Molina sets Opening Day deadline for extension with Cardinals

Yadier Molina has drawn his line in the sand.

With only a week to go before Opening Day, the longtime St. Louis Cardinals backstop - a pillar of the organization for over a decade - announced to reporters Saturday that he won't negotiate an extension with the club once the season begins.

"Hopefully we can get it done before the opening starts," Molina told reporters, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "After the opening, I don't know what's going to happen. We've got one more week to talk about it. And then after that I'm going to concentrate on my game. Whatever they want to do."

Molina, who turns 35 this summer, can become a free agent for the first time in his storied career following this season if he declines his half of a mutual option. Although he reiterated that his first choice remains to stay in St. Louis, Molina said that he's "not afraid to go to free agency" if that's how it plays out - even if that means hitting the open market as a 35-year-old catcher.

"I've still got many years in the tank. Believe me. I feel great," Molina continued.

"Like I've said: I want to stay here. But if they don't want to spend money I understand that, too. This is a business. I'm going to try and concentrate on myself."

Though both sides have publicly expressed a desire to work out an extension, negotiations have been slow to get started. In an interview earlier this month, general manager John Mozeliak expressed no worries about getting a deal done, and - unlike Molina, apparently - was willing to work out a deal in season.

"We're not a deadline organization," Mozeliak said on March 17. "So as far as timing goes, I'm not drawing any lines in the sand."

Molina has become the face and leader of the Cardinals over his 13 years with the club, winning eight Gold Gloves and a pair of World Series titles while establishing himself as both a club legend and arguably the premier catcher of his generation. In 2013 he chose to skip free agency and signed the five-year, $75-million extension with St. Louis that's about to expire.