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Years behind, he had to learn how to stay steps ahead.

“I believe that changed Yadi’s life,� Bengie said this past weekend. “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.�

Imagine how many he knows now that the years have caught up.

After a month that saw them use the disabled list 11 times, the Cardinals are set to make room for some returns as they open a series at Busch Stadium against Miami. Their opening day battery of starter Carlos Martinez and Molina is expected to start Tuesday after a monthlong absence. Martinez has recovered from a muscle strain near his pitching shoulder. Molina missed the past 26 games after a 102-mph fastball cracked his protective cup and caused a traumatic hematoma that required emergency surgery. Without their cornerstone presence, the Cardinals went 13-13, slipping in the standings from a half-game ahead to 3½ back.

The depth Molina will bring back to the lineup — his six homers are still fourth-most on the team — is second to the way he directs a game. It doesn’t show up in the box score, but his say is all over it.

“He is the quarterback of the team,� said closer Bud Norris. “What he does offensively is a huge plus. What he does defensively for a team, you cannot put that into a matrix for runs saved as they’re trying to do right now. It gives us all ounces and ounces and ounces of confidence to go out there and executive his game plan, and you don’t think about it at all. He does his homework to another level.�

Said backup Francisco Pena: “Honestly, I thought it was all that he read in (a scouting report), but it’s not. He’s a different animal.�

One story: Earlier this season, Norris struck out former National League MVP Kris Bryant with a slider away. When he got ahead of Bryant 0-2 in a game several weeks later, Molina put down the sign for a sinker inside.

Norris shook his head, wanting to go back to the tried-and-true slider.

Molina held firm. Sinker. In. Now.

Bryant grounded out to third base to end the game.

“We spoke after and he’s like, ‘You attacked him on the away side of the plate and this was an opportunity to get him out on the inside of the plate, keep him guessing for next time,’� Norris recalled. “He reads guys at the plate. He reads them in the box. He reads their demeanor. He reads their posture, whether they’re gearing up to first-pitch ambush or not. The hitter’s not ready to rock right now, so let’s steal a strike. He sizes them up. He knows hitters to a level that one else does.�

“Yadi remembers everything,� catcher Carson Kelly said.

Former Cardinals pitcher Shelby Miller told former Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bernie Miklasz that Molina “can look right into a hitter’s soul.�

“If someone told me he could do that, really,� starter Miles Mikolas said, “I wouldn’t disagree.�

The example many of his teammates drift back to is the changeup he called in Game 7 of the 2006 National League championship series, the one Adam Wainwright threw to Carlos Beltran to set up the famous curve. Manager Mike Matheny had a more general example, explaining how there are times when Molina will suggest they pitch around a batter, even chancing to put the tying run on base because he knows that pitcher’s stuff, that day, will work better against that next hitter.

“That takes a little burglar in you,� the manager said.

Matheny gives Molina that latitude.

Not all catchers have it.

“He amazes me. He’s just unique. I’ve never seen anybody quite like him. He truly has the highest baseball IQ of any player I’ve seen,� Matheny said. He expanded later: “His instincts, the game he sees is at a level that many catchers never, ever, ever ever get to. There are guys guilty of just going back there and catching the ball and just throwing it back to the pitcher. There are other catchers who maximize the potential for the position and that’s all encompassing. To me a catcher sets the tone. I believe a catcher can put a team to sleep, too. …

“It’s a leadership position — either way,� Matheny concluded. “It’s either going to be poor leadership or it’s going to be strong just by how you go about your business. It’s artwork when you see it in motion done right.�

To illustrate his point, Matheny described a start from this past week, one Molina did not make. Kelly, whom the team plans to send back to Class AAA Memphis with Molina’s return, took control and got creative with Luke Weaver’s start this past weekend. Kelly chatted up the umpire and improvised calls based on what he saw from the hitters, not just the scouting reports. Likewise, Pena guided Michael Wacha through eight innings of a no-hitter Sunday, and it was his ability to block the changeup in the dirt and Wacha’s confidence in him that made the pitch more ruthless.

Without Molina, the Cardinals’ catchers did not keep pace offensively, batting .191 as a tandem with a .498 OPS and six RBIs. Pena had both homers. Pitching, however, didn’t flag. With Kelly and Pena behind the plate, the Cardinals’ pitching staff had a 3.50 ERA in the month since Molina had surgery. That’s only slightly off the team’s 3.48 ERA this season, which is sixth best. The rotation had a 2.59 ERA in Molina’s missed month, dropping the overall rotation ERA to the third-lowest in the majors, at 2.94.

Molina capped a two-game rehab stint with Class AA Springfield this past weekend by picking off a runner at first. Before heading to the affiliate, he watched the Cardinals’ games from the dugout, and it was there that he gave Pena a high compliment.

He saw how Pena was planning three, four pitches ahead and thinking two, three at-bats later in the game.

Pena had picked up a few tricks.

“To be a good catcher, I believe, you always have to be ahead of the game, and what I mean by that is Yadi calls the first pitch knowing what pitches are ahead,� Bengie Molina said. “So, in his mind, if it’s a strike, he has the next two pitches. If it’s a ball, he has the next two pitches. In his mind he is always ahead of the game. He is always thinking about the next time. He might let you get a good pitch with nobody on so that when somebody is on that sets you up for something totally different. That’s not just good. That’s a great catcher.�