Hochman: Why Adam Wainwright’s right — Cardinals' Yadier Molina is a top 10 catcher

So the folks at Greatest Highlights listed what they called the top 10 catchers of all-time:

1. Johnny Bench
2. Yogi Berra
3. Carlton Fisk
4. Ivan Rodriguez
5. Mike Piazza
6. Roy Campanella
7. Buster Posey
8. Mickey Cochrane
9. Gary Carter
10. Bill Dickey

Twitter/X user @OleTimeHardball tweeted out that list of catchers, which caught the attention of a certain baseball aficionado.

“Nobody will ever convince me that Yadier Molina isn’t the best catcher of all-time,” tweeted Adam Wainwright, the retired Cardinal and 200-game winner. “You can say there were other catchers that were better hitters. But catcher? Not possible to be better than he was. And WAR (wins above replacement) can’t measure all that he did.”

I think Wainwright’s right. I’m not saying Yadi was better than, say, Johnny Bench. But I’m saying that the Cardinals’ legendary catcher deserves a spot on this list, the same way Ozzie Smith deserves a spot on any shortstop list. These guys weren’t only elite defenders — they singularly played their position at a level unmatched by even other elites.

Molina became the everyday Cardinals catcher in 2005. His last season was 2022. From0 2005 to 2022, the Cardinals allowed 886 stolen bases. That was the fewest total in Major League Baseball. Not only that, the team that allowed the second-fewest stolen bases, the Arizona Diamondbacks, allowed 424 more than he Cardinals did. There’s a catching-stat chasm between those two teams, and the Diamondbacks, again, were second-best in the game!

Teams disproportionately didn’t run as much on Yadi compared with other catchers.

He changed games.

Changed the game.

And of course, the Cardinals won so many games with No. 4 behind the plate — counting Yadi’s rookie year of 2004, St. Louis made the playoffs in 13 of his 19 years.

Molina’s defense-only WAR on Baseball Reference (28.0) was the second-highest of any catcher ever, trailing only Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez (29.6), who had the advantage of playing 319 more games. (Of all position players, the Cardinals’ No. 1, incidentally, was No. 1 — Smith’s defensive WAR was 44.2.)

Molina also won nine Gold Gloves, the third-most in catcher history (behind Rodriguez and Bench).

And check this out: So Julian Schultz is a Cardinals fan and an archeologist, and he dug up this data. Similar to OPS plus — which shows how much better than league average a player is based on his combined on-base percentage and slugging percentage — Schultz created what he called caught stealing percentage plus.

Molina ranked as the greatest of all time, with 148.

One other aspect of catching that is both anecdotal and calculable is pitch framing. Basically, how many strikes can a catcher steal? The statistician Jay Jaffe analyzed pitch framing regarding upcoming Cooperstown candidates — “I believe we’re doing 21st-century candidates a disservice if we fail to incorporate this crucial area into our analysis,” Jaffe wrote on Fangraphs.

Per Fangraphs and dating back to the year 2000, Molina is fourth in the pitch-framing statistic. He trails only pitch-framing master Yasmani Grandal and, interestingly, two catchers who hit the ballot this year — Russell Martin and Brian McCann.

Jaffe baked those framing stats into a new version of career WAR, which had Molina at 59.3, ahead of both Posey (57.9) and Hall of Fame catcher Joe Mauer (57.8). Interestingly, Martin’s new WAR was 59.1. I didn’t vote for Martin or McCann — as Wainwright pointed out, more goes into this than any WAR stat — but the pitch-framing data indeed makes Martin’s candidacy fascinating.

As for Yadi, he still has three more years until appearing on the Cooperstown ballot.

He deserves it.

In his era, he was the gold standard.

My favorite Yadi quote of all time? The quote that captured him best? It came from ex-Cards manager Mike Shildt in 2020.

In a September game against the Brewers, Milwaukee led St. Louis by double digits. Just one of those nights. And then, a Ryan Braun swing hit Yadi’s wrist as Yadi tried to catch the pitch.

But Yadi stayed in the game.

“He’s a Hall of Famer and a guy that has the most physical and mental toughness I’ve ever managed — and may ever manage,” Shildt said after the game. “Clearly he was compromised. How he continued to play? I will always marvel at this guy’s desire to compete. This is a guy in a 12-2 game at the time, takes a bat to his hand that we’re still evaluating (with X-rays) and plays two more innings. You talk about tough? You about being dedicated? You talk about competitive? He’s the most competitive, toughest player and smartest player I may ever manage. My respect level for him is through the roof. ...

“Let me capture my words appropriately here — it’s what makes them great. And it’s hard to capture unless you’ve been on a field, and I’m not minimizing that, I’m not saying you can’t capture it if you haven’t been privy to it. But I’ve been privy to being on the field, and Yadi’s a gladiator. He’s an absolute gladiator. And there’s an instinct, a competitive spirit, a will that is almost indescribable unless you experience it on a field. ...

“He’s got the heart of an absolute lion. And that’s why he’s such a winner — and there’s no mistake why this guy’s been a part of such a winning franchise for so long. And you talk about value. We talk about WAR. You can’t quantify a person of that will, and in that strong of desire to compete in a win, you can’t quantify that in a WAR. He wanted no part in coming out of that game.”