The Jason Varitek snafu
Posted on January 27, 2009
Filed Under 2009 Season | 4 Comments
I just spent 30 minutes trying to think of a word to describe the whole free agency “situation” surrounding Jason Varitek. My pre-post draft looks something like this: screw-up, mistake, abomination? I finally decided on the word snafu.
sna⋅fu [sna-foo, snaf-oo]
noun
1. a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation.
Yeah, that fits perfectly. The situation largely revolves around this: the Red Sox need the veteran presence of Jason Varitek for at least another year while they try to groom a catcher, BUT they don’t think he’s worth $12m a year on the open market (and he’s not.)
Here is where it gets even more messed up, the Red Sox offered Jason Varitek arbitration (he would make $10m on a 1-year contract) but he turned it down. This can be attributed to one of two things, either he won’t settle for anything less than a 2 year deal OR he vastly underestimated the free agent market for a 36 year old catcher that hits .230.
Oh, but that is far from the end of the story. It was leaked last weekend that Jason Varitek wasn’t aware that a team would have to give up a draft pick to sign him. So not only was Tek and his agent (Scott Boras of course) banking on a 2 year deal for over 10 million a year but they were counting on a team giving up a draft pick as well.
The Red Sox have Varitek backed into a corner and they know it. They’ve given him a contract offer of 1 year (with a club option second year) for $5 mil. He has until Friday to accept or decline the contract.
Yeah, I’d say snafu works just fine.
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4 Responses to “The Jason Varitek snafu”
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I think you def. found the right word…
It really is amazing to think that re-signing Varitek for $11M could have been one of the first and easiest moves for the Sox this offseason… instead, this snafu has become the dead horse that we bloggers myst beat as we head into Spring Training.
Bottom Line: I’m so glad this will all be over come Saturday – one way or another.
Agreed completely Rob. I tried my hardest to avoid writing any Varitek free agency posts but I couldn’t help myself. I honestly didn’t think that we’d be without a catcher (Varitek or otherwise, not counting Bard) by this point in the offseason. It’s just a complete mess.
It’s hard when star players start getting old and expect the same type of money they recieved when they were great and in their prime. The Reds had this same issue with their Captain Barry Larkin. It looks bad on the club and the fans feel bad for the player because they are typically a favorite. Some of these players have to look at their stats. No club should have to deal with Scott Boras.
GJ: Yeah, especially when you feel like the players should be smart enough to realize they’re no longer worth the amount they were 5 years ago.