More on Russell Martin: Yadier Molina’s Reported Extension

Joel Sherman reports today, citing Ken Rosenthal:

Cardinals are on the brink of signing Yadier Molina to a five-year contract  worth some place between $70 million and $75 million.

I was surprised to see this news, as I wasn’t aware that 2012 was a contract year for Molina.  In my previous post, I failed to mention Yadier Molina as I discussed potential free agent options.

The reason for the error was that I relied on the Potential Free Agents for 2013 page at Cot’s.  Molina’s contract status was accurately noted at Cot’s St. Louis Cardinals page, indicating the Free Agents page is updated by hand.  I’ll have to find a more reliable source for free agent tracking, and maybe for contract info in general.

Regardless of the reason, the omission is embarrassing.  Molina is widely regarded as one of, if not the bast defensive catcher in baseball.  While his defensive stats (aside from caught stealing) don’t appear anything special, he has won Gold Gloves in the last four years.  And he does seem to get a lot out of a pitching staff that appears very solid but not necessarily loaded.

Anyway, he receives this payday after posting an OPS over .400 (.465) for the first time in his career in 2011, following a 2010 season in which he posted the best defensive stats of his career.  As Sherman notes, Martin wouldn’t likely get a deal of the same value, but the precident it sets for him as a solid next-tier option (especially if he puts together a good offensive season) puts him in line fo a nice salary bump from the $7.5mil he’ll earn in 2011.

I do like Martin but probably not quite enough to see the Yankees sacrifice $11 – $12mil/per of their budget under the luxury tax threshold to retain him, if that’s what Molina’s extension means it will take.