HOT STOVE NOTES: Molina is Type A personality, a Pudgy alternative, Holliday vs. Bay

Posted by Andrew Baggarly on November 10th, 2009 at 1:33 pm |

The Elias rankings are out and catcher Bengie Molina is a Type A free agent, which means the Giants would get two draft picks if they offer him arbitration and he signs elsewhere.

From everything I've been told, the Giants are open to bringing back Molina on a one-year contract, but probably not for anything more than the $6 million he made last season.

Molina has said on more than one occasion that he wants a two-year deal, minimum, and he feels he deserves a raise. So I'd put the chances of him re-signing somewhere between "remote” and "unlikely.”

Even though Molina probably would get a salary bump in arbitration, I'd expect the Giants will offer it to him in order to be eligible for the draft picks. The Giants have reason to believe that Molina would decline the offer because he's expected to have other suitors.

He might get the deal he wants from the New York Mets. And I hear there's another unnamed AL team that expects to get involved.

But what about the deterrent of losing a draft pick? Well, it might not be an overriding factor for the Mets. Because they choose in the upper half of the first round (seventh overall), they wouldn't lose their top selection. It'd be a second-rounder - or later, if they sign another higher-ranked Type-A guy.

-

The Giants also have a few Type B guys: Bob Howry, Randy Johnson and Randy Winn. But the team would have to offer arbitration to be eligible for a sandwich pick, and I don't think that's going to happen.

-

If the Giants don't re-sign Molina, they're expected to bring in a veteran to buy time for Buster Posey and mentor the rookie. Pudge Rodriguez sure seems like a fit, and I know the Giants have tried to acquire him a couple times in recent years.

As you know, this organization is huge on signing experienced winners for their intangibles: Randy Johnson, Omar Vizquel, etc. Pudge and his bazillion Gold Gloves would make sense on a lot of levels. He's still pretty good defensively, too.

Pudge to the Giants is the prediction on this SI.com list, by the way.

-
Nice blog post from Giants consultant Joan Ryan on Hensley Meulens' first hitting session with Travis Ishikawa, Nate Schierholtz, John Bowker and Brett Pill at AT&T Park on Monday.

-
A lot of fan sites are having spirited discussions comparing Jason Bay to Matt Holliday. No doubt, they're the two best offensive outfielders on the free-agent market.

For the Giants' purposes, though, it might be more about perceived attainability than the beauty contest. There are other realities to consider. Holliday has said he dislikes hitting at AT&T Park, and as a Scott Boras client, his negotiations are expected to be difficult and drawn out. The Giants would have to pay a premium ' trump the best offer by far ' to get Holliday to come to San Francisco.

It's the same reason they barely discussed Mark Teixeira last winter. This is the same franchise, remember, that was spurned after trying to sign Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee. Some of that money eventually ended up going to Aaron Rowand. Most hitters just don't want to come to AT&T Park.

Bay won't be cheap by any measure - the bidding floor appears to be four years and $60 million - but he might be a more realistic target for the Giants. He's from British Columbia, and while he has stated no geographic preference, he isn't an anti-West Coaster. His defense grades well below Holliday's according to most metrics, but Giants officials were shocked at how much Holliday had regressed in the field last year.

And Bay's agent, Joe Urbon, might be more likely to get something done by the winter meetings. Ideally, for the Giants, it'd be nice to have a shiny new cleanup hitter in December while they're hard-selling those season-ticket renewals.