St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina says hello to home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi before Game 1. Molina was wearing a special splint on his index finger of his left hand after an injury. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who played three games of the postseason with a bad left thumb, and hit just .125, underwent surgery on Thursday afternoon to repair torn ligaments.
Molina injured his thumb when Anthony Rizzo slid into home plate in a Sept. 20 game against the Cubs. He sat out the rest of the regular season before returning for the National League Division Series against the Cubs wearing a splint. He started and finished the first two games of the series before exiting for a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of Game 3. Molina went 1-for-8.
Molina will not be allowed to do anything for the next two to three months, but general manager John Mozeliak expects Yadi back by spring training.
Perhaps Mozeliak and Mike Matheny didn’t expect Jhonny Peralta, Matt Holliday and Kolten Wong to also hit less than .150 in the series and they felt Yadi’s presence behind home plate gave an advantage to the pitching staff, but Molina was an extra out for the Cubs pitchers. Between Yadi, Wong and the pitcher, the Cardinals had no threat at the bottom of the order.
Mozeliak admits this was an injury that could have been treated immediately, had the circumstances been different, but Molina and the club stubbornly let him try to “tough guy” his way through it. Tony Cruz would have been an acceptable replacement, as shown by his 1-for-4 day with a double and RBI in Game 4.
It was one of the many roster blunders the M & M boys made for St. Louis.