Yadier Molina began his 15th season with the St. Louis Cardinals last week, starting his 14th consecutive Opening Day on March 29. And although his teammate, Adam Wainwright, is the Cardinals’ active franchise leader in Wins Above Replacement, the go-to all-encompassing sabermetric stat du jour, it is Molina who is the team’s most iconic current player.
Nothing against Wainwright, whose place in Cardinals history certainly exceeds the place in history of numerous other current “franchise players”, but Molina (who trailed Wainwright in career WAR by a minuscule 1 WAR) has a few distinct advantages over Wainwright for the title:
- Molina was drafted and developed by the Cardinals, and while Wainwright spending his entire MLB career in St.