By Rob Rains

For the second year in a row, catcher Yadier Molina is not at the Cardinals’ winter warmup, an absence which will apparently lead to him making a financial donation to Cardinals Care.

The fact Molina is not at the annual event is not in itself headline news. He was not present last year either, and according to general manager John Mozeliak, is not a fan of autograph sessions. It was Mozeliak who said he had discussed the “donation” with Molina’s agent as a way to make amends for his absence.

What is more important, with implications that could carry over into the regular season, is if there are other reasons why Molina is not attending the event – and it might be more than simply trying to avoid signing autographs. 

Molina apparently is not happy about Albert Pujols’ departure from the Cardinals as a free agent and is upset about the way the team conducted the negotiations with Pujols, who happens to be one of Molina’s best friends.

Mozeliak was asked about those rumors on Saturday and tried to downplay any potential controversy. “I would not read too much into that,” he said.

If true, however, it could raise an issue that new manager Mike Matheny does not need this season — having an unhappy player, especially one who will occupy as important a role on the team as Molina. Matheny does of course have a good relationship with Molna from their time together as players, but putting him in the position of having to try calm Molina down would not be fair to the rookie manager.

So, there are two ways to deal with the Molina situation and get it resolved before the season begins, or potentially even before spring training – make him happy by throwing a boatload of money at him and signing Molina to a lengthy contract extension, or trade him.

Having gone through losing Pujols because he was allowed to became a free agent, it would seem reasonable that the Cardinals would not want to risk that possibility again next year with Molina, who would figure to have many more clubs interested in him than were interested in Pujols.

And while Mozeliak said Molina is “certainly someone we would like to keep long term” he does not seem to have a sense of urgency about opening negotiations on a contract extension.

Only by starting negotiations would the Cardinals find out what Molina is looking for in terms of dollars and years, and the team no doubt already has something in mind in terms of how far it is willing to go to keep the four-time Gold Glove winner and three-time All-Star in a St. Louis uniform.

If they quickly find out that there doesn’t appear to be a match between what they are capable, or willing, to spend and what Molina wants — then it just might make the most sense for the Cardinals to trade him.

A trade – even as startling as it might be – could be the best course of action for the Cardinals. It would avoid any potential distractions during the season and would allow the team to get value beyond the two amateur draft picks should be leave as a free agent next winter. Unlike Pujols, Molina is not a 5-and-10 player and does not have a no-trade clause in his contract, meaning he could not block a deal.

There are multiple reasons why exploring a trade now makes sense – when Molina’s value could be at its optimum level. He will be 30 years old in July, and likely will want at least a five year contract worth an average of $12 million a year, the amount the Braves are paying Brian McCann.

Unlike the Pujols situation, the Cardinals do not have anybody who is ready to take over should Molina leave as a free agent next winter. They have some young catchers that they like in the farm system, but none who are ready to become a major-league regular.

Trading Molina now would allow the Cardinals to obtain a top catching prospect as part of the multi-player package they would get in return, someone who is close to being ready for the majors.

There are four obvious possibilities, listed in no particular order:

Los Angeles Angels. How much would Molina like to join Pujols in southern California? That is of course, a rhetorical question. The Cardinals would not be trading Molina to the Angels as a favor, however. The Angels have a very good catcher, 24-year-old Hank Conger, who was their first-round pick in the 2006 draft. He caught 59 games in Anaheim last year, with six homers, and while he hit only .209 he is on most lists as one of the top catching prospects in the game.

Boston Red Sox. In 24-year-old Ryan Lavarnway, the Red Sox also have one of the top catching prospects in the game. Combined between Double A and Triple A last year, he hit 32 homers and drove in 93 runs. He also threw out 37 percent of opposing basestealers. In one of the 17 games he played with the Red Sox, he hit two homers. He also is said to possess outstanding leadership skills, not surprising for a player who graduated from Yale.

Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays have two young catchers who could interest the Cardinals. J.P. Arencibia had a solid rookie season with the Blue Jays in 2011 and just turned 26. He hit 23 homers and drove in 78 runs, and while he posted only a .209 average, he is a career .275 hitter in the minors. The organization’s best catching prospect, however, is Travis d’Arnaud, who will be 23 in February. One of the players the Blue Jays acquired in the trade from the Phillies for Roy Halladay, d’Arnaud played in the Double A Eastern League last year and hit .311 with 21 homers and 78 RBIs. He also was voted as the league’s top defensive catcher in a poll of managers. Molina’s brother Jose spent the last two years with the Blue Jays, and his other brother Bengie played there in 2006.

New York Yankees. Despite trading Jesus Montero to the Mariners last week for pitcher Michael Pineda, the Yankees still have an abundance of top catching prospects in their system – in Baseball America’s ranking of the top 10 prospects in the organization, four of the 10 were catchers. The best might be Gary Sanchez, but only 19, he probably does not make sense for the Cardinals yet in a potential Molina deal. The closest prospect to being ready for the majors is Austin Romine, 23, who spent most of last year at the Double A level. Last week’s trade also left the Yankees with a couple of extra young starting pitching prospects they potentially could put in a deal.

Around the majors

Under Jeff Luhnow’s leadership, the Cardinals in recent years have been very aggressive in signing Latin American prospects and it will be interesting to see if they can keep that momentum going forward after his departure to Houston. The first test will be 26-year-old Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, expected to be declared a free agent in the next few weeks. There reportedly are six teams in the hunt for Cespedes and the Cardinals are not on the list. The six are the Cubs, White Sox, Orioles, Indians, Tigers and Marlins … In the first month after Pujols signed with the Angels, the team sold more than 3,000 full season-ticket packages, an increase of more than 50 percent from the same time frame last year, and the equivalent of 2,300 full season tickets in mini plans … Former Cardinal Blake Hawksworth is expected to be ready for spring training with the Dodgers after undergoing surgery to remove scar tissue and shave down a bone spur in his right elbow … New Cubs manager Dale Sveum is talking like he wants to bring some of the recent Cardinals-Brewers battles to his new team in Chicago making the Cubs a team which can irritate opponents. “Sometimes a team does need some identity to irritate the other team,” Sveum said Saturday at the Cubs Convention after a fan asked about Nyjer Morgan‘s “obnoxious” antics in Milwaukee. “You have to have some cockiness on the field. Nyjer might have taken things a little far sometimes, but Nyjer was a great guy, probably one of the quietest, nicest guys in the world. But when you cross that line, he came to play. It’s very important for the team on the other side to say, ‘Wow, these guys come to play.’ You never show the other team up, but when you come to the plate … it makes a big difference to have some guys with personality and showing some emotion.”