Yadier Molina has had a similar progression as a hitter as did Omar Vizquel. Just as you were starting to get used to the idea of him as a feckless hitter with an amazing glove, he developed into a solid hitter.
Yadier Molina Extension Reportedly Worth Around $75 Million For Five Years
Last year, though, he was more than a solid hitter. He was one of the better offensive catchers in baseball last year, and with his free agency looming, the Cardinals decided that locking him up at peak value was better than risking him leaving entirely. Ken Rosenthal has some details on Molina's contract extension:
Source: Molina five-year deal with #STLCards in $70M to $75M range.So $14 million per year, or something close to it. The risk is obvious -- most catchers age like peeled bananas, and Molina has logged over 1200 games in the squat between the majors and minors over his careers already, and he just turned 29.
But while most catchers are long-term risks, Molina has a long history of good health, and his brothers didn’t decline much in their 30s. If there’s one catcher on whom to risk a five-year deal, it might be Yadier Molina.
(That’s still a lot of money, though.)
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