Shocked. Surprised. Stunned.
These were the words used by some within the Cardinals organization to describe catcher Yadier Molina’s two-game absence from his baseball team to attend the championship festivities of the basketball team he owns back home in Puerto Rico.
If there was any doubt about the nature of his trip, photographs and videos of Molina participating in the celebration cleared things up. As did Molina, who explained to reporters in Chicago why he felt it was important he go. Congratulations, by the way, to the Vaqueros de Bayamon.
Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, when asked about the subject Sunday during a Class AA game in Springfield, declined to expand upon his initial clarification of Molina’s trip being for “business reasons.”
Mozeliak said then that Molina was still scheduled to return Monday in time for the start of a five-game series against the Cubs in Chicago. And he was. The catcher was placed on the restricted list during his trip, meaning he was not paid by the Cardinals during an absence that would have, per manager Oliver Marmol, included a Molina start on Sunday.
That the Cardinals went on to sweep the Diamondbacks without Molina will render the topic done for some, and chances are that’s how Marmol will play it moving forward. The Cardinals are winning. Seven in a row entering Monday’s game against Chicago. The division lead is growing. Five games up entering a marathon series against the Cubs. Onward and upward. No time for distractions.
But good luck stifling the topic Cardinal Nation is debating.
The beloved catcher can do no wrong in the eyes of some. Others are disappointed in him. Some are off in the weeds, twisting themselves into knots as they try to find ways to blame the media for making this story either bigger than it should be or not big enough.
And then there are those who are overbaking theories about the differences between Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt missing games in Canada because they declined to receive COVID-19 vaccines and Molina missing games because he wanted to celebrate with his basketball team.
It’s not that hard, folks. All three players let their team down. And their team picked them up after it.
That’s a sign of a good team, and the fact that the Cardinals are a good team had to have made those choices easier to make. It’s been clear for some time now that the Cardinals feel quite confident they are going to win this division running away. If that becomes reality, and current momentum suggests it could, then two missed games in Toronto from Goldschmidt and Arenado and one missed Molina start in Arizona are not going to matter. I’d bet on all three playing in the postseason, whether the games are played in St. Louis, Toronto or Mars.
Hey, if the Cardinals keep this current August surge going, maybe every player should be given the chance for one unpaid skip day in September. The club’s veterans could be on to something here.
Molina's strange final season continues. He sure wasn’t kidding when he said back in spring training that this one was going to look different. His camp arrival had been delayed by what he and the team described as personal reasons. His knee troubles kept him out half of June and all of July. And now this.
A player whose Hall of Fame-worthy career counts reliability as one of its cornerstones now has everyone wondering if this will be the last unexpected twist. The Cardinals hope so because they are still significantly better with Molina behind the plate. That was a key storyline of this ongoing August climb, at least up until the catcher's basketball pivot.
The Cardinals are cruising. They have done a great job of minimizing potential distractions this season. They will likely do the same here. But even the greatest defensive catcher of his generation can’t get much defense for this one, and I'm one of the biggest Molina apologists out there.
If one of the basketball players on the hoops team Molina owns left the squad briefly during crunch time for a baseball party, wouldn’t Molina be miffed?
