July 8, 2009

Molina undeservedly takes Cervelli’s place

According to PeteAbe, Francisco Cervelli will be demoted today or tomorrow to make room for Jose Molina. Cervelli will be missed by the Yankees, as he was an awesome teammate and a pretty good young catcher. Here’s what Joe Girardi said of Cervelli:

"He's been a big lift for us. To have two catchers go down in a span of days and the streak we ran of when both of them were gone, Cervy has proven he can play at this level," Girardi said. "He brings a lot to the table behind the dish and offensively he contributed. I'm excited about his future."

Cervelli hit .269/.284/.346 in 75 at bats with the Yankees. He also threw out 10 of 21 base stealers (48%). He also showed his aggressiveness by running down the first baseline to back up the throw to first, showed amazing energy for a 21-year-old and was appreciated by all pitchers.

Molina’s offensive numbers are slightly better (.273/.333/.386), but actually has lower defensive numbers. He already has two passed balls, while Cervelli has none, and has only thrown out 4 of 17 base stealers (24%) this season. However, he does have a 41% success rate for his career.

I’m willing to sacrifice a tiny ounce of offense for a better defender and a better teammate. I know Molina is the one making $2 million this season and Cervelli just $400,700, but this is a disgrace. The Yankees should have traded Molina for someone, ANYONE, just to keep Cervelli on the team. Molina would be a formidable backup on just about any team, so it would not be too hard to find a new home for him.

I’ll miss Cervelli, and wish him a quick return to the majors.

Comments (5)

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I'm totally with you. I actually like Molina, but Cervelli brought some old fashioned blue-collar ethic to this team of millionaires. The Yankees are playing OK now - why make such a bad move at this time?
1 reply · active 816 weeks ago
I really have no idea. Literally everyone within the organization that has spoken out about Cervelli has praised him. It makes no sense. Hopefully Molina won't hurt the team in anyway, because he hardly will help the team.
Yanks don't have the guts to make the type of move the Mets made by keeping the promising young catcher Santos and dumping the journeyman Castro.

Or maybe they do -- it ain't over til it's over, as Yogi Berra used to say. Maybe Molina will be traded before the July 31 deadline and we will have our Cisco Kid back!
I think this could be disaster for the Yankees
They show no guts at all
Cervelli should be catching 1 or 2 games a week at least and see what they could get for Molina, or maybe keep him as an emergency 3rd catcher just in case Posada gets hurt again
After watching the first few innings this evening Posada is catching like CC runs the bases. Foolish move to send down Cervelli.

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