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Cardinals’ great Yadier is the youngest of the only trio in Major League Baseball history to all catch at that level. Cardinals broadcaster and oldest brother Bengie and fellow big-league catcher and middle brother Jose debuted before “Yadi� was drafted, but told all their peers about their little brother on the way.

Miranda told Jennifer Mercedes of La Chica Desportes that the idea came from celebrating the municipality of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, where Miranda’s father and the Molina brothers are from.

“Vega Alta is home to an appalling number of major-league baseball players,� Miranda says . “It’s really incredible. To be able to honor that in a movie is something we’re really actively trying to do.�

In 2015, Bengie wrote a book on their father Benjamin and their family: ‘Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty.’ There have been ongoing discussions for several years, including talks with Disney, about how Bengie’s book could inspire or inform a movie about Major League Baseball’s most famous trio of catching brothers.

Yadier, the youngest brother, won two World Series titles and nine Gold Glove awards while spending the entirety of his career with the Cardinals. His brothers won World Series championships with the Angels in 2002, and Jose won another ring with the Yankees in 2009.

They are the only three brothers to all play catcher in the majors and the only three siblings to all win at least one World Series ring.

A baseball field across the street from their childhood home in Puerto Rico has statues of the three, and is named for their father, Benjamin. He was a standout baseball player in the area and an enormous figure as a coach and mentor for many of the ballplayers in younger generations.

Benjamin didn’t want his youngest boy, Yadier, to miss any chance to gather experience behind the plate, so he put the 15-year-old in a men’s league where he faced players a decade older or twice as old.

“I believe that changed Yadi’s life,� Bengie said back in 2018. “By putting him in there, he had to learn all the tricks in the book because he was so young. He’s playing with these guys that are 30, 30-plus. You have to know more, you have to learn fast, and you have to be kind of tricky because those guys, they’re older, and they know all the tricks.�

In 2022, as Yadier retired from the majors, the Post-Dispatch published a special section on his and Albert Pujols’ career. In an article, “The Mainstay,� Yadier’s growth into the game and impact on it was described:

Born into a baseball family and bronzed as a champion in a baseball city, Molina spent his career steps ahead of the stats — excelling at pitch-framing before it was pixelated, shutting down running games faster than analytics could. He molded games in ways box scores still haven’t captured. Instead of the usual cacophony of numbers to describe an elite player, peers and coaches search for synonyms for how Molina intuitively sways the game. They note his “baseball IQ,� call him “the most intelligent player on the field,� and say he “uses a different set of lenses.� His brother, former big-leaguer Bengie Molina, said “he sees the sixth inning while you’re playing the third.�

Yadier’s game is a 3-D stereogram — a vibrant picture, but relax the eyes and new depth appears.

Thrust into Puerto Rico’s Coliceba league at 15 and playing against strong amateurs, some twice his age, Molina studied the edges, how seasoned players sprang hidden ball tricks, and he learned to level the playing field. He was gifted with eye-hand coordination for contact at the plate and stealing strikes behind it. But he wasn’t going to be the biggest or strongest or fastest on the field. He would not outslug or outrun opponents, so he found another way to outplay them. In one word: outsmart.

“People have some doubt, because obviously you don’t run, you don’t have power. What can you do?� Molina told the Post-Dispatch for that article in 2022. “So, I put that in my mind. I was like, ‘One day I’m going to prove you wrong.’ And I think I did. I think I did.

“I love everything about baseball because you have to think about baseball.�

Since retiring, Yadier has pursued manager positions, including one leading Puerto Rico’s team in the World Baseball Classic, and he has expressed a wish to manage in the major leagues.

Longtime Yankees center fielder and four-time World Series champ Bernie Williams is also from Vega Alta.

Miranda won the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for his musical “Hamilton,� in which he played the title character, Alexander Hamilton. He starred as Jack in “Mary Poppins Returns,� and he’s written songs for Disney productions like “Encanto�, “Moana�, and “Mufasa: The Lion King.� Miranda has been a frequent collaborator with Disney.

He also has another tie to baseball beyond his father’s hometown: His cousin, infielder Jose Miranda, opened the season with the Twins and was recently returned to their Class AAA affiliate.