Giants trade Molina; Posey to earn more at bats

The Giants sent catcher Bengie Molina to Texas Wednesday for reliever Chris Ray. The move clears the way for rookie Buster Posey to take over as full-time backstop in San Francisco despite his recent slump. He's hitting just .146 over his last 14 games.

Fantasy Impact: The Rangers were searching for a catcher for quite some time, and Molina is a good fit. He should improve his ho-hum offensive numbers in the Rangers' stacked lineup.

Posey's labored promotion to the big leagues is suddenly accelerated with his promotion to starting catcher. The move means San Francisco is buying into Posey even if he's not hitting consistently at the MLB level. But to say that is misleading. Despite his slump Posey is at .289 for the season, and he routinely makes solid contact. His BABIP of .310 isn't exceedingly high, but it can improve when you consider that Posey has walked just 3 times in 102 plate appearances. That means he's likely chasing pitches early in at bats rather than finding a good pitch to hit. His better selectivity in the minors yielded a career batting average of .333. Once he becomes settled at the MLB level, expect big things.

Ray is less of a strikeout pitcher now (4.5 K/9 in 2010 vs. 7.7 for his career), but he's limiting hitters to just 6.8 hits per game. He'll be a setup-type reliever for the Giants.