In just over a thousand plate appearances (1,043 to be exact) for the Angels in parts of seven seasons, Jose Molina managed to appear in the team's Top 50 in two offensive categories...
He is 48th all-time Angel in striking out with 221 Ks and 25th all-time Angel in sac hits with 29.
What this means is that Jose Molina was great at getting out. His offense was AT LEAST what we can expect from Jeff Mathis and as his free agency loomed, we are lucky to have a 26 year old ex-Wankee minor leaguer in exchange for Bengie and Yadier's middle brother.
Don't believe a single thing you hear about Jose Molina having an irreplaceable game-calling skill. Mike Napoli frames a corner strike as good as anyone and Jeff Mathis is as agile behind the dish as it gets.
Mathis is 24 years, 4 months old.
Napoli is 26 years, 9 months old.
Jose Molina is 32 years and 2 months old.
Trading Jose for AA pitching gives us a minor league arm to possibly trade in the next ten days.
Trading Jose lowers the number of ex-Cubs on the Angels to ONE (Gary Matthews, Jr.).
The only downside:
One more member of the 2002 World Champion Angels is gone.
...and then there were five.