Unless one has an affinity for dugout benches, being a backup catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals probably isn’t the most enticing baseball job. Yadier Molina has been entrenched in the position for 14 seasons, but his playing frequency has a drawback besides the obvious fatigue concern: Catchers behind him on the depth chart receive very few opportunities to prove themselves.
Einar Diaz, Gary Bennett, Jason LaRue, Gerald Laird, Tony Cruz, Alberto Rosario, Eric Fryer, Francisco Pena and now Matt Wieters have served as Molina’s primary backups throughout his career.