Back to the MLB Newsfeed

Yadier Molina 'Willing' to Enter Free Agency If Cardinals Don't Extend Contract

Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina said in January he was committed to playing for the team as long as they wanted him and if they didn't want him he'd retire.

"If the Cardinals want me that's the only team I want to play for," Molina told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "So, it's still like that too. If they want me. If they want to move apart, that's it for me."

A lot has changed since then.

During a Wednesday phone conversation with ESPN'sMarly Rivera, Molina said the COVID-19 pandemic has altered his thinking and opened his mind to finishing his playing career elsewhere if it comes to that:

"I previously said that, if it wasn't with St.