Is there a growing rift developing between Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and manager Mike Matheny?
Following a 4-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks Thursday, the Cardinals skipper was asked why he decided to go with Carson Kelly behind the dish instead of the veteran Molina. Matheny eluded to Molina looking tired, a thought he didn’t finish but was pretty apparent.
Via theScore and the St. Louis Dispatch:
“Yadi’s caught a lot,” Matheny said, according to Mitchell Forde of the St. Louis Dispatch. “Yesterday, just kind of watching him go around the bases, too, you could tell that he’s – you know.”
Matheny’s words didn’t seem to sit well with Molina who took to Instagram with a screen shot of the comment and his own response saying he trains to “play 174 games”. Molina also reiterated that he wasn’t tired before finishing with the hashtag “misinformed”.
The Cardinals are currently 50-52, tied for third in the NL Central, 4.5 games behind the Cubs in the division and 7.5 back in the hunt for one of the wild card spots. So it’s entirely possible this is just carry over from the team simply not being where they want to be at this point of the season.
However Matheny’s comments can’t be surprising, especially at this point in Molina’s career.
Lets be honest here everyone. Molina is 35 years old and has started over 1,500 games in probably the most demanding position in all of baseball. Averaging 120 starts a season (since his first with the Cardinals in 2004) anyone, whether you’re 25 or 35 will begin to wear down at some point during the year.
This is something Molina may have to start getting use to.
