This rest dispute brought back memories of another catching legend who played for a Missouri baseball team: Yadier Molina.<\/p>\n
Salvador Perez not wanting to rest despite being a long-time catcher provides shades of St. Louis Cardinals’ Yadier Molina saying similar things.<\/p>\n
As Yadier Molina progressed through his career with the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>, calls for him to catch less each year began to grow. These calls perhaps reached a crescendo prior to the 2018 season. He had already logged over 15,000 innings at catcher up to that point in his career, and he was playing fewer and fewer games each year due to several minor maladies.<\/p>\n During spring training 2018, Molina spoke about people’s desires to take him out of the lineup more often. <\/p>\n “I don’t understand why people want me to be out of the lineup,” a 35-year-old Molina said in response<\/a>.<\/p>\n The language that was used with Quatraro and Perez this year is eerily similar to the words used between Molina and former Cardinals’ manager Mike Matheny. <\/p>\n “Just looking at the way things have gone, he’s plyaed in every game,” Quatraro said. “Day game after night game, Carter (Jensen) was going to catch today. And Salvy’s been struggilng a little bit. Just try to give him a little mental breather.”<\/p>\n So far, Salvador Perez is struggling at the plate; he has a .160\/.210\/.307 slash line with a 48 OPS+. He’s played 20 games this year with 14 of them coming from behind the plate and six at designated hitter. Perez could benefit from some time at both first base and designated hitter.<\/p>\n In both of these instances, the organization had a prime catching prospect ready to go. For the Cardinals, Carson Kelly (then their #3 overall prospect) was in need of major-league reps. For the Royals, top prospect Carter Jensen has been itching to get more looks behind the dish. Additionally, both Molina and Perez were\/are the sole remining members of their respective organization’s last World Series victory.<\/p>\n
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