The Cardinals Catching is in need of Change...

By: Brady (bradynw13@gmail.com)

For years the Cardinals catching situation has been among the best and most stable in the league. It’s not a big secret as to why either: Yadier Molina. However, the year is 2021 and Molina is no longer a superstar tier catcher. His numbers on the season look ok, but they’re deceiving. His 96 wRC+ (weighted runs created +) and 1.1 fWAR on the season is heavily aided by an April in which he was mashing the ball to have a 168 wRC+ during that month. He got injured and since he returned in early May, he has a 70 wRC+ and his age is really showing. In the timespan of May-July 10th he has hit a total of (2) home runs. Power has never been Molina’s strong suit but it’s gotten to a point where it feels like the only hits Molina can get are lucky ground balls and bloops. In past seasons where he heavily struggled with his offense such as 2015 and 2020, he at least had an elite ability to not whiff and not strikeout but he can’t even do that anymore. In 2021 his whiff rate is league average and his strikeout rate is still good but not elite like it once was. His bat speed has clearly regressed heavily and it’s showing. Along with that his reputation as an elite defensive catcher has not held up this season. Whether you go by stats or by the eye test it’s been apparent that Yadier Molina is no longer a good defender. His defense hasn’t looked sharp and it’s backed up by his -2.7 CDA (Catcher Defensive Adjustment) and his -1.9 FrmR (framing runs). Even with all that people would still say he’s a good pitch caller but I wouldn’t even say that anymore. There aren’t any stats to quantify “pitch calling” but you’d just have to watch the games and at least from what I’ve seen, Molina hasn’t been sharp. Despite everything I’ve just laid out, Cardinals fans and the Cardinals media hasn’t placed any blame for the Cardinals disappointing season on him. Every member of the team, coaching staff, and FO has seemingly been scapegoated at some point besides Molina.

Yadi isn’t the only one to blame for the Cardinals poor catching situation however. The backup catcher for the cardinals, Andrew Kniztner has been perhaps the worst catcher in the big leagues this season. The total of -0.8 fWAR he's collected this season ranks himself the 3rd least valuable catcher in baseball despite barely playing at all due to the stranglehold Molina has on the catcher position. Even with the struggles that Yadi has had with framing this season, Andrew has been much much worse. Even in a tiny tiny sample size Andrew has less framing runs (-2.0) than Yadi (-1.9). In order to make up for his abysmal framing Knizner would need to be an elite hitting catcher but that has not been the case. His 43 wRC+ on the year is mainly because his launch angle is completely broken. He’s either hit the ball directly into the ground or sky high in the air this season. His hitting and defending stats in 2020 and 2019 aren’t very impressive either so the question needs to be asked after 3 unproductive years in the bigs: Is Knizner is a major league level player or not?

As a unit, The Cardinals catchers have combined for the 7th least amount of fWAR this season and since May they have the 3rd least fWAR. This catching situation is decrepit and if Ivan Herrera isn’t ready to call up by opening day next season then Mo has to address this in the off-season because Molina is only going to get older and worse after this season and Knizner hasn’t shown any signs that he’s developing.