Bryant: Molina's response to his St. Louis comments 'caught me off guard'

Kris Bryant and Yadier Molina might want to have a chat before the season begins.

During a spring-training scrum with reporters Monday, Bryant said Molina's response to comments he made about the city of St. Louis in January was strong and "caught me off guard."

Bryant believes that his comments were taken out of context and mentioned that he would be willing to clear the air with Molina if the Cardinals catcher is willing to, but he also said he wasn't "going to take anything back."

Molina had quite a response for Bryant last month after the former NL MVP told former Cubs player Ryan Dempster that he didn't like to play in St. Louis because it was "boring."

"There should be respect and you should play and compete with respect," Molina wrote in an Instagram post. "Only stupid players and losers make comments like the ones made by (B)ryant and (D)empster."

Three days after responding to Bryant, Molina, who has spent his entire career with the Cardinals, said the feud would carry into the regular season.

"Oh, it will," Molina told MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch when asked if the beef with Bryant and the Cubs would continue. "I can't wait to get on the field."

"St. Louis is home," Molina continued. "If anybody says anything bad about my home, I'm going to be there for us. I said to the guys, 'We are like a family. We have to stick together. We have to defend ourselves, and we have to defend our ground.' Whoever says something about us, we are going to be there to defend us."