Chris Carlin on SNY’s Loud Mouths said the Mets refused to guarantee a second year on his deal, since he is 35 years old, and so Molina chose to sign with the Giants.
…well, good for Omar Minaya, or Jeff Wilpon, or Wayne Krivsy, or whomever is handling contract negotiations for the Mets these days… seriously, great job, whomever it is… i know omar has a reputation for overpaying when he wants some one, so i’m glad to see the team was only willing to go so far for molina…
…of course, this will not stop the New York Post, and other newspapers, from framing this is ‘Mets LOSE OUT on Molina,’ despite CHOOSING not to go overboard for him… but, that’s fine… so long as molina isn’t killing rallies in Citi Field, i’m happy…
Updated at 5:37 pm:
Andrew Marchand from 1050 ESPN Radio, in a post to Twitter, says he talked to free-agent C Yorvit Torrealba’s agent, who said, “I’m waiting to hear from Omar and see where we go from here.”
Meanwhile, Jon Heyman of SI.com says the Mets may ‘stand pat at catcher,’ as they are unenthused by Torrelaba and free-agent C Rod Barajas.
Heyman says the Mets offered Molina $5 million, plus incentives, which, according to Heyman means, ‘He must not have liked mets very much.’
Updated at 5:27 pm:
According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, in a post to Twitter, the Mets last offer to free-agent C Bengie Molina was a ‘take-it-or-leave-it.’
…it’s interesting to me, in that i was under the impression the Mets offered molina a two-year deal, guaranteed, at around $5 million per season… yet he leaves, and returns to San Francisco…
Earlier today, CBS in San Francisco said Molina signed a one-year, $4.5 million with the Giants.
…from what i can gather, molina really wanted to return to the Giants… but, they had been quite distant all off season… and so, i wonder if a) the second year from the Mets wasn’t guaranteed, and b) maybe the Giants decided against keeping Buster Posey in the big leagues, and so they re-approached molina, and essentially matched the one-year money from the Mets… and so he took it… bizarre… it’s never a dull, is it…
Updated at 5:02 pm:
This morning, Buster Olney of ESPN.com said Molina turned down the Mets most recent offer.
Olney now says on Twitter that the Mets top catching target is now Torrealba.
In early December, ESPN.com said the Rockies and Torrealba were getting close to agreeing on a two-year contract; but talks were put on hold, as the two sides disagreed over the value of the deal.
…from what i can gather, torrealba had been seeking a two-year, $6 million deal, while the Rockies were offering around $2.5 million per season…
The 31–year-old Torrealba hit .291 with a .351 OBP with two HR in 64 games for the Rockies last year, while splitting time with C Chris Iannetta.
Original Post at 4:54 pm:
The Giants signed Molina to a one-year, $4.5 million contract, according to a CBS San Francisco.
…hat tip to MLB Trade Rumors for the information…
??????
Nobody wants to sign with the trainwreck formerly knows as the Mets. We can’t even overpay an aging catcher.
orrrrrrrr nobody wants to sign a trainwreck aging catcher with a .295 on-base for more than a 1 year contract. thank god the giants signed him.
I wouldn’t have minded him on a 2year, but honestly I certainly understand the reason behind not guaranteeing the 2nd year.
That doesn’t make any sense. The Mets offered him a 2 year contract at $5mill a year. If the post is to be believed that is more money and years than SF. Your post doesn’t comport with the facts.
As of now it would appear that free agents don’t want to come to the Mets. They see the disfunction and want to stay as far away as they can.
Does the self-mutilation make you feel better about yourself? Are you really that into s&m? As if we don’t eat enough **** from the NY media, I’m extremely sick of it coming from the so-called fanbase.
Putting your crazy anti-Met conspiracy theories aside, Molina stated publicly at the beginning of the off-season that he wanted to return to SF. He’s been there forever. They offered him half a mil less than the Mets (the second year that you speak of was a vesting option for which he was probably told he would be a backup/mentor for Thole). It’s not as though he accepted a tremendous amount less just so that he didn’t have to come to this organization, HE TOOK A HALF MILLION LESS! Why would the guy look to uproot his family for such an insignificant amount of money – in the grand scheme of things – ? Enough already with your b.s. It’s tiresome.
As a Mets fan am speechless about Benji Molina signing with the Giants,we was overpaying him still he sign with the Giants for less money.I could smile a little bit because the Mets sign Jason bay,We got Jeff Franceur for a full year,Jose Reyes is back but Carlos Beltran being out for 12weeks.Feel like us Mets Fans got a big bullseye in our forehead watching two rival teams that I hate(really really hate) go into the World Series enuff said
The Mets didn’t overpay for him, that was the point. They refused to guarantee him a 2nd year, so he decided not to move his family across country for an additional $500k. Cannot say I blame him, nor am I in the least bit upset with Minaya on this. I’d rather stick with what we have and focus on pitching and maybe one more bat.
Molina sucks. .285 on base, last in baseball in pitches per plate appearance, zero walks, slowest man in baseball, his defense isn’t what it used to be and hes old.
Thank god.
can I just say, WTF?
hahahah that was the first thing i shouted out wehn i saw that headline
this sucks! delgado to the jays and now this? we are terrible =(
im happy about delgado because i feel we need to move on .. but bengi on a one year deal? 4.5 million? are you serious? what happened???
well I guess your right about Delgado, I just really liked him when he was on the Mets. The thing with Bengie though is that in the beginning of the off-season he did say he would return to SF if they wanted him back. At the time though they didn’t want him back, but now I guess they do. Whatever we’ll work something out (I hope. You never know, we are the least efficient team in baseball over the past decade lol)
LET’S GO METS!
I prayed every night we wouldn’t sign Molina, he is garbage.
Sub .300 OBP, sloooooow as it gets, and “is good with pitchers” lol.
Anyone thinking he would hit 20 home runs (which he’s managed ONCE in his entire career) in Citi Field is clueless.
quick pray Zambrano waives his no-trade or we invent a cloning machine
this does not suck. this is wonderful wonderful news. he is a bad offensive player. if a bad offeensive player wont sign for cheap, u let him go.
Bullet dodged.. Thank you SF.
i guess barajas now
I think I’d rather have Barrajas than Torrealba. I wasn’t happy about Torrealba the first time the Mets almost signed him.
I could deal with Barajas for one season. 19 HR’s , 71 RBI’s, threw out runners at a 34% clip. He could also give the Mets some insight to Roy Hallady too. It also keeps the Mets in the mix if , by some miracle, Joe Mauer makes it to free agency next season.
has Torrealba signed yet?
Get Barajas, no harm done.
Wow, it looks like he took less money to play with the Giants. Or maybe the Mets pulled their offer beccasue they are going to go hard after Sheets and Piniero.
I hope this is the case. Although I’d be happy with Sheets and Garland too
hope so too.
i can’t help but think that many free agents just don’t want anything to do with us.
Classic. I am sure the Mets put out a better offer, but he was so sure that he could get them to give more that he overplayed his hand and then took a mulligan on free-agency by re-signing for one year.
I liked Molina as a fit with this staff though, and now we’ve basically got no catcher. Well played, Omar.
If Bengie overplayed his hand, how can this be Omar’s fault?
Fair point ;)
I mean to say that Molina backed himself into a corner and his only recourse was to re-up in San Fran. It’s not really Omar’s fault, aside from not reading the situation right…for now. I realize there are still options like Torrealba and Barajas out there.
In the end I’m sure we’re better off without Molina and Delgado…Alou-like mirages both of them.
I agree with you there. I never understood the infatuation with Delgado, especially after he appeared slow and sluggish during his games in PR. Definitely time to part company with him and move forward.
Molina would have been nice to have for one year, but I’m not losing any sleep over him going to the Giants. Barajas or Torrealba for a year would be fine by me.
Delgado makes sense for an AL team, not for us.
he and Mets were so close too! maybe he was frightened off by Knee-Gate
thank god we didnt sign this tub of lard
yeahhh F molina…..ima booo him so bad when he comes to citifield that hell regret not coming here……. just watch , hell feell my wrath
Time to come out of retirement – I’ll take the league min.
we better sign sheets and pineiro, delgado is gone too..WTF..I dont want to see murphy at 1B specailly without beltran and molina in our lineup.
delgado is still a fa ,agent and toreont gm denied the report
our lineup is AUTOMATICALLY better without molina in it.
Lol, wow, I’m shocked. Even if he didn’t sign with the Mets, I thought he would be somewhere else. All of this just to re-sign with the Giants? Bengie is ridiculous.
Bengie felt dissed, so he took less to stick it to the Mets.
I’m actually happy about this. I’d rather see money go to pitching, and if we are going to add offense, I would much rather have it go to a guy like Orlando Hudson, who fits much much better.
can he catch?
I agree with you Old. If Molina had signed for one year with the Mets it’s a good deal…but the Mets desperately need starting pitching.
His ability to handle a staff and power given…this was not a move the Mets had to make. I’m just surprised it dragged out as long as it did and he re-upped with SF for $4.5 mil. If he thinks he’s sticking it to the Mets…he might need a better agent. This is not like Mauer next year..there are options and he’s old.
I’m with you.
Re Molina, i’m curious as to what the details of the Mets offer were.
Looks to me like maybe he wanted to stay in SF all along and was just holding out for a better contract with them.
BTW, who do you think they’ll pursue next for catcher?
Torrealba, because it kills two birds with one stone.
The suit he has against the mets (and is likely to win) gets dropped and we get a catcher that isn’t 50 (or expensive)
if you presume the mets will also save on the dropped suit then Torrealba is even cheaper
Barajas is also probably in the mix
Very sound logic, but what do you think of him? What can we expect from him in terms of his performance?
BTW, it’s truly a pleasure to hear your input/insight! You certainly add to the quality of this forum. I salute you!
Thanks for the kind words.
I’m not a huge fan of Torrealba. His OPS+ has been in the 60′s and 70′s for his entire career after his rookie season, which is pretty terrible. Poor hitting, no power. Really nothing there worth looking at since he’s basically a clone of Omir Santos (and Santos may be better because he has more pop). From what I have read, defensively Torrealba isn’t anything special.
I’d rather just go with Santos and Blanco, make defense a priority, and bring in Thole if and when he is ready. I’d rather see the money go towards pitching and erasing a guy like Castillo with a plus offensive player like Hudson. Signing Hudson is good for two reasons: It brings in Hudson (a legit #2 hitter with pop) and gets rid of Castillo (at the plate and in the field).
I’m not a big fan of Barajas either, who hits his homeruns in Arlington. I see him being Brian Schneider esque with the Mets,
Agreed.
not to worry folks……….Omar has a plan……he reminded us of that not too long ago
yep, and plan was to NOT overpay for a 36 y/o catcher,………I’d say the plan worked!
uhh very weird but it looks like we’ll be seeing Torreabla?
Yeah, especially, considering the ‘history’ between us.
BTW, what was the ‘ruling’ regarding his legal complaint against the Mets?
i don’t think there was one but earlier in the Off-season didn’t he say he’d sign with the mets?
Didn’t hear that, but that’s ‘encouraging’ if true.
And his agent is waiting to hear from Minaya. Sounds as though the whole “not passing his physical” ordeal is water under the bridge. Money talks.
WTF!!!
Are 1 year 4.5 million!!!
Omar blew this one!
how? He offereed more and tacked on an option for next year.
Was that a valid offer or just a ‘speculated’ one?
wow!!!!! That is awesome!!!! Holy cow, this came out of nowhere. What are the Giants thinking???? All Mets fans should rejoice, and I am absolutely serious on this one.
I wasn’t going to happy giving 2 years to Molina. But for 1 year, 4.5mill… I kinda wish we’d done it.
Quite possible he was willing to take less to stay put rather than take what he felt was not enough to make the move to NY.
It’s seems to me, by the way this has all ‘unfolded,’ that he really had no intention of leaving SF.
Perhaps, unless he was ‘blown away’ by someone else’s offer.
Personally, I’m glad we’re not going to have Molina on this team for the next two season (rumored deal) but it makes you wonder what the heck happened. I hope they came to their senses and pulled the offer, but if Molina opted for one year at 4.5 when the Mets may have offered more years and more money, it has to make you wonder if players simply will not sign here unless blown away by an offer.
Like i said, I’m glad he’s not a Met, but I’m wondering what this says about this team. I hope I’m reading too much into it.
Hopefully it means they’ve learned a little something about overpaying aging players.
They have to go after 2 pitchers now. They haven’t spent the money they thought they were on delgado and molina. Plus offensively we are not what we “thought” we would be with those guys and Beltran in the lineup.
Reyes
Castillo
Wright
Bay
Murphy
Francoeur
Pagan
Blanco
That’s a far cry from the lineup that we though we might have had.
Reyes
Castillo
Wright
Beltran
Bay
Delgado
Francoeur
Molina
We needed to improve the pitching more any way but now we are against the wall to get that done. I hope they have a plan (gulp).
is that was our 8 positional players
id go
pagan
castillo
reyes
wright
bay
murphy
francouer
c
exactly. hit reyes third til beltran is back. much deeper lineup that way, pagan is a good leadoff man.
in fact… its really too bad pagan isnt a catcher ha.
Rollin with Omir. Better because now we can pay for the little SP help that is out there. Give Sheets the money for one year. If it works great! If not, we are all used to inept SPs not holding up to their end of the deal (Ollie P).
Fire Heyman!!!! ( that guys gets more things wrong than P.Gammons)
kind of happy they didn’t sign him i like Santos and Blanco back there.
now go get Hudson and sheets and Nady
then trade Castillo for the KC pitcher Meche
Santana
Sheets
Meche
Pelfrey
Perez
Maine long relief as back up for sheets or meche
Meche for Castillo….wow, you have derailed.
i thought they were looking to dump his (Meche) salary (2 yrs 24mil)
add a prospect if you have too, just loose castillo his range is a joke
would you give up meche for castillo straight up if u were running KC??? ha
In Omar We Trust, right?
After the way he played the Bay negotiation, and now this… absolutely!
I thought he wanted three years? very odd situation very odd but it still makes us a little power starved
He settled for less than what the Mets offered. Clearly he was trying to hold them up and had no real interest in being here. Good riddance.
I must say I’m surprised— I personally think Bengie was pushing it with the Beltran injury and may have demanded more. Good for Omar and crew for standing firm on this one.
Don’t know if I like Yorvit T. or Barajas, except on a one year deal. Also could go the trade route. I think one upshot could be that we focus harder on the pitching. While I like Garland, might be Piniero, and I wouldn’t mind Washburn for depth. Again, if we sign two we could use some depth to trade one (Maine?) in a bigger deal.
We’ll see…
a one year deal is all either of those guys are gonna get from any team.
Breaking News: Mike Piazza comes out of retirement
and signs a 1yr 5 m deal with the mets!!
I would cry for happiness and go to Miami and wait for the Jets….
The Mets better go for Barajas now. I’m sure that, if the Mets sign Torrealba, he’ll have some kind of grudge towards them. The Mets need to just get a deal done with Barajas and move on to acquiring a starting pitcher.
Yorvit has no grudge against NY, he has said that. I’d still take Santos & Blanco/Coste and use the $ for a starter.
This is why Omar should have looked into Adam Laroche for that 1 year, 5 million dollars. Now you have no Beltran, no Molina, and your pitching staff after Santana still looks suspect. I always say, wait around, and you’ll get burnt. Just another example of how unfortunate this team is.
I think that Murphy will do fine at first. I’m sure that everyone wants to see the Mets have a slugging first baseman, but the reality is that they have a slugging left fielder. I think that Bay is going to act like a first baseman hitter in the Mets lineup. As for the rotation, I think that the Mets should just sign Ben Sheets and maybe Garland. I
then who gets to act like a LF hitter in this scenario?
Lol. I guess that Murphy will act as a left field hitter. He was one at the beginning at the end of 08 and beginning of 09 lol.
Don’t care. It’s hard to imagine Benjie Molina would be the difference maker for this team in 2010. We can pay someone else less money to suck.
haha
Whatever. LET’S GET SHEETS!
In my mind with the Delgado and Molina signings the Mets have to sign Sheets and piniero/Garland. If they don’t sign one or both. This team will look like it is punting on the 2010 season. On the other hand, i don’t want them to panic and give any of these guys 2-3yr deals either.
delgado hasnt signed anywhere
I think he never really wanted to play for the Mets and was just using them to get a west coast team to up their quiet offers a bit. Not that I think we NEED Molina and Delgado but this is becoming a depressing day for us. @ targets for the Mets off of the market. Come on. They need to move and get something else done this off season.
Until they clean out the front office I don’t know why players would sign. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a die hard fan but I think the writing is on the wall. I’d bet if Bay could take back his signing he would. The Beltran fiasco coupled with the horrible training staff and their inability to correctly diagnose injuries is a huge red flag to potential free agents.
The people on this site are unreal. They had one extremely injury-filled season, and so that qualifies the training staff as horrible? How about the relatively injury free multitude of years prior to ’09? Didn’t really hear any complaints about the training staff then. The fact of the matter is no one really knows a damn thing about the whole Beltran saga. Everything has been speculation, from one NY writer to another. And the dumb Met fans have been playing right into drama that the NY media loves to create surrounding this team. Frankly, we’d all be better off just tuning them out.
As far as the Bay signing, I somehow doubt that the guy would take back his signing, just as much as I doubted that he would rather play in Beirut. These guys are professionals, and they look to play the game. Setting aside the circus that is the Front Office, the Mets, on paper, have an extremely competitive team – regardless of what Klapisch, Davidoff, Rosenthal, Gammons, Heyman, Verducci, Jesus, Mary, or Joseph have to write. The negativity is childish and ridiculous.
Unless I need my eyes checked, it looks like Torrealba threw out a grand total of 8 (14%) basestealers last season. Ouch! If that qualifies as a significantly better arm than Molina then Molina’s throwing must have degraded to Johnny Damon territory.
I think barajas is a better option than torrealba, we need POWER!!!
Lol. I guess that Murphy will act as a left field hitter. He was one at the beginning at the end of 08 and beginning of 09 lol.
Yea. I think that Barajas can hit at least 15 home runs for the Mets. At this point, we could use all the home runs we can get.
Yorvit Torrealba is so bad! I’d rather go with Santos than Yorvit. The guy hit 2 HRs while playing part time in Colorado! What do you think he’ll do in Citi Field? And I know power isn’t everything, but talk about a fall-off! From expecting Bengie as a foregone conclusion to Yorvit? Ugh!
I suspect Bengie is a West Coast guy and needed at least 2 guaranteed years to move his family to New York (or leave them behind). So I bet that’s why he took a 1 year $4.5M deal. He WOULD NOT have accepted the same offer from the Mets.
Your probably right. I’m happy that the Mets didn’t go crazy and overpay for Bengie. This guy was just a headache waiting to happen. Now they can forget about him and think about a whole lot of other pieces that they need, lol.
Luis Castillo and Reese Havens to KC for Gil Meche, sign Orlando Hudson.
Not a bad idea, but Meche hasn’t been the most effective pitcher. I also like Havens a lot, I do agree with you on one thing though. I still think that the Mets should be looking around for a team to trade Castillo. I totally prefer O-Dawg over Castillo. Nothing against Luis.
Meche isn’t perfect, but move him to the NL East and Citi Field and I you’d see an uptick in his numbers… plus you’re trading his contract for Castillo’s, and giving the Royals a cheap young and generally well-regarded prospect to replace Castillo when his contract expires. It’s a “now” trade for the Mets, and a “later” trade for KC. Maybe KC even throws in a low-level arm, who knows? I don’t think it’s likely to happen, but it wouldn’t be a terrible fit, and opens things up for Hudson, who is at least as good as Castillo and likely better and who also very much wants to be here.
That would be nice.
But we’re the Mets.
Why would KC want Castillo?
They wouldn’t. But they’d be swapping bad contracts and getting a young second base prospect in return. The Mets are giving up more than the Royals in that deal, potentially.
But then what do we do at 2nd longterm if you ship both Castillo and Havens to KC? ????
HAHA all this talk about how Molina was virtually a lock in 2010. Although, I’m not all that mad about it, it is astonishing.
The only one who didn’t think so was clearly Bengie Molina, who never wanted to be here it seems.
I guess that Bengie didn’t want his home fans to hate him, lol. He can stay in San Fran, we don’t want him.
I didn’t think mmolina s worth $6m but I hate the idea of Yorvit Torrealba.
He has a .725 onbase/sluggung the past few years and that was in Colorado !!!!
Do you guys think think thole might platoon with santos/blanco?
I think if Thole does platoon, then it would only be him and Santos. I think that Blanco would just act as a mentor and get very little playing time. The only way that I see a Thole/Santos platoon is if both Torrealba and Barajas don’t come to the Mets. Even if one of them does, they might call Thole up in September to see if he’s ready to start for 2011.
Isn’t this how Omar deals with catchers? The take-it-or-leave-it approach. He did the same thing in his last foray in free agency.
When Bengie said no – Omar said bye-bye.
Doesn’t hurt us at all. Bengie is crapola. For 4.5 or 6.5 or one year or two years.
Focus on pitching. Do something exciting. Something creative. Bring us out of the doldrums with something exciting (ie. not Bronson Stinking Arroyo).
Bengie must be gay, why else would he go back to San Fran
{crickets, crickets}
Heyman – “he must not like the Mets very much”
Really? The Giants offer $4.5MM and the Mets offer $5MM…is it really worth it to move your family 3,000 miles for $500K (if you’re a baseball player that is).
He should have added “Molina was hoping the Yankees would offer him a position as their bullpen catcher, but he finally had to give up his dream…the dream of every player in the majors…to be a Yankee.”
Wow. That’s pretty gey. I wouldn’t want to be a Yankee haha. The fans are going to expect so much this year and anything less than a World Series for them, then the fans would all just btch and whine. lol.
Very funny.
mets deal had more $$ with incentives and option yr
I am totally surprised but totally pleased he did not sign with us….goodbye Bengie it seems only Omar wanted you not the fans…
Not even Omar wanted him that much.
Wow
please..I dont want torrealba, he sucks, give me barajas or just let thole catch.
The Mets should sign Brad Ausmus. He is a better fit for what they need. He would be a coach on the field.
We should be happy that Molina didn’t sign with this club. He was a slow, old catcher that who is past his prime. The Mets didn’t need him clogging up the bases. His 20 HR season was an abberation. He was not going to hit fourth in Flushing and would not have had as many chances.
The possiblity of Delgado signing elsewhere is a heads/tails proposition. He was a presence in a clubhouse that lacked leadership and set an example to many on this team. He could be a productive power hitter, but that may be in question if the reports of his inability to play the field or run are true. He would have been worth a chance by an organization that is desperate for muscle and image.
Omar Minaya is overplaying his hand. Patience can be a virtue, but, sometimes, it doesn’t get you back into contention. He is going to wait himself out of any viable free agents on the market.
yeah lets go get the 41 year old catcher who has had 311 at bats in the last 2 seasons combined.
there were no impact catchers on the market. period. so he isnt going to “wait himself out of any viable free agents” because there never were any at catcher. its like u make the case against molina, u make the case against delgado, and then u say omar is screwing up because he hasnt done more. and yet the only suggestion you have is to sign a 41 year old catcher.
Eh.
I dont see any reason why they can’t go to bat with what they have no. From a pool of Blanco, Coste, Santos, Thole, they can get through the season. If were GM, i’d let blanco and coste split job through May, let Thole start at AAA, and even let him play some first. Come June, If Thole has warmed up and played well, he can be brought up, and Coste released (unless coste is batting 350 with 15 hr’s). Thole then becomes your every day man, or your 5 of 7 games man, with blanco acting as mentor. By year’s end, regardless of where the mets are in the standings, you have Thole as your # 1, Blanco as your # 2, and Santos as your september call up, or injury DL callup. With Thole also playing a little 1b or learning 1b, you can give murphy a day off, keep thole in the lineup, and give blanco some work that day.
The key to the whole thing, is that thole developes, and developes well.
Again, for those who shot me down, he delayed signing with Mets because he wanted a west coast offer…he’s been on the west coast for a decade raising his kids he has a few years left, and he didn’t feel it was worth it
Boyah
Thole!
when torealba, baragas and santos hit a collective .240 with 10 hr’s anf 50 rbi and kill the bottom of our line up, i want to hear how they are equal to Bengie and a .270, 18hr and 80 rbi…
You are so fixated on obp. What the heck does being on base matter when no one can drive you in!! The Mets lead the leauge in hitting and were near bottom in scoring because they had no one driving in runs!!
We could have withstood 2 months with out beltran better with a guy like Bengie making the lineup deeper. 1 year 6 mil is fine for a starting catcher with decent pop and cleanup experience..
I am VERY disapointed in this!
because bengie put up those numbers HITTING CLEANUP. you think he puts up ANYTHING LIKE THAT hitting in the 7 or 8 hole? those numbers are an illusion. if you hit molina 8th he would be more like .230/.270/.370 with lets say 5HR 35RBI 25R and 90K. no joke. he also grounds into double plays, which you may be aware robs OTHER people of RBI opportunities. but how can u be a baseball fan and not understand the difference between hitting 4th and hitting 8th? if you hit my grandfather cleanup he could drive in 25. move him back to the 8 hole and it quickly becomes apparent that hes been dead for a decade.
Lmao.
1 Week Ago we heard the following rumors:
Molina – “could sign with the Mets during the next 48 to 72 hours”, “people in the industry feel Molina to the Mets is inevitable”
Delgado – “The Blue Jays say Delgado is not a fit for their plan”
Then the Beltran fiasco happened, and now this. I’m wondering how much all the situation affected both negotiations. Molina should have been a very good addition to the team (in spite all jokes about his weight), specially from the defensive stand point and how he could influence the pitching staff.
Having said that, who knows, it may open the possibility of the Mets making a trade Castillo / Snyder (if healthy) trade with the DBacks? Then sign Hudson?
As for 1B, they should go for Garko (.279/.354/.441). He could actually end up replacing Murphy as an everyday player.
SS Reyes
2B Hudson
3B Wright
LF Bay
RF Francouer
CF Pagan
1B Garko
C Snyder
Too bad, Molina and Delgado (healthy) could have make an impact while Beltran is out:
Supposedly the blue jays GM denied reports that Delgado is a blue Jay, I’m curious to what are the Blue Jays plan to there team? They trade Halladay which seems like there rebuilding then they sign Delgado? That doesnt make sense..There team isnt going to compete, so I question the reports that Delgado is signing with the Blue Jays. When he even said in an interview that he wants to go to a team that can contend..Jays have no shot to contend.
MET FANS ALL THE REPORTS FROM SHEETS BULLPEN TODAY ARE VERY VERY VERY GOOD, MAYBE NOW OMAR WILL BE LIKE OH **** , GOTTA GET SHEETS, NO MATTER WHAT. ATLEAST THATS WHAT I HOPE …..
AS FAR AS BENGIE , WELL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH YOU FAT TUB OF LARD, U WANTED 3 YEARS FOR SECURITY REASONS…GOOD JOB SIGNING 1 YEAR DEAL N RUBBING IT IN OUR FACE AS WE GET OVER IT IN 24 HRS…GOOD LUCK THIS TIME NEXT YEAR BUDDY TRYING GET THAT CONTRACT U COULDNT GET THIS YEAR ANOTHER YEAR OLDER…..FAT***
Umm, Whats with the caps lock? so not needed..
I ALWAYS TYPE IN CAPS…. DONT BE A HATER.. ITS JUST CAPS RELAX
Like I said in a different blog post, I rather see Blanco and Santos platoon if that means we get Sheets and Pineiro….Or Blanco and Thole platoon, Just as long as we get sheets and pineiro..I dont like garland and he doesnt like the East Coast.
agreeed….. if we dont get sheets though.. idk what in the world there planning to do.. everyone says pineiros close to signing with the dodgers tho…
Good riddance to Molina.
I’m so glad Molina went elsewhere. He had “disaster” written all over him. Blanco is one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, and Santos is serviceable. I have no objections to a Blanco/Santos catching duo.
Saves $5-6 million extra to grab another pitcher of some sort.
Sheets here we come!
Where to go now? The knock on the catchers we have is that they are light hitters who can’t handle young pitchers well. I mean that’s why we’ve been trying to sign Molina right. Now there are no free agent catchers who can hit for power (Torreaba played half his games in Denver, his numbers don’t count), can either Torrealba or Barajas handle a young pitching staff? If not, we go back to looking for 1b and 2b upgrades with at least the addition of one starter, but who will come here now?
If Molina was trying to push the Mets in the aftermath of the Beltran injury, then I hope he enjoys another lovely Summer in balmy San Francisco. If this was attributable to the Mets management, then I feel that we may be in for another lost season. I am beginning to get the distinct vibe that we may be “packing our tent” this year since there will be “so much better free agents next year”.
Like i said earlier. If they don’t sign or trade for a quality arm then it will be obvious they are punting the 2010 season. They might have given Molina the utimatum in light of the Sheets session. Telling Molina take it or leave it so they can go after Sheets with that money, i have a feeling the Mets liked what they saw today.
if they were punting the 2010 season they wouldnt have given bay that contract.
Hope you guys are right. If Sheets comes back as anything close to what he was, it would free things up considerably.
Best offseason move made by omar.. thank god we didn’t have to use his brain on this one, I’m happy he’s being some sort of puppet, otherwise he would’ve sign molina to a 4 year deal.. wit that being said get barajas, try to get felipe lopez or hudson, get 2 pitchers and move onnnn…. we’re 1 month away from pitchers n catchers..
By the way.. sheets bullpen seassion went very good.. give him 7 + incentinve to 12, give him #23 and sign pinero.. then we can juggle maine, pelfrey n garbez for 2 spots..
I’ll be honest I wanted Molina, cause it gave us a boost in offense, especially now with Beltran’s injury concerns. But I for sure didnt want to overpay for him either. So maybe in the end it turns out to be a good movie not to lock Molina up for more than one year, but what we have left is another hole. Santos is a firey guy we all like but its apparent he must not call a good game cause the pitchers dont seem to want to pitch to him. Thole who could be good is clearly not ready. So were left with Blanco who is just about 40 I think, so he cant play everyday and another question mark. I dont want to get into a battle of whos better than who, but with Murphy still learning the position and not really a power hitting first baseman, Castillo well you dont have much there, and now Beltran out for the minimum a month, people seem to think that he will be good to go in May we dont know that, he could miss more time. So now we have no catcher, a first baseman who is learning, probably Pagan in CF and a Castillo at 2nd, this team im sorry to say could be in trouble. A lineup with Pagan, Murphy, Castillo and whoever is at catcher now, is not a strong lineup no matter how many ways you slice it. And now with the pitching question marks and now lineup question marks, im very worried more so then before. Say what you want about Molina, hes fat, low OBP ( not many catchers have good OBP) slow ( most catchers are ) but he could be counted on in the lineup everyday and pitchers like pitching to him, so lets see what happens now but like I said I am worried….
Some of you are rejoicing the Mets didn’t sign Molina a.k.a a guy who could have really helped our pitching staff and slugged 20 HRs last year and then saying we should take that money and spend it on Orlando Hudson a.k.a a guy who played so well for the Dodgers in the middle of a pennant race last season that he was benched.
Makes perfect sense.
20 hrs? In CitiField? Batting 8th? I somehow seriously doubt that. And not that I am in favor of paying Hudson, because I’d rather pay Felipe Lopez, but the guy wasn’t benched. He was injured, and when he came back from the DL, Torre decided to continue playing his fill-in who was batting something like .350. Can you blame Torre for making that call?
This may be a blessing for the line-up although I think he could have helped our pitching. I think Molina would have been fine in our line-up, just like I think Frenchie is fine in our line-up. But the two of them together towards the bottom of our lin-up would mean a lot of painful ends to rallies. Lets move on. Torealba might be more dicipline w/o the power and i think he can handle the rotation, but IO would rather see the energy put into pitching first.
I’m good with losing out on Bengie. Matt why you have to single out the Post???? Awesome paper.
ok I wasnt going to get into the hudson thing but everyone is so misinformed they keep bringing it up. For the last time, Hudson was not benched during the pennant race. Near the end of the season, Hudson got hurt, he was battling a bad wrist all season that he had surgery on. The dodgers were not sure when he could be good to go, thus they acquired Ronnie Beliard, Beliard got hot with the bat, and when Hudson was healthy enough to come back, Torre wanted to keep playing the hot hand, and thus Hudson didnt play much the rest of the way. It has happened before to many teams and players, everyone keeps saying if Hudson is so good how come he got benched, without knowing the real story
I agree with METSopotamia, the Mets lineup was looking like it was going to be a real strength heading into 2010 with Beltran, Molina, and possibly Delgado, but it is now looking like it will be average to below average with Pagan, Santos, and no possible backup plan for Murphy at 1B. Unless Wright’s power stroke returns who else besides Jason Bay is going to routinely hit HRs on this team?
I don’t have the hate so many others do for OM, but the season is getting close and the Mets have only made one splash thus far with MANY (SPs, C, depth at 1B, CF, RP) holes left on this team.
Sorry METSopotamia, that wasn’t what I recall, I watched several Dodger games and the announcers made mention that Hudson had been benched at the time. And this wasn’t for one game, two games, three games, or even a week, this was for a significant period of the 2nd half. Could you imagine if Jose Reyes was pronounced 100% healthy in the 2nd half of the season with the Mets battling for a postseason spot and Jerry Manuel just leaving him on the bench for weeks because Alex Cora was having a semi hot streak at the plate?
I wouldnt know the story either, but my Uncle lives just outside of LA and is a big Dodger fan, thats what he told me happened with Hudson,from what was talked about on sports radio and newspapers out there. If he was misinformed or made the whole thing up than I will totally go and punch him in the face lol
oh and also there would be a big difference between Hudson not playing over a hot Beliard and Reyes not playing over Cora, Reyes is a star player, and Hudson is just a role player, who knows what the story is all I know is the Mets need a lot of help in a lot of areas lol
It’s still early. Sheets hasn’t signed and I think this will open up money for a guy with more value. Good job not signing him let the giants keep him
I agree, but its scary to think where Omar might turn to next
I say we sign Todd Hundley… oh wait
This non-move was almost as good as the non-signing of Manny last year.
This is the best news of the day…by far. I don;t care how it happened; I’m just glad that it happened. We should be getting younger and better. Besides if you really want to dream upon a Catcher…pray that Mauer walks.
if mauer walks, he’ll be walking to the bronx, theres no doubt in my mind. and he’ll probably stop off and pick up carl crawford on his way.
Dude!! You can’t mess up my prayers. That’s just terrible man.Let me dream. Besides, The Yankees have Jesus Montero and the Red Sox have Victor Martinez. Crap…that didn’t even convince me.
I hope you’re happy.
Just another lovely day in are little hell called Metland! The Yankees get richer, and our front office looks like the Johnny Knoxville fan club.
peter gammons reporting the mets have signed knoxville to a 4 year 25 million dollar contract.
This is what confuses me. Why are the Mets not interested in Rod Barajas?
he is great with pitchers, has great defense, he hits for power, and hits for average better than all of the catchers on the Mets cuurently, so why dont they give Barajas a one year deal? i mean, what can go wrong on a 1 year, $4 million deal?
hes actually a career .238 hitter through 11 seasons. he did hit .256 once tho, ha. hes good for 10-15 HR, but theres alot more protection in the bottom of an AL order, so i think youd have to be even more conservative than that with your expectations. especially, of course, at citi field.
personally im content to stand pat on the catching position. the differences at this point really are negligible, i think. sure u could sign a 1 year 4 million deal for either barajas or torrealba. but does it provide enough of an upgrade to your team day in and day out to justify not spending that 4 million ELSEWHERE? im not sure.
despite santos’ late season struggles, he did hit .260, and it WAS his first go-round. i know theres a reason hes a 28 year old rookie and im certainly not enamored with him, but i do think theres every chance that he’ll be as productive as, or more productive than, barajas or torrealba would be in this lineup, in this park.
How bout we kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
Cubs get: Luis Castillo & Henry Blanco
Mets get: Geovany Soto
Mets sign: Orlando Hudson
Didn’t the Cubs just let Blanco walk?
so the cubs take on 12 million dollars in order to get a 39 year old catcher and a light-hitting second baseman with limited range. and their motivation for doing this is to be rid of the burden of a 27 year old catcher who makes 500k in 2010 and is 1 year removed from winning rookie of the year and going .286/.364/.504 with 23HR and 86RBI.
because jim hendry secretly hates chicago.
I can’t explain it, because I probably shouldn’t have faith in him, but I have a feeling Minaya is still gonna pull off something big and I think not getting Molina may increase those chances. Ultimately, there aren’t any quality free agents from the offensive side so I think Minaya will resort to a blockbuster trade to save his job. I haven’t heard Miguel Cabrera’s name come up lately. I know the Tigers would like to unload that contract. Offer Ike Davis and Daniel Murphy and go from there. Hell, throw in Fernando Martinez. Touch base with the Padres about Adrian Gonzalez. Trying to fill in the roster with less than mediocre players isn’t going to cut it in NY and I think he knows that. If this season is a failure, he is gone. From the pitching side of things, I think one of the handful, piniero, garland, arroyo, harang will wind up with the team. And I think that is fine if you bring in the big bat. Jason Bay isn’t gonna sell tickets. He is a great supporting cast type of player. But it’s time to cash in his chips and get a big time player. The fact that Benjie Molina turning down the Mets is even a story at all shows how much this franchise is falling. Benjie Friggin Molina and his less than .300 OBP was our top offensive target. That is just sad.
There is nothing more dangerous to the future health and well-being of a franchise than a GM trying to save his job, lest we forget the trade of Scott Kazmir for he-who-shall-not-be-named. Or lest we forget Omar’s trade of 3 gems for Bartolo Colon when he was with the Expos.
But I’m somewhat comforted that Omar is taking his time…he got Bay on his terms. He’s had his toe in the water on a lot of guys. He’s made a few solidifying signings. Now, if we haven’t moved the needle at all over the next 4 weeks, then I’m disappointed. But we can very much salvage the off-season by signing:
Barajas to a 1 year
Sheets to a 1 year
Maya to a 2 year
Ankiel to a 2 year (we need a guy who can play CF, and be a bat, and so we may need to overpay)
Hudson to a 2 year
I don’t think we have the players AGon (if the BoSox don’t, we don’t), and I don’t think we’d want to make any deal to get Miggy (there’s a reason why he’s on the block), and Z is happy where he is. Might be better to wait on a blockbuster until summer.
I agree AGon is not realistic. He is locked in for the next 2 yrs at a bargain so would cost us prospects we don’t have. I would take Miggy in a heartbeat,. One of the best hitters in the game. Exciting. Puts fans in the seats. A 3-7 of Miggy, Beltran, Bay, Wright, Francouer would make it worth spending money to see this team. I know Miggy has baggage and concerns over his attitude, but I think alot of that is overblown and even if it is all true, the guy still rakes. Boston didn’t shy away from signing Manny back in 2000 even with his “attitude problems” and he wound up bringing them 2 titles. I also am very skepticle of NY Met prospects. I dont think Fmart, Murphy or Ike will ever put up the numbers Miggy puts up each yr. Especially at his age. He hasnt even hit his prime. And remember Beltran is gone after 2011. They need another core player.
Agon is off the table, but what about Chris Young?
I’ve had that feeling too, I think Minaya is truely up to something big. Not sure what, But its a big trade coming. We cant count on unknown guys like Ike Davis who in any other team would be possibly low level prospect as our future 1st basemen. If we can get Miguel Cabrera that would be amazing. Considering his young age and amazing offensive abilities.
ike davis would not be a low level prospect in another organization. and actually we CAN do it that way. we SHOULD do it that way. everyone does it that way except, seemingly, the yankees, who grow tremendous prospects and trade them for proven players, and the mets, who…
stink.
i certainly would package him up for miggy tho. wont disagree with you there.
Still trying to figure out this infatuation with Ryan Garko. You guys must really be desperate right. Like he makes Benjie Molina look like the second coming of Johnny Bench.
I never heard of Ryan Garko since this season, Everyone thinks hes our savior yet he doesnt provide better pop then Murphy at first. He hit what I think 3 more HRs?
hes right handed. most of the people who are saying we should sign him would like him in a platoon situation WITH murphy.
I would have liked Molina. I think this is just another negative for this team. Now that he is off the board we must move on to Barajas. I don’t like Torrealba! The money saved better go back into the team! Spring training is almost here and this team is still not close to being complete. There should be a good amount of bargains out there and the Mets better jump on them!
I would give these guys a look to name a few:
1B/OF-Garko, Nady, Mora, Maya, SP- Sheets, Garland, Pineiro, 2B-Hudson,
RP- Smoltz, Gregg, Beimel, Ohman.
Also any trade possibilities better be looked at aggressively!
I do not think any true Mets Fans can be happy at all with this team the way it is currently configured!
Def not, Our lineup without Beltran looks bad and without Molina it looks bad too.
Reyes
Castillo
Wright
Bay
Franceour
Murphy
Blanco
Pagan
Thats pretty much the same team we ended last year with the exceptions of Bay and blanco.
We really need to get a bat for first base and possibly 2nd(Hudson or Lopez).
I dont mind having one of the best defensive catchers in the game starting as long as we have a good starting lineup infront of him..