may pause.
“Well, the game goes on,” said current Royals manager and former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. “I’m sure nobody ever envisioned seeing the game without Bob Gibson and Lou Brock in it either, or in Kansas City without George Brett.
“I know neither of them are necessarily talking about (their careers) ending, but we understand that some great players in great organizations have ended up playing elsewhere at times too.”
Where could Molina, Wainwright end up?
It’s perhaps more difficult to imagine Wainwright playing for another club, though he and his family still live primarily in Georgia, where he grew up a Braves fan and where he might be tempted to see a dream career come full circle.
Molina, on the other hand, would have an obvious landing spot in Anaheim, where he could rejoin former teammate and close friend Albert Pujols and play for manager Joe Maddon. Both of Molina’s brothers, Bengie and José, played for Maddon when he was an Angels coach and maintain strong relationships with him. José Molina, in fact, is currently a catching coach with the Angels.
Wainwright and Molina speak of each other, too, as brothers, and each has said he strongly prefers never to play without the other. For the better part of two decades, St. Louis has been their home, but facing the realities of baseball and the shortening of the schedule, there may be only one regular season start left for the two of them to share.
“I hadn’t thought about it,” said the perpetually thoughtful Wainwright, almost believably. “There’s way too much stuff going on right now for me to worry about than that. I think about it when I’m off the field sometimes, because people bring it up to me. But I honestly don’t, don’t ever think about it otherwise.”
Molina, slowed by various bumps and bruises in recent weeks, explained his decision to stay on the field in terms that also explain his mindset on the future: “as soon as you decide to play you’ve gotta forget about everything,” he said Sunday.
Many memories with the St. Louis Cardinals
There are memories too countless to forget, up to and including a leaping embrace following the final out of the 2006 World Series. A forgettable Monday night loss to the Royals did little to slow the creeping feeling that a ground shifting change may be coming for the Cardinals at the end of a year in which almost nothing can be counted on from day to day.
“Yeah, it would be difficult,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said, asked to imagine a club without the two. “If you look at the past, what is it, 16 years, they’ve been a part of our club.
“When you look at the success of this organization, especially over that time, their fingerprints are all over that. Not really thinking about the offseason as we sit here today, but clearly that’s something in the back of your mind that does exist, sure.”
Molina and Wainwright’s partnership used to be one of those constants, reliable as the turning of pages on the schedule. The game, though, moves in a hurry, and today’s passing notion can become tomorrow’s historical footnote.
