Matheny: Molina 'ready' for Opening Day

Yadier Molina has been behind the plate for the St. Louis Cardinals on Opening Day for the last 11 years, and manager Mike Matheny expressed confidence Friday the 33-year-old will make it a dozen straight, despite undergoing two offseason surgeries on his wonky left thumb.

"He's ready," Matheny told Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We will continue to monitor strength and keep testing him, but right now everything is in a good spot."

Matheny didn't make any guarantees, but Molina has already gotten comfortable catching again, and his admittedly "terrible" timing at the plate has improved of late, with the seven-time All-Star going 3-for-5 over his last two games after going hitless in his first nine spring at-bats.

"You can make whatever kind of projections you want," Matheny said. "There is nothing left for him to check off. So, he's just one of our other players. Look forward to him continuing to get timed up as far as his at-bats go, which he is looking very good at also. Just make sure as he continues to get more chances to play that he continues to have good responses in the training room with all the strength. But so far, he is right where we hoped he would be."

Molina, who sits 116 contests shy of 10th place on the franchise's games-played leaderboard, will look to rebound this year following an injury-riddled 2015 campaign in which he posted his lowest OPS (.660) and WAR (1.3) since 2006.