Missing Out on Molina: What's Next?

With the news today that Bengie Molina resigned with the Giants on a one year/$4.5 million deal, this leaves the Mets in an interesting position. I think I was one of the only people who actually wanted to see Molina in NY, despite his terrible speed, granted I did agree that it needed to be on a short term contract. Metsblog.com cited Chris Carlin as saying that the breaking point was the Mets decision to not to go over a year for Molina. I can't say I agree with Thole being ready next year, but it is interesting to see that the Mets will not exceed a one year deal for a catcher. Maybe that is only because Molina is 35, or because of Thole, but if they didn't go two for the best catcher on the market I find it hard to believe they would go two years for any other catchers.

So, what's the next step for the Mets?

My assumption here is at this point the Mets will probably be more satisfied, and make better use of their money, if they don't spend any money on catching and enter the season with Santos as their catcher. Personally, I am not wild about Santos. I think he's a fine back-up catcher, but I'm still not crazy about the idea of him starting. That being said, I am just as lukewarm about Barajas or Torrealba. At this point, I'd rather the Mets revisit a deal for a catcher, like Snyder or Doumit than sign one of these other guys.

If I'm Omar, I'm looking to add Sheets and Smoltz on short term deals over Piniero for a longer term deal. As much as I'm not a fan of starting the season with Santos as the catcher, and if it came down to getting two pitchers and starting with Santos or another catcher and only one of the two pitchers, I'd take the two pitchers and Santos.

Now without Molina and the positive feedback from the throwing session this afternoon, it's time for the Mets to move on Sheets. He should be their next move.