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JUPITER Richie Ashburn Jersey , Fla. (AP) —r Molina first exhibition game appearance at catcher as the nine-time All-Star recovers from left knee surgery in December.The 36-year-old started limited catching of bullpen sessions on Wednesday and took batting practice. Molina will appear in games at first as a designated hitter, and manager Mike Shildt is hoping he can catch in that game against the New York Mets in two weeks.Molina is the only catcher on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster. Francisco Pena, last year’s primary backup, and Matt Wieters are at spring training with minor league contracts.“More than anything else, it was my first and only offer,” said the 32-year-old Wieters http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , whose deal was announced Wednesday.A four-time All-Star with Baltimore from 2009-16, Wieters spent the past two seasons with Washington. He hit .238 with eight homers and 30 RBIs last year, when he was sidelined between March 31 and April 12 with a strained left oblique muscle and between May 10 and July 9 with a strained left hamstring.“It will be exciting because this will be the first time I’ve competed for a spot on a roster since 2009,” Wieters said. “I’m excited to kind of see what kind of adrenaline I get in spring training, which I haven’t had in a while.”Shildt expects Wieters to make his St. Louis debut behind the plate early next week.“First of all he’s got a lot of experience,” Shildt said. “I also like the fact he’s been on winning teams http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , so he knows what that looks like.”Molina averaged 133 games behind the plate over the past three seasons.“I’ve watched him for a long as I can remember,” Wieters said. “There aren’t many catchers in this league I watched before I was playing in this league.” CINCINNATI (AP) — Reds closer Raisel Iglesias agreed Wednesday to a three-year contract guaranteeing $24,125,000, a deal that avoided arbitration.Iglesias reached a $27 million, seven-year agreement in 2014 that allowed him to void the remainder of the deal once he was eligible for salary arbitration. That agreement called for $5 million salaries in each of the next two seasons.He made $4.5 million this year Aaron Altherr Jersey , when he had a career-high 30 saves in 34 chances and a 2.38 ERA.Rather than having Iglesias eligible for arbitration each season, the Reds offered a restructured deal that gives both sides certainty.“If he does what we’ve seen him do over the next three years, there’s all sorts of ways he can outperform these numbers,” Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams said. “Obviously both sides are taking on some risk here, and both sides getting paid to take on some risk.”The Reds are trying to emerge from a massive rebuild that’s left them with three straight 90-loss seasons. Last year, they added setup men Jared Hughes and David Hernandez to the bullpen and got significant improvement. Their priority this offseason is to add a couple of veteran starters.They also hired David Bell as their manager in the offseason. Williams said Bell and his staff are looking at different ways to use Iglesias Clay Buchholz Jersey , who isn’t limited to a ninth-inning role like many other closers. Over the last three seasons, Iglesias has 24 saves of more than one inning, the most in the majors.“He’s appeared in crucial situations in the middle of games,” Williams said. “Obviously he’s done it as well as anybody at the end of the game.“We want to be able to maximize the value of Iglesias.”