Bengie Molina wants two-year extension

First off, Bengie should understand that he won’t be a near everyday player for the Giants, being part of a part-time by as early as the middle of next season, and possibly a backup in 2011. I think the latter part makes a 2 year extension all but impossible as the Giants won’t look to pay starting money for a backup catcher and Bengie will balk at receiving backup salary. Perhaps a mutual or club option for 2011 can be arranged.

Either way, the amount of playing time Bengie gets will be dependent on Posey’s progress and readiness to play in SF. I would guess he’d start next season in Fresno, but (barring a total regression) be called up at some point before September. At that poi’nt, Buster would need to play on a consistent basis: there no reason to call him up to not play. Bengie would be a part-time player at that point.

if he’s willing to play the role of veteran player mentoring young players, then I think he’d be a very valuable component of the team. But that player needs to recognize that they’ll only be playing 1/2 the time at most, potentially even less, and put team first and not worry about playing time and personal statistics. By 2011 he would be in the Brad Ausmus or David Ross role.

If Bengie wants starting catcher money for 2 guaranteed seasons, then there’s no way. Looking around the league at the money catchers are making, I’m thinking $3.5M-4M a year is reasonable for 2 years. Bengie almost certainly won’t be worth $4M by 2011, but the going rate for average catchers is $4-4.5M right now (Jason Kendall makes $4.5M this season).

This assumes that the Giants don’t believe either Whiteside or Holm can be counted upon as the opening day starter and need a proven veteran before Posey is ready. And if Molina’s demands are in the $5M – 6M+ range then perhaps the Giants can look at Jason Kendall. He should make less than his 4.5M next year, and he could certainly provide an example to the Giants hitters on how to take a walk and get on base!

Where Bengie would hit would be up to the manager, so we can’t fault him for Bochy trotting him out in the cleanup spot every day.

If we assume we want our best hitter (Pablo) at #3, then there’s as much of an argument for hitting Molina cleanup as there is batting him #6 or even #7. I personally think this Giants team is so weak-hitting that the traditional definition of the cleanup hitter as the “big slugger” (Bengie is 2nd on the team in both HRs and RBIs) on the team doesn’t apply. No one on the team, once you exclude Sandoval, qualifies as even a mediocre cleanup hitter. Last year, Bengie could be considered a mediocre cleanup hitter, but he was by far the best Giant hitter for that job. But he hit nearly 300 and was on base at a.320 clip. Dropping 40-50 pts off average and OBP, and at a sub 280 OBP you can’t really hit anywhere higher than 6th.

The Giants can, and likely will, offer arbitration, but I don’t think Bengie takes it. He wants 2 years and arbitration would only give him 1.