7:24pm: Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News spoke with Molina today and heard that he's definitely not retired (Twitter link). However, he won't play unless he gets a guaranteed deal at a respectable salary.
6:55pm: The Padres inquired on Molina and heard that he is retired, according to Dan Hayes of the North County Times (on Twitter).
6:23pm: Gregg Zaun retired mere hours ago, and the Padres are already after a former platoon partner of his. The San Diego front office reached out to Bengie Molina, according to Marty Caswell of XX 1090 in San Diego (on Twitter). However, Molina said he's not inclined to play and sounds retired.
Molina was talking to a couple of teams a month ago, though at the time he was unsure whether to accept their offers. “They're not offering what we want, for sure. I don’t know right now what’s going to happen," Molina told Newsday's Ken Davidoff. Molina is looking for significant playing time and $4MM or so in salary, which could be problematic since the Padres intend to make Nick Hundley their primary catcher and have less financial might than most teams.
The Astros just lost Jason Castro to injury so Molina has had a couple of potential destinations emerge this spring. MLBTR's Mark Polishuk took a close look at the Astros' catching options last week.
“6:55pm: The Padres inquired on Molina and heard that he is retired, according to Dan Hayes of the North County Times”
Haha
Pass on Molina..Let St. Nick be the primary and let Martinez, Phillips, Quirzo Back-up..pick up more catchers yes ..pay a bunch of money no….If Pads didn’t feel that good about Nick they should have resigned Yorvit Torrealba he was the worthy bargain…..Go Low Payroll Pads ..We beat you for Less+++
the funny thing is someone commented earlier saying the padres should look into molina and now they are
It isn’t that dificult to come up with. The Padres need a catcher and Molina is the only available free agent catcher.
Molina the new Charlie Sheen of baseball…. Wait thats a lot of people who overvalue themselves.
It’s pretty simple actually. If any of the 20ish MLB clubs that aren’t serious playoff contenders (see Astros, Padres, etc.) check in on Bengie Molina, he’s retired. However, if any of the other 10ish clubs come a calling, he’s not retired.
Jason Hagerty is still a couple years away, so I wonder if the Padres would be better off going after someone like Flores from Washington who can jump in this year and give them some flexibility while they wait. I don’t see SD or anyone giving Molina a two year deal.
Molina could be a good fit. All they need is a guy that can catch 50-80 games, and i don’t think Bengie is looking to catch 130 anymore. They want Hundley to take most of the reps (probably between 80 and 100 games) which makes sense. I don’t think its possible to even field a winning team if rob johnson catches any significant number of your games.
Heh, you used “Molina” and “fit” in the same sentence. Seriously, why give him a multi-million contract to catch 50 games? It won’t happen. He probably can’t even see his feet anymore.
Can I interest you in Jesus Flores?
New owner Jeff Moorad refuses to do incentive deals. It’s why the pads had no chance or desire to resign Chris Young.
They got Rob Johnson from the M’s so I’m guessing he’s the back up. From everything I read he’s a + defender and + game caller; but from what I’ve seen he shouldn’t be depended on with a bat.
Hagerty should dominate the Cal league and be on everyone’s radar this time next year.