This is why Yadier Molina should finish his career with the St. Louis Cardinals

It’s probably going to be a long an uncomfortable process for the St. Louis Cardinals to attempt to keep catcher Yadier Molina.

I’m sure that there will be a moment or two when it will look like Yadi is going to bolt for a team that’s closer to being a World Series contender as the front office whines that it doesn’t have any money because owning a major league team isn’t all that lucrative. In the mean time, if St. Louis expects Molina to take a significant cut from the $20 million a year he made in his previous contract, it’s going to have to wait for the catcher to hit the open market because of collective bargaining rules limiting pay reductions.

There just isn’t a path to an easy resolution.

But, with that being said, there are several factors in the home team’s favor and there ultimately is no acceptable reason why Molina shouldn’t finish his career with the Cardinals.

Molina is a great player and someone with a lengthy post-season pedigree. That’s something that ought to be extremely valuable to a team that’s on the cusp of being a legitimate competitor for the big trophy. Yadi could be a tremendous clubhouse presence for a young team like the San Diego Padres or an underachieving club like the Philadelphia Phillies. But here are some things that point to him ending up back in St. Louis.

First and foremost, Molina has a legacy with the Cardinals. So what? Well, regardless of whether Molina digs the fact that he’s scaling the Cardinals’ record books — and I think he probably does — it is an indisputable fact that he’s earned liberties in the St. Louis clubhouse that he wouldn’t get anyplace else. Molina basically dictates his playing time with the Cardinals. No one else is going to sign him and turn over the keys to the clubhouse. Imagine the resentment if you’ve been with a team for three or four years and this old dude walks in the door and demands things are done his way from now on. If he wants to rule the roost, and potentially have a future as a coach or a manager, St. Louis is the best place to make that happen.

Next, the free agent market is flooded with catchers of all stripes. You’ve got elite performers like J.T. Realmuto on one end of the spectrum and sturdy, proven backups on the other end. If Molina is looking for a team to overpay for his services for one last mega payday, he might have a tougher time than he hoped. I certainly hope Molina appreciates how good the Cardinals have been to him and he is reasonable with his price. When he signed his $20 million a year deal, the Cardinals went out of their way to make his wish of being the highest-paid receiver in the game come true. Most pundits thought the team was crazy investing so much in a guy who was going to be 38 when the deal was over. Few thought he’d still be an elite performer at the end of the deal, but the team’s faith was rewarded.

Speaking of the fact he’s 38, it might work in the Cardinals’ favor that there are so many younger options available. While Molina is durable, it’s difficult to pass a two-year contract to a guy who is going to be 40 before it’s done. It’s an easy way to rope yourself into a bust when you sign a player who has taken as much abuse as Yadi. Yeah, he’s great. Yeah, he’ll give you his all. But one serious knee, shoulder or elbow injury and that contract goes up in smoke.

The Cardinals have their own budget concerns. But, with all teams facing the same challenges, it seems that the most logical place for Yadi to end up is back at Busch Stadium. If the home team wants to make sure that happens, it should work to re-sign battery mate Adam Wainwright who has been amenable to team-friendly deals the past two years. If he’s back in the fold, the odds are much greater that Molina will be back on board, too.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.