The Mets are "close" to signing Bengie Molina, according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (via Twitter). The Mets have been connected to Molina all offseason, but seem reluctant to guarantee him two years. Molina, who was looking for a three-year deal, is willing to sign a two-year contract, according to Morosi.
The 35-year-old catcher hit .265/.285/.442 for the Giants last year, hitting 20 homers. Molina's career .308 OBP is nothing special and he throws out fewer baserunners than he did when he was winning Gold Gloves in the early 2000s, but he is durable. Molina appeared in 132 games last year, up from his average of 121 for the decade.
Who saw that coming?
I know right…a Molina catching? Pfft.
The Mets will be a joke again without Beltran.
Mets didnt have their whole team last year, not just one player. This is a great move, the guy can play ball, he’s very good with pitchers and good defensively and has pop in the bottom of the lineup, good move here.
Assuming they are giving a fairly large multiple year deal, this is probably a bad idea.
The buzz is 2 yrs OR 1 yr + some sort of option.
Hopefully, MLB is ‘close’ to a designated runner rule. Love Bengie but he runs like a major appliance.
For the love of God no more than 1 guaranteed year.
This is a good deal, the Mets need him and will get him at a deal that he would not of accepted several months ago (evidenced by the fact that he tested FA market since the Giants wouldn’t offer him a 3 year deal)
Molina is done. I mean, when was the last time someone signed with the Mets and had a good season? I’m just asking… This is where players go to basically suck.
Good riddence, Bengie. Take all that “pride”, which is just complaining, to New York.
Bengie is over the hill and fat. This will not end well.
Sure glad that I’m not a Mets fan! I’d want to puke if my team signed a .285 OBP player to a 2 year deal for any amount
As a Mets fan, I think this is a waste of money. However, if it’s a one year deal, I can certainly stomach a slight upgrade in power at the catching position. He offers little else – I think that “managing pitching staffs” is severely overrated.
If they can get Piniero for 2 years 15 mil and Molina for 1, then it’s a great offseason. Kudos for Minaya for staying patient and waiting out on players without any leverage. Piniero for 2 years 15 mil would be a great signing, Bay was a good signing, and Igarashi and Escobar were excellent pickups.
I would bet on a 2 year deal, or maybe one plus an easily reached second. And I don’t think that’s really a bad thing. I know a lot of Met fans are very high on Thole, but while the numbers look good, the scouting just doesn’t agree. When it comes to evaluation potential talent I still have some faith in the men with the clipboards. Also, Met fans have been spoiled, Gary Carter and Mike Piazza are all time greats, catchers like that don’t come along every day. Molina is a decent everyday catcher, and that’s more then a lot of teams can expect.
I don’t expect Bengie to save the world, but I don’t expect he will cause it to end either. At this point, I’ll take what I can get in him, and if he can add some offense while managing the pitching staff maybe that will help make up for some of what the Mets won’t be getting from Beltrán’s bat any time soon – strikeouts notwithstanding. At this point, I gotta be optimistic about something!
The only good that will come out of this is the people who want him on the Mets will see how horrible he is. Of course they’ll be saying this was a horrible signing by Omar despite wanting it to happen.
With a .308 career OBP and a .285 OBP last year its surprising he hasn’t been turned into a backup catcher, those numbers certainly warrant it. I guess his power has some value. The Mets really need to find a long term solution at catcher, because Bengie Molina doesn’t appear to be it.
oh please. oh please. oh please. oh please. oh please.
The Mets look like a franchise in disarray. They’re just adding more additions to the house knowing full well that the structure will collapse eventually.
Mets fans are so worried about injuries, but what they should be worried about is what to do when everyones healthy but they still only win 70-75 games.
Let’s see them win only 70-75 games first. It’s hard to think of a team in recent memory that was as snake bitten with injuries as the Mets were last year. It’s not as though they only won 70 games with Santana, Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, and Putz the whole year.
Can’t say it wont be interesting watching the Mets this year. All I can say is, once again the NL EAST looks like a beast at the beginning of the year compared to other NL Divisions. We’ll see if that keeps up, unlike last year.
I agree. Molina would be a nice addition to round out the roster, but their pitching is horrendous and there might be 3 better teams in their own division.
Beltran will be back in full swing by May, This signing is great for the Mets; the best FA catching option by far and his game calling being “overrated” sounds like BS negitive talk from the same people always down on the Mets. If we get Degado back, Wrights return to form has more to do with the Mets future than Beltran missing a month. Pagan will fill in nicely providing great defensive coverage, speed on the bases and batting average while Beltran is gone, I think the guy even has underrated power but we’ll see. I invite this good news, Piniero and Degado and we are ready to compete, anything else is icing on the cake!
I think people are always down on the mets because they keep gagging in spite of a monster budget.
Too bad performance based incentives are illegal. If they weren’t, I’d sign Molina to a 1 year contract for 1 million with a player option for the next season worth 20 million if he can get 200 PA while maintaining an OBP over 0.350… 😉
I dont understand why molina doesnt lose weight? I mean the slowest player in baseball lol
…well its a good thing they didnt trade angel pagan !
the sad part is that beltran with his bad knee is still faster than bengie molina
if it is just a clean…then u can expect him to come back back in 4 months…not 3….if it was micro-fracture surgery…he is out til september…and thats rushing it!
the mets must be careful not to chop off their nose to spite their face…first off a healthy beltran is better than any other option in basbeball they could get their hands on…2nd…with the way their medical staff has handled beltran and reyes ( rushing them back from injury ) …a whole lot of dirt can be uncovered with this…there is a reason why beltran said SCREW the METS MEDICAL STAFF and got his own doctor…he can easily blame his current condition ON THE METS MEDICAL STAFF…then a whole lot of dirt about the way the mets organization handles injuries may come out…the mets were better off saying that beltran slipped on a banana peel and will be out til 2012….undersell/overdeliver
It’s about time this signing was talked about all winter, hopefully we can finally move on. maybe they can Sign Branyan. that should solve our first base problem. As for pitching. I say try and sign Smoltz to an incentive dealt-try pinero. I wouldn’t go crazy trying to get him though. I also think trading Castillo for Lowell is a good idea. That will give us corner infield depth. After trading Castillo, I would sigh Orlando Hudson. In the end I say we add a bat like Branyan, trade Castillo, and sign 2 pitchers.
If the Braves signed a catcher with a .285 OBP even with as a backup I would be displeased.
His already poor strike zone control got even worse last year as he posted his worst strikeout rate (13.8%) in a full season and his worst walk rate (2.6%) in a full season culminating in an awful 0.19 BB/K. He drew only 13 walks in 520 PA but 3 of those were intentional.
His defense is already declining and it isn’t something that gets better with age and his speed on the basepaths is painful. He does however have decent power (~.440 SLG and ~20HR) but who knows when that will start dropping off. The one other plus he has will likely stay with him no matter how old he gets and thats calling a good game.
Having that low of an OBP really stresses a lineup (added with Francoeur’s low OBP) because hurts the chances of good hitters like Wright or Bay getting extra at bats because the lineup doesn’t turn over quickly. The middle of the lineup has extra pressure because they know they have to produce or they may not get another shot.
Very This
I gave using this text service and it’s quick and easy. If you have seen any of the footage coming out of Port-au-Prince there is no way it doesn’t break your heart. I don’t have alot of money but I have 10,000x more than those poor folk.
Bengie is far from a good offensive player and yes his defense has declined but what the Mets need is durability and he provides. Would be nice if they went younger b/c their team is getting old but this will work.
David Wright and Jason Bay provide a good 1-2 core (though Bay is on the wrong side of 30 and his defense is terrible). It will be interesting to see if this group of older players can play to the strengths of Citi Field… the gaps. This isn’t really a slap and run team like the days of Endy Chavez and when Reyes was healthy. That could hurt them offensively.
Group of older players..?
Wright-27
Reyes-26
Francoeur-26
Murphy-24
Bay-31
Molina-35
Castillo-34
Beltran-32 (but his replacement for now Pagan is only 28)
So two players in their early 30s and 2 in their mid 30s makes this a group of older players even though the rest of the infield is in their mid 20s…? I don’t think so.
I agree, I don’t think the Mets are particularly old. They’re kind of.. in the middle. Which in theory should be a good place to be, but they don’t seem to be able to put it together. With that said, Molina would be a pretty bad signing. All he has is power and I think Citi Field would leach a lot of that.
Molina and Francoeur in that lineup won’t be pretty. Period.
Molina can be one of 2 things for the Mets. He can come in and put up 15+ home runs and 70+ RBIs while helping Maine, Pelfrey, Perez and insert no.5 Starter (Niese)…or he will be the next Mo Vaughn. Lets hope its the first one.
The Mets need to address another Starting Pitcher and just let Daniel Murphey Play first. Let Delgado go…he will be better off in the AL as a DH from what I have been reading about him playing in Puerto Rico.
what happened to that rumor from the Dec meetings…..Maine for Corey Hart. Revisit that. Sign Pinero and add in Garland
Omar won’t do that, that would bring the non-latino percentage up too much for comfort.
yup cuz we know omar has a problem with white guys…thats why he signed Jason Bay and traded for Francour…and has daniel murphy as the starting 1B….despite everyone screaming for him to trade Daniel…he still hold on to him…lol….how many white guys do the mets have to have on the active roster to shut u klan-heads up ?
Who said any thing about white guys? there are no black guys on that team at all! Minaya deals almost exclusivly with latino players it’s just a fact, passed on Lackey, Marquis, Harden, probably Sheets and is going to sign Pinero that makes perfect baseball sense. He didn’t trade Murphy because HE SUCKS what are you going to get for him? I just want the Mets to make desent player desicions I’m not in love with the Bay signing and Japanese players are always a gamble and your rotation, catching, first and second base are still shaky at best now Beltran in out and you don’t know what you wil get when he comes back in may. I think this guy is messing up big time.
yup cuz we know omar has a problem with white guys…thats why he signed Jason Bay and traded for Francour…and has daniel murphy as the starting 1B….despite everyone screaming for him to trade Daniel…he still hold on to him…lol….how many white guys do the mets have to have on the active roster to shut u klan-heads up ?
I don’t know if they do this in baseball, but in football they have built into contracts that guys have to be a certain weight, could they do this with Molina?