Why would teams “pitch around” Molina? There’s never anyone on base for the Giants. They’re always trailing in on-base percentage.

Whether protection exists is a different debate entirely, but let’s say it does — why does it excuse Bengie for “expanding the strike zone” every single plate appearance. He walked ~3% of his PA’s over the last three seasons; that’s over 1500 times at-bat! That’s awful and enough of a sampling to indicate what kind of hitter he is. He’s just not good. I’d rather start Thole. Spend those millions on someone who’ll actually make a difference.

Just because this is a bad catcher’s market doesn’t mean that the Mets should overpay for a particularly bad one. Because Molina comes with the tag of “best catcher available,” he’s going to get the best contract of what’s out there. He just isn’t going be worth whatever dollar figure he winds up signing. The Mets have their catcher of the future waiting in AAA this year. It would be a mistake to commit dollars and years to a below average catcher.

Don’t underestimate the poor on-base percentage, either. Think of it as the rate at which baseball players make outs. Bengie Molina made outs in 71.5% of his plate appearances last year. For his career, he has made outs in 69.2% of his plate appearances. His best season was five years ago, and he’s done nothing but get fatter since. He’s going to be 36 years old next year. He doesn’t run the bases well, and there’s no evidence that he’s good defensively. Literally the only reason anybody is even thinking about him as their catcher next year is the 20 home runs (by the way, a career high). This team can find better options.

Look, I know Molina has his shortcomings – no speed and no walks and aging, but what catcher available doesn’t fall into two of those three categories? Who are we going to get who could give us some extra offense and not embarrass us in defense? I don’t want an almost 40, career major league backup. What we are going to spend a lot of money making a Mets team ready to compete in 2010 and then not give us a decent catcher?

Also, don’t ignore the plate discipline profile. He’s making less contact across the board, so bad balls he’s put in play for hits in the past are going to be a less frequent occurrence. There’s really no incentive to throw Molina a strike since he’ll happily swing at whatever slop you throw his way.

A starting lineup that featured both Francoeur and Molina would be one that is taking next to no pitches lower in the lineup, which makes it harder to run a starting pitcher’s pitch count up and more likely he stays in the game, and in a division that features Javy Vazquez, Cliff Lee, Josh Johnson, and Cole Hamels in 2010, that’s nothing to overlook. The Mets can get away with having one hitter in the lineup with a complete and utter lack of plate discipline (although I’d rather that they get rid of Frenchy, to be honest). Having two players like that would be a huge problem.