Keep in mind that this article was written on July 25th, not August 5th.
Ironically, I got this idea from a MLB The Show (a baseball video game) YouTuber. He’s a big Giants fan and he was calling out Molina. Also, he listed three accolades for Posey, “Three rings. MVP. Rookie of the Year. Do what you want with that information.” That’s exactly what I’m going to do today. I’m going to break down and answer his question that he proposed which was, “Who had the better career?” Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Let’s start with Yadi. He’s probably most well-known for his defense. The second he sees a runner take too much of a gamble, he capitalizes on that with authority. Over the course of his career, he’s averaged about 11 defensive runs saved per year. According to MLB.com, “DRS quantifies a player’s entire defensive performance by attempting to measure how many runs a defender saved.” Let me give you some perspective on how that’s important. Some of the Gold Glove winners from last season like Matt Olson and Kolten Wong just missed the 15 mark. In a couple seasons, Molina averaged 30 or more DRS. Nothing else needs to be said. He’s one of the best defensive catcher of all-time and he’s not that bad at hitting as well. He’s not really know as a power hitter like Gary Sanchez, but he’s hits for average. Case in point, he’s had a .300 average or more 5 times and had 100 or more hits in 12 seasons. Additionally, he drove in 60 or more RBI’s in 7 seasons. Now, let’s throw it over to the accolades. He’s been a 9x All-Star, 9x Gold Glove award winner (including a 4x Platinum Glove winner), 2x World Series champion and a Silver Slugger winner. He seems to be a pretty accomplished player. Another accomplished player who plays at the same position as Molina is the Giant legend, Buster Posey.
Unlike Molina, Posey’s not playing this season due to the health concerns of his recently adopted twins that are premature. That definitely doesn’t take away from how great of a player he is. Let’s switch it up and start with the offense. Similar to Molina, he’s hit for a .300 average in 5 seasons, including a career high .336 average in his 2012 MVP-winning season. In addition to this, he’s hit 15 or more home runs in the same amount of seasons. Finally, he drove in 80+ RBI’s in 4 seasons. On the other side, he’s just as good. He’s averaged 17 DRS, including 4 20+ DRS seasons. He also has a lightning-fast arm that can catch runners attempting to steal, just like Molina. It’s simple, don’t run on either of these guys at all. Let’s shift to the accolades of Posey. I already mentioned earlier that he’s an MVP, Rookie of the Year, and a 3x World Champion. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s also been a 6x All-Star, 4x Silver Slugger, a Gold Glove winner, and won the batting title.
In my opinion, Buster Posey has had a better career than Yadier Molina. They’re both impeccable on defense, but the offense of Posey just barely edges out Molina’s production. You could argue that Molina’s had more accolades and awards than Posey, but Posey’s won way more awards on offense than Molina.
Sources: mlb.com, baseball-reference.com, billjamesonline.com, youtube.com