Yadier Benjamín Molina was born on July 13, 1982, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, to Gladys Matta and Benjamín Molina, Sr., the youngest of three boys. He attended Maestro Ladislao Martínez High School in Vega Alta. As baseball in Puerto Rico is a significant part of the island's culture, Molina's father played second base as an amateur and worked as a tools technician 10 hours per day in a Westinghouse factory. The all-time hits leader in Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (or "Doble-A Beísbol") history, the elder Molina delivered a .320 career batting average and gained election to the Puerto Rican baseball hall of fame in 2002. Molina's two older brothers, Bengie and José, also materialized into distinguished defensive catchers with lengthy careers in Major League Baseball (MLB), and each of the three won at least one World Series championship.