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That sound you heard a few days ago was yet another collective sigh of defeat from those who are running out of reasons to claim Cardinals catching legend Yadier Molina isn’t a lock for baseball’s Hall of Fame.

The Molina skeptics are backpedaling, changing their claims, swapping questions about Molina’s legitimacy overall for attempts to stir doubts he won’t be a first-ballot selection when his time comes.

There’s a good chance they’ll be wrong there, too.

Congratulations to Cooperstown’s new additions, by the way.

There’s one new name, Joe Mauer, who is worth a deeper look when considering the future candidacy of the Cardinals’ new special assistant to the president of baseball operations.

There is little doubt Albert Pujols will be going in when he’s first eligible in 2028. There should be strong momentum for Molina to be right there along with Pujols. Mauer’s first-ballot selection doesn’t guarantee it. What it presents, though, is an interesting chance to compare and contrast.

Some thoughts:

Mauer, who received 76.1% of the needed 75% from the baseball writers, is only the 20th catcher to be selected. That’s fewer than any position but third base. Mauer joined Johnny Bench and Ivan Rodriguez to become just the third catcher elected to Cooperstown in first-ballot fashion. Catcher is criminally underrepresented in Cooperstown.

• Voters seem to be getting a better sense of that over the years. That should be good news for guys such as Molina and Buster Posey.
• Mauer and Molina excelled because of different strengths over much of the same time span. Both were 21-year-olds when they made their major league debuts, in 2004. Between Mauer’s first of six All-Star appearances in 2006 and Molina’s ninth of 10 All-Star appearances in 2018, there were only two seasons in which one of them wasn’t an All-Star and four seasons in which both earned All-Star status. Mauer now is one of just 58 Hall of Famers who spent his entire career with one team. Molina has the same rare status. The rarer it becomes, the more it becomes appreciated.
• Mauer has Molina (and most every other catcher) overwhelmed on offense, rate stats and peak offensive performance. Molina has Mauer beat on longevity, sustained defensive dominance, championship success and counting numbers that some voters overemphasize and others undervalue. A case can be made that Mauer was one of the best all-around catchers for an elite but not marathon-long peak. A case can be made Molina was the best defensive catcher of his generation and lasted a lot longer than anyone else can these days. Both are exceptional.
• Mauer was a dangerous and dynamic catcher until a concussion and other injuries led to his relocation to first base. He is the only catcher to win three batting titles and also won three Gold Gloves. During his catching phase (2004-13),Mauer averaged a .323 batting average with a .405 on-base percentage and a .469 slugging percentage, good for an OPS of .873. He won five Silver Sluggers during that time.

Mauer brought value to the Twins through defense and hitting after injuries and concussion issues caused his shift to first base for the final third of his career, but he’s a Hall of Famer today because for a decade he brought unmatched offensive production to the catching position before he was forced off it.

• Just as no modern catcher may match Mauer’s all-around peak, none will match Molina’s defensive dominance over decades, nor his ironman toughness. Molina’s also got some pretty noteworthy credentials. For a player never celebrated for his offense, Molina has Mauer beat in hits (2,168 to 2,123), homers (176 to 143), RBIs (1,022 to 923), World Series championship rings (two to none), All-Star nods (10 to six) and Gold Gloves (nine to three). For the counting stat crowd, Molina is in the top 10 in hits and RBIs if grouped with Hall of Fame catchers.
• Mauer did have an MVP season, in 2009, becoming one of just 12 catchers to win one. Molina never did. The closest he came in the National League was two top-four finishes over a three-season span in which he averaged .313 and slugged .482 while producing an .842 OPS during a time in which the Cardinals won a World Series. I bring it up because Molina’s peak offensive era tends to get overlooked.
• Mauer and Molina were excellent pitch framers. The increasing attention paid to the skill should help Molina, like it did Mauer’s case.
• Mauer’s time behind the plate featured a handsome caught-stealing percentage of 33%. Molina’s is 40%. Fifteen times in a season Molina posted a better caught-stealing percentage than Mauer’s career percentage. During a 17-season span between Molina’s rise to full-time Cardinals catcher and the start of his part-time final season, he oversaw the fewest stolen bases allowed in baseball. The Cardinals allowed 837 steals between 2005 and 2021. No other team allowed fewer than 1,226. Teams simply stopped trying to steal bases against Molina.

During the Molina Marathon (2005-21) the Cardinals ranked second in baseball in ERA (3.83) and save percentage (70.3%) while leading in shutouts (42). These are catcher-affected stats.

• Voters didn’t hold Mauer’s injuries against him, and that was the right thing to do. I expect the same will be true for Posey, another catcher who was forced to largely vacate the position. But this doesn’t mean Molina can’t and shouldn’t be rewarded for his longevity at a brutally demanding position. His 2,184 games and 18,294.2 innings at catcher trail only three on the career list: Ivan Rodriguez, Carlton Fisk and Bob Boone. If you add Mauer’s 921 games at catcher to Posey’s 1,093, you still are more than a season’s worth of games short of Molina’s number. Twelve times Molina logged more than 1,000 innings behind home plate in a season. Mauer (and Posey) did it twice.
• Mauer is a deserving Hall of Famer. I think his first-ballot arrival helps Molina’s case. The position is drastically underrepresented and Molina soon will offer voters another chance to help correct that. The argument against him always has been weak and it continues to age poorly, unlike Molina.