Let Molina Wait and Learn
By Mike Silva ~ December 18th, 2009. Filed under: Offseason Speculation.
We all thought here at NYBD that Omar Minaya was going to leave the winter meetings with Bengie Molina. Now it appears that Jason Bay may sign before Molina thanks to absurd demands for a three year deal. At this point I would make Molina “a take it or leave it” offer and move on if he says no. Call his bluff and see if turning down the Mets two year offer is worth the price of his three year demand. If he does, he may just have to accept a one year deal in February. Perhaps he can wait on the same line that Johnny Damon probably will be on.
Make no mistake; I think the Mets have four catchers, three who are able backups, and one kid that is promising, but probably not ready defensively to catch full time. They need a full time catcher and Molina is probably the best one out there in terms of a combination of offense and defense. With the possibility of Jason Bay commanding a fifth, or god forbid, a sixth year on his deal, Minaya can’t be giving out holiday gifts to players at the end of their career.
We will never know if this third year demand is Molina’s pride talking, or his agent foolishly ruining the negotiations. If I had were a betting man I would say the agent, but that wouldn’t be fair to speculate (since when do we play fair here at NYBD!)
Yorvit Torrealba is an interesting case, one that I have been a proponent of in the past. He can’t give you 500 AB’s, but you certainly can count on him for 300 to 350. Maybe get aggressive with him when his grievance with the Mets is solved.
Let Molina wait, who knows, maybe he will have to accept a worse deal after the New Year than he would have received last week in Indianapolis.
