MLB Rumors: St. Louis Cardinals' Star Could Head Elsewhere Without Contract Extension

Before the coronavirus pandemic forced MLB to delay the 2020 season, Yadier Molina said he wouldn’t play with any team other than the St. Louis Cardinals. Now that no one seems to know what baseball will look like this year, the catcher is re-thinking his position.

Molina, 37, is set to become a free agent after the World Series. The veteran plans to weigh all options when his contract with St. Louis comes to an end.

“I previously said that, if it wasn't with St. Louis, that I would go home. If we were unable to come to an extension agreement, that I would retire. But the situation with this pandemic has changed everything. Right now, I'm thinking of playing two more years,” Molina told ESPN.

Yadier Molina tells @ESPN he has changed his mind, will consider free agency if #Cardinals don't extend his contract: “St. Louis is my first option. But if they don’t sign me, I’m willing to go into free agency. This situation has changed my mentality.”https://t.co/jXV28Lgblr
— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) April 29, 2020

Molina is set to make $20 million in 2020, entering the final season of a three-year contract. He’s spent his entire career with the Cardinals since being called up to the big leagues in 2004.

The catcher has played in at least 110 games for 15 straight years, making nine All-Star teams and winning nine Gold Glove awards. Molina won the 2006 and 2011 World Series championship with St. Louis. He was a top-four MVP finisher in 2012 and 2013.

Molina told ESPN that he previously thought he would call it a career after the 2020 season. That changed with a likely shortened season.

“I had in mind that if St. Louis didn't sign me, I would retire after this season, at 38. With this situation, obviously, we probably won't have a chance to play a full season; we may not be able to play a lot of games,” Molina said. “I think it will feel like unfinished business. Any player that says that they're not going through a difficult time and not worried about what the 2020 season will look like, is lying.”

Molina hit .270/.312/.399 with 10 home runs in 113 games last season. He failed to make the NL All-Star team for just the second time in 11 years.

Molina had the game-winning sac fly in Game 4 of the 2019 NLDS, keeping St. Louis in the playoffs before the Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves in a deciding Game 5. St. Louis was swept by the eventual champion Washington Nationals in the NLCS.

Molina is 10th in the history of the franchise in WAR among position players and eighth in total bases.