THE ADVICE IS RIGHT
Friendly dl Yadier Molina gave Willson Contreras a key tip last season
ST. LOUIS— Yadier Molina has 10 years on Willson Contreras. Oh, and 12 years of bigleague experience, seven AllStar appearances, eight Gold Gloves, nearly 13,000 innings behind the plate and— after the Cardinals catcher signed a three- year, $ 60 million contract extension Sunday afternoon— many digits before the decimal point in his bank balance.
Not tomention the two World Series championships Molina has under his belt, to Contreras’measly one. But, hey, who’s counting? Certainly not the Cubs’ 24- year- old catcher. As promising a player as Contreras is, he’d be delighted just to begin down a similar path as the oneMolina has blazed. “El Hombre” is what Albert Pujols used to be called by some around these parts, but Contreras knows Molina is the man.
“He is the best,” Contreras said. “Yadi and [ the Royals’] Salvador Perez are my favorite catchers. I love watching video of those two guys. I’ve been learning a lot of things from them.”
In the case of Contreras andMolina, some of the learning— and direct teaching— has happened in person. It began last June in Contreras’ first career start, atWrigley Field against the Cardinals.
The first time Molina came up to bat, he surprised Contreras with kind words.
“You look great,” Molina told him, speaking Spanish. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re going to be an All- Star someday.”
This was the side ofMolina fans don’t get to see, the giving nature with young players that has made him such a difference- maker beyond his own performance. Many opposing players — former Cubs catcher Welington Castillo being one of them— have their own stories of being encouraged by Molina during games early in their careers.
Not many of them, though, got the “All- Star” treatment.
“Thatmademy day,” Contreras said. “I was like, ‘ Wow.’”
But it was as Molina dug in for his second at- bat that Contreras could hardly believe his ears. Molina had been watching the spry, aggressive, rocket- armed Contreras from the dugout — seen him fire the ball down to second base before each inning— and noticed a flaw in the technique of a player who didn’t start catching until he was 20.
“You have to get your glove from your left side to your right ear to make the transfer,” Molina told him. “Don’t worry about it, just practice it. You’ll see.”
Contreras had heard similar advice from coaches a couple of times before, but now— coming from Molina — he took it as gospel. Late in the game, after he gunned down Matt Carpenter on an attempted steal of second, Contreras had to stop himself from looking into the Cardinals’ dugout to catch the eye of one of his heroes.
“That advice was right on,” Cubs catching coach Mike Borzello said. “I hadn’t worked withWilly much at all because he’d just come up [ to the majors], and that was one of the first things I told him during that Cardinals series. I showed him video and said, ‘ See how your exchange is too low and it takes too long to get the ball out?’ He said, ‘ You’re right. Yadi told me that yesterday.’ It made my job easier, for sure.”
IfMolina isn’t entirely the player he once was, it can be hard to tell. In 2016, he hit .307 and— at 34, truly a marvel— led all of baseball with over 1,200 innings caught. But the player Cards general manager JohnMozeliak calls the centerpiece of the team isn’t convinced he’s the most talented catcher in the National League Central.
“I see how much talent [ Contreras] has,” Molina said. “He has great talent. He’s going to be a great player.
“As far as last year, I just wanted to give him a little encouragement. I still do. He deserves it. I just want him to do good.”
Rivalry? What rivalry? Contreras is pulling for Molina, too.
“I hope he plays a lot more years because I appreciate that guy,” he said. “I’m thankful to Molina. He’s a really nice guy.”