Recent news from a number of Yankee beat writers is that Gustavo Molina, not Jesus Montero or Austin Romine, is now the front-runner to win the Yankee backup catcher job to begin the season. There are several likely explanations for this decision. I imagine the main reason for the decision is that the Yankees have decided that both Montero and Romine could use additional minor league time to work on their defense (especially Montero), and they would get better experience catching every day in the minors than playing twice a week as Russell Martin’s backup in the bigs. Additionally, neither Montero nor Romine were particularly impressive at the plate in spring training, so the Yankees may want to give them some additional time in the minors to get into an offensive groove before they consider promoting one of them. Francisco Cervelli will likely regain the backup job when he is back from his injury (sometime in the next few weeks, I hope), and the Yankees probably decided that it did not make sense to promote one of their top prospects for only a few weeks if the plan was to send them back to the minors anyway.
So who is Gustavo Molina? One might expect Gustavo to be related to the Catching Molina Brothers (Bengie, Jose, and Yadier), but to the best of my knowledge, there is no relation. Molina was signed out of Venezuela by the White Sox, and made his debut in Rookie Ball at age 18 with a .680 OPS. He repeated Rookie Ball the following season, and spent the next 6 seasons between low-A and high-A. His playing time largely diminished as he got older, but his best season in the minors was 2005, when he OPS’s .748 in high-A as a 23 year old. Molina spent the next few seasons between AA and AAA before making his major league debut in 2007 with the Blue Jays, a 17-game cup of coffee. Molina bounced around between the minors and the bigs over the next few years, seeing major league time with the White Sox, Orioles, Mets, and Red Sox while spending the majority of his time in AAA. Molina’s career minor league OPS of .643 explains why he was never considered much of a prospect, especially because he frequently repeated levels.
Molina’s big league career has been none too impressive either, with a measly .305 OPS (.122/.159/.146) in 41 at-bats. Based on these numbers, I would assume that Molina’s calling card is defense, though the small sample of major league experience canot provide much in the way of statistical evidence (he is 0 for 7 in throwing out attempted basestealers). So overall, the numbers look pretty ugly for Molina, which makes one wonder, couldn’t the Yankees do better with their backup catcher? The answer is, they probably could, but given the relatively short period in which Molina is likely to be on the team (hopefully), it may not be worth the additional resources to acquire a more accomplished backup catcher. Molina will be at best replacement level, but I imagine that his defense and work with the Yankee pitching staff is what caught Joe Girardi’s notice (or so I would hope). Basically, don’t expect anything from Molina during his Yankee tenure, which will hopefully be very short.
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A real head-scratcher. He’s been unrelentingly horrible offensively throughout his pro career, and he doesn’t look like a world-beater behind the plate. With Martin’s recent history, I was hoping we’d have somebody who could provide something positive behind him.
To me, this really isn’t worth much discussion one way or the other. Cervelli should be back by mid-late april. Considering off days, if Molina gets 3 starts in that time period, it will be a lot. I can’t go crazy over 12-16 ABs. I just can’t. If they trust him defensively, its the right move.
It’s a big mistake if they don;t go with Montero, just like Posada started out, he was a backup catcher, Montero has nothing left to prove @ Scranton; let him develop in the bigs just as the same way as Posada did. The Yankees never let their prospects shine just like with the case of Austin Jackson, who turned out just fine. Give Montero a chance and let him shine.
Agree. It won’t be long. Posada caught his first game at 25 and he wasn’t a starter until he was 26. Montero will be here alot sooner. So he’s hitting .243? Martin is hitting .250, Romine .140 and Molina?-forget about it.
Trading Jackson had nothing to do with “not letting (him) shine” and everything to do with upgrading a major position up the middle with a better player, who is not only a better short term but also long term fit.
I’m in the Montero starting the season in the majors camp but people have to stop acting like it would be a huge mistake if he doesn’t. Even if he did start the year with the Yankees unless he was hitting .300+ by the time Frankie comes back they’d send him down to Scranton anyway.
He will play major time in the big leagues this year it really doesn’t matter if it starts now or June when you think about it.
Also people need to stop comparing Posada being bad behind the plate with Montero…. Posada is no where close to 6-4 225 and Jesus’ defensive problems come from being so huge. Posada is simply not a great catcher, there is a difference in that and being so big you can barely squat behind the plate.
Mauer is 2″ taller than Montero.
Relying on guys who’ve already shown they’re not even good high A-ball players for anything at all is really bad planning. This reminds me of the Enrique Wilson playing ahead of Soriano and Zeile playing ahead of Nick Johnson. Doesn’t matter if the guy has almost no possibility of producing anything positive as long as he’s ‘been there’.
Correction Mauer is 1 inch taller, and was once considered the top HS football recruit in the nation, his incredible athletic ability made it much easier to slide into the position and adjust to the finer points of catching as quickly as he did instead of being called up at age 24-25 like most catching prospects.
Right, its not so much about height as it is about athleticism. While that can be improved upon, its largely innate.
I love the move by Joe. Keep Montero in the minors to polish his defense and let his bat get hot.