In an excellent article for Amazin’ Avenue, Chris McShane spoke at length to Mets Vice President of Player Development, Paul DePodesta.
DePodesta touched on many names while addressing the state of the farm system. One name of particular interest t0 me was Marcos Molina.
Molina, who will turn just 19 on Saturday, has caught the attention of scouts and writers alike after his solid performance for the Mets of the Gulf Coast League in 2013. For his efforts he was recently named the Mets 10th best prospect by Baseball Prospectus.
Here’s what the Mets Vice President of Player Development had to say about the 6’3 right-hander:
“We signed [Molina] in January 2012, down in the Dominican Republic, another guy who’s a super-good athlete, also repeats his delivery well. At the time, he had a nice little sinker, showed some feel for the baseball. But it wasn’t big power or anything like that. Since then, he’s continued to grow. Last year in the Gulf Coast League he was up to 96 miles per hour, typically pitching at 92, 94, has a feel for three pitches.”
“His numbers weren’t off the charts last year. There was some inconsistency. There would be times that he would have one rough inning and then cruise through the rest of the outing. So his outing might look like five innings, three runs, four strikeouts, but most of it was done in one inning. And at other times he was dominant. We had some scouts who saw him during the course of the summer—amateur scouts—who told us that if he had been a high school player he would have been a first-round pick in 2013.
“He’s still a long way off, obviously. He’s only pitched in the Gulf
Coast League, but the foundation is there for a pretty good prospect.”
The Mets have had plenty success internationally in recent years, especially with Dominican pitchers. Players like Rainy Lara, Gabriel Ynoa, Domingo Tapia, and Luis Mateo have added to a stable of pitching prospects that already includes Jenrry Mejia, Rafael Montero and Jeurys Familia. It appears Molina has thrown his name into that ring as well. It’ll be interesting to see how Molina continues to develop as he moves up the ranks.
DePodesta spoke about many other players, and I highly suggest checking out the rest of the article by clicking here.
Photo credit: Michael Zagaris/Getty Images
