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Bengie Molina

Giants Rumors: Lincecum, Tejada, Sexson

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Andrew Baggarly gives his take on the Giants hot stove buzz.

  • One Reds official think the Giants almost have to trade Tim Lincecum to build an offensive core.  It seems the Mariners and Reds in particular are pushing for Lincecum.  The Ms could offer Adam Jones; the Reds have Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, and Josh Hamilton.  The Mariners could’ve had Lincecum with the fifth overall pick in 2006, but opted for Brandon Morrow instead.  The Reds could’ve had him too but went for Drew Stubbs.
  • The Giants and Orioles discussed Miguel Tejada, and the O’s like players such as Jonathan Sanchez, Brad Hennessey, Fred Lewis, and Guillermo Rodriguez.  Outside of Sanchez those guys don’t seem like what the Orioles would ask for to me.  No deal is close.
  • Baggarly talks of the rumored Richie Sexson for Ray Durham or Rich Aurilia swap, though Larry LaRue says it’s bogus.
  • The one team inquiring on Bengie Molina was the Mets, and that was before they got Brian Schneider.

Giants Rumors: Lincecum, Tejada, Molina, Fukudome

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Another MLB.com article for you, this time about the Giants from Chris Haft.

  • Brian Sabean is getting a bit annoyed with teams thinking Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are available.  They’re pretty much not, but since the door is open a crack it may be inhibiting other deals.  Sabean did admit that one team made an "interesting" offer for Lincecum.  Any guesses?
  • The Giants had talks with the Orioles about Miguel Tejada, as has been reported elsewhere.  The Giants aren’t thrilled with Miggy though because of his age, salary, and the position switch thing.
  • A team asked about Bengie Molina.  Any guesses on that?  The Marlins don’t seem right.  Rays maybe?
  • Nothing much going on regarding free agents Andruw Jones and Kosuke Fukudome.

Heyman’s Latest: Santana, Haren, Estrada

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Jon Heyman checks in with a couple of notable points.

  • Heyman sets odds for Johan Santana, going with the Yankees and then Red Sox.  I’ll let you click through for the rest.
  • While we’d recently heard from Ken Rosenthal that the A’s had cooled on certain young Mets, perhaps Omar Minaya and Billy Beane can still work something out. Heyman indicates that Beane still covets Lastings Milledge and Mike Pelfrey.  He also likes Kevin Mulvey, Carlos Gomez, and Fernando Martinez. So maybe Keith Law was right today in his chat – the Mets can pull off a deal with the A’s despite popular belief.
  • The Mets are shopping Johnny Estrada, but it’s not known who’s on the receiving end of those calls.  Along with Estrada, the Mets aren’t jazzed about Bengie Molina.  Though he has been discussed.

More Odds and Ends: Kuroda, Pena, Wolf, Percival, Molina

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Tim sent me a couple of items, so let’s create another bullet list:

  • Mariners GM Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren have met with Hiroki Kuroda yesterday. There is no report of an offer, but it’s believed that four years and $45 million are expected. Kuroda hopes to make his decision on the 29th.
  • Impacto Deportivo, the same site that had first news of the Mets deal with Luis Castillo, reports that Carlos Pena has rejected a three-year, $30 million deal from the Rays. Pena, however, calls the report "a straight lie."
  • Randy Wolf is generating interest from the Padres, Phillies, and Astros. Ken Rosenthal notes that the market for high-risk, moderate-reward pitchers is strong, since the rest of the market isn’t very appealing. This includes Bartolo Colon, Jason Jennings, Freddy Garcia, Jon Lieber, Matt Clement, and Kris Benson.
  • The Brewers are in on Troy Percival after losing Francisco Cordero to the Reds. As has been said since the signing, this could also mean that Derrick Turnbow gets another shot in the closer’s role.
  • The Mets inquired about Bengie Molina at the GM meetings, and even though they have acquired Johnny Estrada, they could rekindle talks at the Winter Meetings. Rosenthal notes that the Giants might not want to trade Molina, since they lose considerable leverage because of the $12 million owed to him over the next two years.

Joe Pawlikowski is co-author of River Ave. Blues.

Giants Talking To Bengie Molina

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Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Giants are in "serious negotiations" with free agent catcher Bengie Molina.  Molina will be 33 next season; he posted a career high .467 SLG for Toronto in 2006.

Beyond Molina, the catcher market consists of Mike Piazza, Mike Lieberthal, Rod Barajas, and Javy Lopez. Other clubs that could be shopping for a starting catcher include the Phillies, Angels, Padres, and Rockies.

Red Sox Need A Catcher

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Jason Varitek needs knee surgery, and WEEI in Boston is saying he may be out 4-6 weeks.  I’m sure Will Carroll will have the definitive word on this Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, the Red Sox are scrambling for a catcher who can hit above the Mendoza line.  They’re going to have to shop for the high-salary, waiver-passing guys.  Who’s available?

Javy Lopez is the first name that comes to mind.  Lopez wants a flat-out release, but the Orioles won’t do that.  According to the Baltimore Sun, the team would like to pass him through waivers and cover some, but not all, of his salary in a trade.  He’s only caught 20 games this year.  There’s always the possibility the Yankees put in a claim on Lopez just to thwart the Sox.  Lopez has worked with current Yankees Jaret Wright and Sidney Ponson before.

Bengie Molina was a name thrown out by Jerry Crasnick today as a possible waiver trade candidate.  Molina makes $5MM on the season and the Jays are 6.5 games back (3-7 in their last ten games).

Mike Lieberthal is in the last year of a huge contract with the Phillies.  Liebs has experience catching Mike Timlin and Curt Schilling.  As a 10 and 5 player he can reject any waiver claim.

Jason LaRue is a player the Reds wouldn’t mind sending off.  He makes $3.9MM this year and $5.2MM in ’07.  LaRue is not happy as Dave Ross’s backup.

Rod Barajas is being pushed aside in Texas, and he’ll hit free agency after the season.  He was a teammate of Curt Schilling’s for several years in Arizona.

UPDATE:  According to Will Carroll, Varitek’s procedure is minor and should keep him out about three weeks.

Jays Close To Signing Molina

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Ken Rosenthal reports that the Blue Jays are nearing a $5MM deal with Bengie Molina.  There will be a $7.5MM option for 2007.

I’m just not sure this does much to improve the club.  The Jays forced Gregg Zaun to full-time catching duty last season, and he was worth 3.3 wins for his $950,000 salary.  Molina, while several years younger, is coming off a season in which he was worth 3.5 wins.  Molina will cost $4MM more than Zaun does and should net the team one additional win at most.

The Jays still have huge question marks in their corner outfield spots.  They plan to employ some sort of rotation of Eric Hinske, Reed Johnson, Alex Rios, and Frank Catalanotto.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to save this $5MM for a corner outfield trade acquisition?

Besides Carlos Lee, trade candidates include Adam Dunn, Cliff Floyd, Luis Gonzalez, Bobby Abreu, Aubrey Huff, and Austin Kearns.  I know players like these come with a hefty price, but if the Jays are to fully execute their "win now" plan they need to upgrade at at least one of the corners.

The Bengie Molina Sweepstakes

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Bengie Molina has strangely emerged as neglected free agent, facing very little interest from teams and a possible one year deal.  Coming off a career best .295/.336/.446 line, this is a curious situation.

Molina will be entering his age 32 season in 2006, and I’ve projected him at .289 with 17 HR next season.  While his defense is no great shakes, one would think a few clubs would come out ahead in offering him a reasonable two-year pact.  However, once you factor in defense, Molina ranked 15th among catchers in 2005 despite his solid showing at the plate.  He presents very little improvement for most ballclubs, and that seems to explain the lack of interest.

Should the Blue Jays pursue Molina?  Probably not.  He was only marginally better than Gregg Zaun in 2005, and he’ll definitely cost more.  I understand the idea is to platoon the players and have a sweet tandem like the Reds, but is Molina really going to want to do that? 

Honestly, these are the teams that I think stand to gain at least one win by adding Molina:

Royals
Angels
Rockies
Padres

The Royals already tossed their free cash at other marginal free agents, although Molina would’ve made some sense if the club is ready to give up on John Buck.  Most likely, they’ll keep Buck around longer than they should in order to pretend they didn’t get hosed in the Beltran trade.

The Angels really should’ve tried harder to bring Molina back.  Jeff Mathis is a huge question mark on a team for which a win or two could determine whether they make the playoffs.

The Rockies don’t really have a good reason to go out and sign a free agent.  But if I were Molina’s agent, I’d campaign hard to get him to Coors for a season.  He could play there for $4MM, hit 20 HR, and get that big deal he was looking for.  It’s been done before.

The Padres seem content with Doug Mirabelli and Dave Ross, who are both backups.  Given their lousy division and legitimate shot at the playoffs, I’m surprised they haven’t chased Molina a bit more.

The Dodgers would probably be the best fit, and they have inquired about Molina.  It would be a logical solution to bring Molina in for a year before the team evaluates the readiness of Dioner Navarro and Russell Martin.

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