Mets make offers to Bay, Molina

Left fielder, catcher would fill two significant holes for club.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Quiet all week, the Mets made their first winter splash Thursday afternoon by offering contracts to free-agent catcher Bengie Molina and left fielder Jason Bay.


The Mets were expected to make an offer to Molina by the time they left the Winter Meetings on Thursday. But before departing, general manager Omar Minaya hinted that the team also expected to make an offer to an additional player, which a source confirmed to be Bay.

The New York Post reported that the offer is in the neighborhood of four years and $60 million, a deal similar to the one Bay rejected last month to return to Boston.

Bay, along with fellow left fielder Matt Holliday and starting pitcher John Lackey, is one of the top three free agents available on the open market. He hit .267 with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs in his first full season with the Red Sox, who remain Bay's leading suitor. Bay, who has a home in the Seattle area, might also fit well with the Mariners.

The Mets are looking to upgrade in left field after using nine different players at the position this season, none of them generating any consistent power. Bay, who has hit at least 21 homers every year since becoming a full-time big leaguer, would provide just that.

The Mets appear to have less competition for Molina, 35, who hit .265 with 20 home runs in San Francisco last season.