ST. LOUIS -- The count on Yadier Molina was no balls and two strikes in the seventh inning Saturday, theoretically the deepest possible hole for any hitter. But when Molina is in a batter's box, there is no panic, and there is always a plan. Whatever pitcher Adbert Alzolay and catcher Willson Contreras intended, Molina almost certainly was thinking right along with them, maybe ahead of them.
Alzolay threw a slider Molina appeared to be waiting for, and when the pitch hung, Molina ripped the ball into the left-field stands, the deciding run in the Cardinals' 2-1 win, and there were I-told-you-so looks in the St. Louis dugout. As a hitter, Molina's devotion to craft his swing around what is needed in the moment is long-standing, the anchor of his offensive contribution.
Molina's defense is what will get him elected into the Hall of Fame the first time he is on the ballot, and the plaque that is hung in his honor will be plastered with defensive accolades: the number of Gold Gloves and platinum gloves he has won, maybe a statistic about how he single-handedly wrecked the running games of opponents. He has never been a great hitter, and his offensive impact has never been close to the value of his work collaborating with pitchers.
But Molina has been a good hitter -- a highly competitive hitter -- for a long time, probably a much better hitter than any talent evaluator might've expected when he broke into the big leagues with a reputation as a good-field, no-hit catcher in 2004. There is nothing flashy about what he does as a plate. He's never had a quick bat or big power. Sarah Langs of MLB.com notes that since the advent of Statcast data, in 2015, the leaguewide exit velocity is 88 mph; Molina's is 87.4 mph. The MLB average distance for home runs is 400 feet, and Molina's is below that, at 394 feet.
Through a remarkably simple, consistent approach and understanding of himself, however, Molina has amassed more than 2,000 hits and is approaching 200 career homers and 1,000 RBIs, which are enormous numbers within the context of the world of catchers, who are typically banged up and have injury-shortened careers. Molina has hit least .261 in each of the past 15 seasons and has never compiled more than 74 strikeouts in any year of his career, and less than two months from his 39th birthday, he is having one of the best starts in any of his 18 seasons, batting .290 with an .877 OPS.
"Hitting, in its simplest form, is about problem-solving," said A.J. Ellis, the longtime catcher who now works with the San Diego Padres. "And Yadi is maybe the elite problem-solver in our sport."
Skip Schumaker, the associate manager of the San Diego Padres, first played alongside Molina when both were in Double-A in the Cardinals' organization. "In a big spot in the game," he said, "there's nobody I'd rather have at the plate."
Former player and ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez has known Molina for decades, and what stands out to him is that Molina basically has never changed his general philosophy of hitting. "He understands who he is, and he doesn't try to do too much," Perez said. "He wants to put the ball in play, wants to avoid a strikeout, and the game situations will always dictate what he tries to do."
Schumaker said, "Whatever the [particular] game requires, whatever is needed of him, that's what he will try to do."
All of this distinguishes Molina from a lot of his peers in an era in which strikeouts are being compiled at record rates, batting averages are at an all-time low, and many hitters take a one-size-fits-all approach in an effort to do damage, to get the ball in the air and lift home runs.
Melvin Roman is Molina's agent and says that in the many years he has represented Molina, the Cardinals catcher has never mentioned offensive goals -- never said he wants to blast a particular number of homers, or hits, or reach a specific batting average. The only goals that Roman has heard Molina talk about, he said, are related to pitchers -- about maximizing the potential of a particular group.
"With hitting," Roman said, "It's about game situations."
If there is a runner at third base and fewer than two outs in a close game, the others say, Molina is likely to look for a pitch to hit to right field or right-center field, to drive in a run -- maybe jump a fastball early in the count, when the pitcher is trying to get ahead in the ball-strike count. If there's nobody on base and two outs, then maybe he'll look for one pitch in one spot to drive, up until two strikes -- and then maybe he'll look to punch the ball into play, maybe extend the inning and raise the pitch count of the opposing pitcher.
And often, his peers say, Molina will go into a game believing he could do damage against one specific part of a pitcher's arsenal -- like, perhaps, Alzolay's slider. But like a quarterback patiently waiting for a particular matchup in a close game, Molina will wait, maybe even taking a bad hack against that pitch to appear more vulnerable, before pouncing.
"He just plays the game at a different level," Ellis said.
Catchers routinely meld mountains of data as they make decisions about pitch-calling, with a lot of the information unknown, unseen or unrecognized by the hitter. But when Yadier Molina is in the batter's box, Ellis realized, there are no secrets, no disguises.
Molina as a hitter knows everything that Molina the catcher knows, which is just about everything. Ellis notes that when Molina steps into a box, he will be all-knowing, all-seeing: the pitcher's strengths and weaknesses for the day, the pitcher's tendencies, Molina's own tendencies as a hitter, the recent pitch sequence history. For Ellis, as with other catchers, pitch-calling with Molina in the box was like trying to surprise David Copperfield.
The success or failure of Molina's plate appearance would mostly come down to whether Molina successfully executed according to what the game situation dictated, or whether the pitcher beat him with pitch quality and location.
Ellis said: "He plays the game at the perfect pace, both offensively and defensively, getting lost in doing everything he can to win the baseball game."