Cardinals Irked by Yadier Molina's Absence During Diamondbacks Series

Updated: Sep 10, 5:00pm UTC

The St. Louis Cardinals were without catcher Yadier Molina during two games against the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend. His absence wasn't due to injury, though. Instead, he missed the pair of games because he was in Puerto Rico attending championship festivities for a basketball team he owns.

It turns out that the Cardinals are less than thrilled about Molina's mini vacation. Team insider Ben Frederickson reports that members of the organization were "shocked," "surprised" and "stunned" when it came to the veteran backstop's absence this past weekend.

St. Louis Cardinals Rumors

Frederickson added that the feeling surrounding the 40-year-old's absence range from "the beloved catcher can do no wrong in the eyes of some" to a fair amount of people being "disappointed." The disappointment is certainly warranted given that this is Molina's final MLB campaign.

The entire season has been a strange one as far as Molina is concerned. Between a late spring training start and a slew of injuries, he's only suited up for 52 games so far. The only times he played fewer than 110 games were as a rookie in 2004 (52) and during the COVID-shortened 2020 season (42).

While the Cardinals won without him this weekend, Molina must step it up down the stretch. The 10-time MLB All-Star only has two home runs and 11 RBIs in 180 at-bats this season, slashing .222/.243/.283. Having said that, his .992 fielding percentage behind home plate highlights his defensive importance to the club.

Hopefully, Molina doesn't have any more unexpected absences down the stretch. He's been a fan favorite in St. Louis for nearly two decades and it'd be a shame if his last season became somewhat tarnished over the final months of his career.

Devon Platana is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Devon Platana also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username PepeSilvia0. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.