Backstop to the future: Yadier Molina passing torch to Carson Kelly

JUPITER, Fla. -- They are a group of eight professional athletes between ages 19 and 34 and spend about eight hours of every day in close proximity to one another. They gather at the spring-training clubhouse just before sunrise, do their conditioning and early work, and fine-tune the positioning of their mitts by catching balls propelled from a pitching machine in a batting cage as the morning sun begins to creep over the horizon toward the beach.

They eat together. They travel the back fields together, tugging all that equipment in the hot Florida sun. They squat side by side at times, catching pitchers they’ll need to be acquainted with for the grinding season that beckons.

With that much…