The Rockies have expressed interest in free agent catcher Bengie Molina, tweets Troy Renck of The Denver Post. Colorado also has interest in Russell Martin though Renck says that landing the former Dodger is something of a longshot (via Twitter).
Molina's offensive numbers took a dive in 2010 when he hit .249/.297/.326 in 118 games for the Giants and Rangers. The catcher was Type A free agent, but the Rangers did not offer him arbitration.
After announcing in May that he would be retiring after the 2010 season, Molina has slowly softened his stance. The 36-year-old said that he was still considering retirement in October before finally deciding in November that he wanted to play one more year.
His 2007 is not what teams are concerned with haha.
For the love of all that is holy, open up the wallets. If there is 37,000 fans per game at Coors, you can afford to chase some good FA’s. Martin>Molina.
You can’t just look at attendance in a vacuum. The Rockies are also 25th in average ticket price so their per-game take isn’t nearly what other teams take in.
And they have opened up the wallets, in case you missed it. Tulo and De la Rosa signed pretty significant deals recently.
As a backup to Iannetta? Sure, but he shouldn’t be taking much of his time away like Olivo did last year. What does O’Dowd have against Iannetta?
Bengie should back up Yadier for his last season.
Bengie should back up Yadier for his last season.
Bengie Molina is going to be 37 next July, and he’s one of the worst defensive catchers in the league. With a team so focused on pitching and defense in addition to its impressive young sluggers, this seems like a boneheaded pursuit. One simply cannot sign Bengie Molina to back up Chris Iannetta after he’s appeared in the WS, either. Molina will want to be a starter and, therefore, will command a higher price as such. Bad idea.
There are a couple of free agent catchers I wouldn’t mind seeing the Rockies bring in here, but Molina isn’t one of them.
They originally drafted Josh Bard, and I think he would make a lot more sense for a lot of different reasons.