Lin-Manuel Miranda is working on a project about the Molina Brothers, who are connected to the Giants in a significant way!
A-rip, rap, a-slibbidy-day, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s got a brand new joint on the way! A movie if you choosey, made with love — not on a dare — about the three Molina brothers: Jose, Bengie, and Yadier.
That’s right. America’s Top Theater Kid is developing a new film about the Molina brothers.
“I’ll tell you something I’m working on: the Molina brothers, who are from my dad’s hometown of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico [“long known as… ‘the Village of the Squatters.’”]. Vega Alta is home to, like, an appalling number of Major League Baseball players… It’s really incredible. So to be able to honor that in a movie is something we’re really actively trying to do.”
The three Molina brothers (José, Bengie, and Yadier) were high-profile catchers in 2000’s Major League Baseball, known for their distinctly defensive strategy that led all three brothers to significant professional success. At various times alumni of the New York Yankees, the Chicago Cubs, the Anaheim Angels, the St. Louis Cardinals, and more, the Molina brothers are the only three brothers in MLB history to all win World Series rings.
Okay, so this is being described as a movie, but if you look at the creator of Hamilton’s list of produced material, it’s mostly musicals. His feature film directorial debut, tick, tick… BOOM!, is an adaptation of a musical (I think it’s pretty good btw) about the making of Rent. He’s got In the Heights, Moana, etc. There’s a nonzero chance that this movie is a musical about a trio of baseball-playing brothers, which could be a great idea, as baseball movies are typically not what Hollywood has sought for the past 15 years or so (I know from experience) — but a fresh angle on the genre? Hmm. Maybe some audiences might be interested. The musical aspect is strictly speculation, though. What does this project in development (and, therefore, not a certainty) have to do with the San Francisco Giants?
Well, Bengie Molina is the oldest of the Catching Molina’s. The Forever Giant played in San Francisco from 2007 through part of 2010, when the Giants traded him to the Texas Rangers. Bengie retired in 2010, after he and the Rangers lost the World Series to the Giants and the catcher who compelled his being traded in the first place: Buster Posey.
Stands to reason that the end of Bengie Molina’s baseball career might include a Posey reference, and if there’s a chance that this is a musical, then there might be a signing and dancing Buster Posey coming to movie screens some day. Will he be a villain? A hero? Somewhere in between? I’ll admit I’m interested in seeing them both on the silver screen.
There have been many memorable days and nights here in the McCovey Chronicles community. One of those was the day Brian Sabean traded Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers so that Buster Posey could finally become the team’s everyday catcher.
It happened while the team was midflight. As cold-blooded as that was, there was much rejoicing and hallelujah. There may or may not have been a comment that was simply the poster for the movie Operation Dumbo Drop. It’s not that Bengie Molina wasn’t a Good Giant, but Buster Posey was promised as the future, and Bruce Bochy was intent upon holding off that future for as long as Molina was on the roster.
Oh yes, there was much discussion about Bochy’s track record for sticking with veterans. The Vinny Castilla situation absolutely came up in those days, too.
Bochy was enraged during a trip to Washington, just before the MLB All-Star break, when asked by a front-office official why he was continuing to play Castilla. Bochy relayed that Castilla was his best option and he would continue to play him. If they didn’t like it, Bochy said, “Get rid of me or get rid of Vinny. Your choice.”
Castilla was released 10 days later.
So, the only way to unlock the future was to ditch the past. In this case, a 35-year old catcher whose family had become baseball royalty of a sort. It was probably only a shock to Molina, because you never think your time is up until you get that tap on the shoulder, right? But ever the professional and good guy, he said in the moment to Andrew Baggarly, then for the San Jose Mercury News:
Q: Do you believe Posey is ready to catch this staff?
A: Buster and I are very good friends. I don’t care what people think or say. I love that kid. We’re good friends, his wife and my wife too, they are friends. We are good people.
He’s going to have to talk a lot, watch a lot of video and he’ll be ready. He’s a great player, a great guy, a very open-minded guy, and he’s going to do all right for this team. I think this is his time to get these guys ready to go, and you never know. Maybe he will be the key. Maybe I was the wrong answer for them. He is very humble and that’s going to help a lot.
But also, Yadier Molina and Buster Posey were in reputational competition with each other through their playing careers, with Cardinals fans and a lot of the East Coast-based media firmly on the “Yadi is the best catcher ever” train for a good long while and it took Posey some time to break through that. Not that Yadier Molina isn’t a probable Hall of Famer.
Does all of this background add up to some good songs or sequence in a potential movie? I’m not sure. I can imagine a lot of different versions of the story. A musical with a Christopher Nolan structure of cross-cutting through time so that the Molina Brothers win their World Serieses at the same point in the movie. Three vignettes linked by a framing device — because they’re catchers, see?
I don’t think there will be a song where a woman sings, “Molinaaaaa! I just met a boy named Molinaaaaa!” but maybe a song of frustration where Bengie knows his time is winding down and there’s Buster Posey darting around the clubhouse talking about his exciting and unknown future, grinning from ear to ear. Or reporters who flocked to Yadier suddenly rushing over to Buster once he hits the scene. Yeah, Posey as quasi-villain in a movie musical about the Molina Brothers. That’s the ticket.