Bauxite dan gordon gets a tip of the Jays toothpaste cap for bringing to our attention the Jays signing of catcher Jose Molina to a one-year contract. Jordan Bastian of bluejays.com says the veteran backstop gets a guaranteed $400-thousand dollars but could earn $800-thousand if he makes the Opening Day roster. The deal also includes a club option worth $1.2-million dollars for 2011. Nice work if you can get it if you know what I'm saying!
Jose Molina rounds third base and digs for home against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium.
It's two down and one to go for the Jays when it comes to employing the Molina brothers. Benji Molina spent the 2006 campaign with Toronto where he batted .284/.319/.467 with 20 doubles, one triple, 19 homers and 57 runs batted in. Jose Molina only wishes he could put up numbers like that as he comes into the 2010 campaign with a career batting line of .235/.277/.332 with 20 career homers. However, the 35 year-old Puerto Rican has managed to spent parts of 10 seasons in the bigs because of his work behind the plate.
The right-handed hitting catcher, also the sibling of Cardinals catcher and two-time Gold Glove winner Yadier Molina, was drafted out of high school by the Chicago Cubs in the 14th round of the 1993 amateur draft. It was only until 1997 that Molina finally got out of A-ball as he struggled with the stick. However, he managed to erase potential base stealers at over a 40 percent clip. The 6-foot-2, 235 pound Molina managed to reach Triple-A Iowa for a brief cameo in '97 and spent 1998 and 1999 bouncing between the I-Cubs and Double-A West Tenn. It looked like he was making progress with the bat in 1999 when he hit .251 with four homers and 31 runs batted in and that led to a call-up to Wrigley Field. His major league debut was September 6th against Cincinnati and he rapped a single to left off former Jay Juan Guzman in his first at-bat. He would also add a double and a run scored in three at-bats but he was 0-for-3 in trying to throw out base runners as the Reds doubled up the Cubs 6-3 at Wrigley Field.
It looked like Molina was on his way to becoming a part of the Cubs future after hitting .263 in 10 games during his '99 trial. However, a .234 performance in Iowa during the 2000 campaign led to his release. When the calendar turned to 2001, he signed a minor league deal with the Anaheim Angels to join brother Benji. Jose spent two weeks in May with Anaheim and rocked Rocky Biddle for his first major league homer May 10th against the White Sox in the Windy City. He went deep again the next day against the Tigers Heath Murray in Detroit. He would play three more games with the Angels in September and hit .270 for the season to go along with a .300 campaign and a career-high five homers at Triple-A Salt Lake.
The 2002 campaign saw Molina compile a .307 batting average and a career best 43 RBI with Salt Lake and that led to a recall in mid-July. He batted. 271 in the regular season and earned a World Series ring with Benji as the Angels beat the Giants in seven games. His only contribution at the plate during the Fall Classic was a sacrifice bunt during a pinch-hit appearance in Game 6. Like most of the Halos in 2003, Molina suffered a hangover with the bat by hitting just .184 but he rebounded with a .261 mark with a career-high 25 RBI in 2004. He was also 2-for-5 in the ALDS but the Angels were beaten out by the eventual World Series Champion Boston Red Sox.
Molina belted a career high six homers in 2005 but struggled with a .228 batting average with the newly-named Los Angeles Angels. He did contribute in the playoffs with an RBI single in the Halos ALDS victory against the Yankees and went 1-for-3 in their ALCS loss to the eventual World Series winning Chicago White Sox. After brother Benji signed with the Jays in 2006, Jose Molina was the number one catcher for the Halos but wound up splitting time with Jeff Mathis and Mike Napoli after hitting just .240 during the season.
Rod Barajas beats the tag of Jose Molina while Shannon Stewart looks on during 2008 action at the Bronx Zoo.
Molina was phased out of the Angels plans during the 2007 season after a batting average of .224. He was sent to the Yankees in a deal for minor league hurler Jeff Kennard and he finished up strong in the Bronx by hitting .318 in 29 games. The 2008 campaign turned out to be the busiest of his career as he played 100 games after a shoulder injury to Jorge Posada. His struggles with the stick returned as he hit just .216 but he'll always be the answer to the trivia question "Who hit the final home run to close out the old Yankee Stadium?". That blast helped the Yankees defeat the Orioles in the Stadium finale.
The 2009 campaign saw Molina become the personal catcher of a certain free agent pitcher that once pitched for the Jays. He improved upon his 2008 batting average by one point to .217 but his big contribution came during Game 2 of the World Series when he picked off former Jay Jayson Werth from first base. That helped the Yankees beat the Phillies 4-3 that night and he earned his second World Series ring four games later.
The 2010 season will see Molina compete with starter John Buck for playing time while trying to hold off Raul Chavez and rookies J.P. Arencibia and Brian Jeroloman. Despite throwing out just 28 percent of base stealers last season, Molina brings a career 40 percent mark to Toronto. He also played three games at first and spent a couple of innings at third in 2009.
Should Jose Molina don the Blue Jay blue in 2010, he would join Rob and Rich Butler as the other siblings to have played for Toronto as far as I can tell. Rob Butler earned a World Series ring in 1993. Maybe Molina can earn another one in Baseball North! One can only wish!
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