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Molina Rejection Is Windfall Income



By Howard Megdal ~ January 20th, 2010. Filed under: Howard Megdal.

Tremendous news last night, as Bengie Molina rejected the Mets’ one-year, $5 million offer and returned to the San Francisco Giants.

This was hailed by many as a victory for Mets fans who are sabermetrically-inclined, and it is, to an extent- Molina’s negatives include such things as poor defensive metrics and a putrid on-base percentage. But it is hardly takes a sophisticated statistical bent to be happy that the Mets didn’t sign a 35-year-old with bad knees to a one-year deal, let alone the multi-year deal it would have taken to actually land the S.S. Molina.

So what now? Well, the Mets suddenly have an extra $5 million to spend that they didn’t think they’d have. And that is tremendous news, since that money was going to go to a player who doesn’t help them- and now the remaining options are players who actually can.

If the money goes toward signing an upgrade at second base- think Orlando Hudson or Felipe Lopez- suddenly the Mets have done their young pitcher Mike Pelfrey a tremendous favor, not to mention helping any other pitcher on the staff who induces at least some ground balls (in other words, all of them).

If it goes toward Carlos Delgado at first base, the Mets have added a potentially significant bat to a lineup that could use it, particularly during the time Carlos Beltran misses. I guess it goes without saying, though, that if Delgado is at first defensively, improving from Castillo at second base becomes that much more important.

Most encouragingly, the Mets seem unwilling to go beyond two years for the services of Joel Pineiro, and would rather focus on a one-year combo of Ben Sheets and John Smoltz. The two represent a potential high-yield reward, while not locking the Mets into mediocrity long-term (think 3/30 for Randy Wolf).

No matter how they spend this money, chances are it will help the team more than spending it to downgrade from Henry Blanco to Bengie Molina.

When Molina signed with the San Francisco Giants, the Mets won the lottery.

Howard Megdal is the Editor-in-Chief of The Perpetual Post. He covers baseball, basketball and soccer for Capital New York, MLBTradeRumors.com, New York Baseball Digest and has written for ESPN.com as well as numerous other publications. He is the Poet Laureate for SBNation New York. His book about Jewish baseball players, “The Baseball Talmud,” is available for purchase on Amazon.com and wherever books are sold. His next book, "Taking The Field", is available for pre-order on Amazon.com and will publish in May 2011.
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5 Responses to Molina Rejection Is Windfall Income

  1. brooklyn boy

    omar has no clue The red sox offered Mike lowell straight up for chico castillo and he turned it down. Lowell is a clubhouse leader and is owed one yr 12 million and castillo 2 years 12. They then could sign hudson. Why wait until they get off to a poor start to fire OMAR. Its time to say so long bye bye fairwell.

  2. Stew Leibowitz

    BB you seem to know your basebll, could not agree with you more. I hear Hudson is a great clubhouse guy.

  3. Stew Leibowitz

    BB How did Omar survive this Tony B disaster? I am speculating that Freddy & Jeff don’t want to pay two gm’s?

  4. Steve

    Probably a good move that he didn’t sign, as he isn’t a viable long term solution. But the lack of options is a big problem. As usual, the Mets got themselves in this situation by not being pro-active and addressing catching a long time ago, pretending Brian Schneider was an untouchable piece of a championship team. Once again the Mets are forced to be desperate as things are dealt with way too late.

  5. Gibdog

    BB, there is no factual proof that Omar rejected the Lowell for Castillo trade. It was just a rumor that the Mets were talking to the Red Sox about it.

    Prove it to me that Omar turned it down, and I will apologize for this comment. I heard the same thing, but there was no proof at all that Omar turned it down.

    It is my belief that the Red Sox wanted Scutaro more, and weren’t willing to move Pedroia to shortstop.

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