St. Louis Cardinals: Yadier Molina may be playing too much
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina is playing more than any other catcher in baseball.
The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants 7-4 Saturday night to improve to 29-27 on the season.
Yadier Molina was in the lineup as the catcher, something which he has done a lot of this season.
An article on CBSSports.com explains just how much Molina has played this season:
"This season, though, he’s been worked at a high rate even by his own standards. In 2016, Molina has played in 53 of the Cardinals 55 games, and he’s started at catcher in 50 of those contests. More to the point, he’s already logged 430 1/3 defensive innings at catcher to lead all of MLB. In second place is Jonathan Lucroy with 394 1/3 innings. So Molina’s not just in front, he’s way out in front when it comes to catcher workload."
The article was published Saturday morning, so Molina’s stats from the Giants game can be added to those numbers.
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He has now started in 51 games as a catcher and it is only the beginning of June. Fans are sure to love seeing Molina on the field so often, but it is just not a smart decision to have someone get beat up behind the plate so often.
Anyone who has played the position should agree that rest days are needed, even if the player is a star like Molina.
But all this playing time may be hurting the team’s overall offense. Molina only has one hit in his last ten games and has seen his average drop from .304 to .257 during that span.
It is not necessarily right to assume that his poor performance at the plate is because of his workload, but it surely isn’t helping out at all.
He has been forced into playing so much because Brayan Pena has not played this season because of surgery, but he may be back soon to help take the load off Molina.
Brayan Pena caught Carlos Martinez's bullpen session today. "Great test," he said afterward. He'll begin Double-A rehab stint on Tuesday.
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) June 3, 2016
His health will determine Molina’s workload going forward, but there must be a fair balance of not putting Pena in too many games so soon after surgery.
Next: Was Julio Urias called up too soon?
Manager Mike Matheny will have to be careful with both players if he wants them to be fully healthy heading into the second half of the season.