Molina Bounces Back After Difficult Season

“I lost probably half of my heart,” Bengie Molina said.

Last summer could scarcely have been crueler for the Angels’ catcher, for reasons that render an injury or a batting slump trivial. His grandmother died. His wife suffered a miscarriage. His mother was hospitalized with a kidney infection. His father left the family’s Puerto Rico home and moved in with another woman.

“I lost my grandmother and I kind of lost my dad,” Molina said. “He betrayed our family.”

Molina was an unheralded star of the Angels’ 2000 season. After seven seasons in the minor leagues, the Angels anointed him their catcher. He hit .281 with 14 home runs, finishing third in rookie-of-the-year voting.

Despite an injury-riddled minor league career, the Angels signed him last spring to a contract guaranteeing him $4.2 million over four years. After dedicating himself to conditioning in off-season workouts, he nevertheless suffered a partially torn right hamstring and missed two months, an injury he said was “devastating” but ended up among the least of his concerns.

“People think, if you get paid, you should perform,” Molina said. “They don’t know what’s going on. But that’s OK. Hopefully I can perform this year.”

Molina played in 96 games last season, down from 130 the previous year, and hit .262 with six home runs.

“Everybody has their own personal problems,” he said. “I have to try to work through them. I think I was tough enough to play through them.”

He prays that this season is better. His wife is healthy; so is his mother. He is happy that, in a sport that can separate families by thousands of miles, he can see his brother every day, at least for now. Jose Molina, also a catcher, is in training camp with the Angels but is expected to start the season at triple-A Salt Lake City.

Manager Mike Scioscia, aware of Bengie Molina’s injury history, said he will try to prevent extended absences by resting him at the first sign of injury and said he hopes Molina can catch 120 games.

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Tim Salmon hit his first home run of the spring as the Angels played to a 10-10 tie with the Chicago White Sox on Thursday. Bart Miadich, trying to win the one available bullpen job, inherited a 10-7 lead in the ninth and gave up three runs on two hits, two walks and a hit batter.

The news was not good for center-field prospect Nathan Haynes, who injured his thumb Wednesday. Haynes went for an MRI exam Thursday night, and if it reveals a torn ligament, he could need the same surgery that sidelined shortstop Gary DiSarcina for seven weeks in 1995. If the ligament is sprained, doctors might immobilize it anyway, and Haynes could miss about a month.

As minor league camps open this week, the post-Sept. 11 visa crackdown that revealed the true and older ages of many Latin American major leaguers now extends to minor leaguers. The Angels discovered that Dominican right-hander Joel Peralta, who saved 23 games at Class-A Cedar Rapids last season, will turn 26 this month, not 22. Another Dominican right-hander, Hatuey Mendoza, is 23, not 22.

In the first roster cuts of the spring, the Angels plan to send catcher Jared Abruzzo and pitchers Bobby Jenks, Rich Kelley, Tony Milo and Francisco Rodriguez to minor league camp after today’s split-squad games.