As Molina developed, scouts began to take notice of his pitch handling and throwing skills, which was similar to his brothers. The St. Louis Cardinals selected him in the fourth round of the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft. The Cincinnati Reds organization labeled Molina as a "'defensive catcher, great arm, weak bat". Once signing a contract with the Cardinals, Molina started showing major gains in his batting skills. Molina climbed through four levels of the minor leagues in just four seasons before making his debut for the Cardinals in 2004, standing at 5'11" and weighing 230 pounds.1.
As for Molina's defense, he has gained many valuable awards. From 2007-2010, and 2012 he was awarded the Fielding Bible Award which recognizes the best defensive player for each position, based on statistical analysis. From 2008-2012 he was awarded with the Rawlings Gold Glove Award which recognizes the player for exhibiting superior individual fielding performance. This award is voted on by the managers and coaches of the league. He also won the GIBBY (Greatness in Baseball Yearly) Award in 2012 for defensive player of the year along with St. Louis Cardinals Player of the Year Award. Since entering the MLB, he quickly gained reputation around league for possessing one of the strongest and most accurate arms in the game, having thrown out 236 runners (45%) attempting a stolen base over his career and leading active MLB catchers in pickoffs with 48. He is also known to have the fastest recorded pop time (1.7 seconds).2 Molina is fourth all-time among catchers with 107 defensive runs saved. He has also mastered distinctions between player's swings, formulating plans where to position fielders and complete pitching strategies to opposing hitters through careful looking over hours of pre-game film, earning him a reputation as an on-field leader. Fellow catchers Jorge Posada and Brian McCann have concluded that Molina "is the best defensive catcher in baseball.