The Red Sox have long been a team that was willing to let its stars go when their careers were nearing an end. Roger Clemens (although, "something" resurrected his career), Pedro Martinez, and Johnny Damon are all examples of the Sox organization recognizing that as a player gets older, his production declines. The Sox have dumped these players, fan favorites, before their decline.This brings into question Boston's re-signing of Jason Varitek, the soon-to-be 37 year old catcher that wears a "C" on his jersey like he plays hockey. Frankly, as a hitter, Varitek is done. His on-base percentage dropped 30 percentage points below his career low and his .220 batting average and 43 RBIs were also career lows. Bostonians will defend Varitek's re-signing by saying their beloved backstop is an excellent defensive catcher, but using The Hardball Times' Win Shares Above Bench metric, Varitek's overall contribution to the team (-1 WSAB) was worse than that at replacement level, meaning your average bench player could do a better job than Varitek.
With young catchers Jarrod Saltalamacchia of Texas and Miguel Montero of Arizona reportedly available and their own youngster George Kottaras out of options, Boston may regret giving the captain another season.
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While I agree about Varitek's bat, I don't think it's so much about his defense as it is his ability to call games (four no hitters from four different pitchers is pretty good, considering Pedro Martinez went into the 9th win one before losing it, and Curt Schilling gave up a hit with 2 outs in the 9th with him behind the plate too, that would've been 6 from 6 different pitchers...Devern Hansack threw a rain shortened 5 inning no hitter once too). I don't think that's something that's measured by win shares (I could be wrong but IIRC the explanation for win shares is like 100 pages) and it's something that really won't change with age.
If he is awful they can bench him and he loses the incentive-based portion of the contract, it's not a bad deal for both sides, especially since he's a Boras client. As for Kottaras, he was pretty underwhelming in the minors last season. I saw him play in the DR this winter, he was alright but it was in very limited action.
This is a fine deal for now while the Sox look for a replacement for him. And yes, watching his at-bats will still annoy me like it has for the past few seasons.
Doyle, why wouldn't they make a move to get a young catcher with some pop in his bat like one of the 8 from Texas or Montero? I understand that calling a game is very important, but the Red Sox have a very experienced staff that a young catcher should be able to handle.
I agree with the need for a young catcher. The Sox have about nine starting pitchers right now. I am actually for a trade for Saltalamacchia, but I'm assuming the price was too steep, meaning that Daniels wanted a lot more than just Buchholz.
They need pitching, we need a young catcher. Sounds easy enough for me What this Varitek signing does though is give the team more time to figure out plan for a young replacement while appeasing all of the teen and twenty-something girls from Revere (and UMass).
Yea, I'm not against the signing of Varitek (it's not like Boston doesn't have offense elsewhere). I think your assessment of the situation is pretty spot on. They do need to make a move for someone else though.
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