Cards catcher Molina rides energy of WBC

After a raucous and joyous run with Team Puerto Rico through the World Baseball Classic, Yadier Molina returned to the Cardinals with his dyed-blond hair, a silver medal and perhaps something even more valuable to him in the week and season ahead. He caught a youthful verve.

“I feel like a 20-year-old kid,” Molina said after unpacking some of his gear Saturday morning. “To be a part of that team, to have Javier Baez, Carlos Correa, (Francisco) Lindor, T.J. Rivera, and Eddie Rosario — those guys, they’re young. They bring so much energy. When you’re a part of that team, that was an amazing feeling. The energy they bring is contagious. It was good for me. That tournament was good for me.”

Whether the next week is even more rewarding, personally, depends on conversations in the coming days between the Cardinals and Molina’s agent.

One week from opening night against the Cubs at Busch Stadium, Molina said he hopes to have his contract addressed in the next seven days — or talks cease and he likely becomes a free agent at season’s end. Molina said he did not want negotiations on an extension to leak into the season, and General Manager John Mozeliak said later Saturday that the club recognizes how “the clock is ticking.” Mozeliak and Molina’s agent, Melvin Roman, are expected to hold discussions in the next few days after having “preliminary” talks earlier this offseason.

Molina is entering the final guaranteed year of a five-year, $75 million extension signed in 2012, and while there is a mutual option for 2018, the Gold Glove-winning catcher is not likely to accept after a healthy season.

Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. told the Post-Dispatch that the team is “prepared to make a significant offer to keep him here. We’d love to have him stay.”

Molina has echoed that wish repeatedly this past winter and this spring. He added Saturday that the idea of free agency is intriguing. “Oh yeah,” Molina said. “I would love to. I would love to stay, but at the same time, I’m not afraid of free agency. I’ve still got many years in the tank. Believe me.”

Asked if the Cardinals would be willing to make Molina the highest-paid catcher in the game, DeWitt said: “He would certainly be one of the highest-paid catchers. Part of that is (annual average value), part of it is length. That all factors into what he ends up looking for and what makes sense for the club.”

One consideration for the Cardinals is Carson Kelly, a top catching prospect who will start at Class AAA in 2017. The Cardinals have, in the past, preferred higher annual salaries in exchange for a shorter contract, and they have frontloaded contracts before. They could give Molina a raise in 2017, for example, as a way to increase the contract’s value.

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