It looks like nearly a complete win-win situation for the Red Sox concerning catcher Jason Varitek. Signing Varitek for one year plus an option perfectly suits the club’s needs.
They get a hard-nosed veteran catcher who knows the pitching staff and knows how to get the most out of it for 2009, giving Mark Wagner and their other young catchers in the system another year to develop. If Varitek’s bat bounces back, the Red Sox have an option to bring him back in 2010.
About the only thing that can go wrong is that Varitek has a strong year with the bat and decides to reject the option in hopes of getting a better financial deal with a stronger bargaining position. But if he looks like he still has some pop left in his bat, the Red Sox would likely tear up their option and try to negotiate a new deal that would pay him something closer to the $10 million he used to earn.
It’s an indication just how soft the market is for Varitek that if he signs the deal the Red Sox have offered, he’ll make only half of what he did in 2008. The Sox can exercise their option to bring him back in 2010 at $5 million, or Varitek can take a $3 million buyout and test the market again.
If Varitek accepts the deal by Friday's deadline — and he probably will — you have to wonder if Theo Epstein and his cohorts on Yawkey Way will be smirking over beating uberagent Scott Boras ... again.
Varitek probably could have gotten close to $10 million again had he accepted arbitration. Boras and his client rejected that, ostensibly because arbitration contracts are not guaranteed and Varitek could have been released in spring training. The reality was that the Red Sox are over a barrel when it comes to catching, and there was virtually no chance of them releasing Varitek.
This is a little bit of payback for Boras shopping Mark Teixeira to the Yankees at the last minute after the Red Sox appeared to be the front-runner for the first baseman. The Red Sox also left Boras with sukiyaki on his face when they called his bluff on Daisuke Matsuzaka and signed the Japanese star for about half what Boras was seeking back in 2006.
The only tough part of this is that Varitek is caught in the power play between the club and the agent, and for all he’s done for the Red Sox he deserves better, much better than a 50 percent pay cut.