No, nothing has happened yet. If the season started today, George Kottaras and (gulp) Josh Bard would be the Red Sox's top two catchers.
But the season doesn't start today. Pitchers and catchers don't report for almost a month.
And that's why it doesn't make any sense to keep worrying about who's going to catch the Olde Towne Team's deep pitching staff.
Jason Varitek isn't getting any offers. He just isn't. It's not fair to him; he's a victim of the collective bargaining agreement and whoever it was that labeled him a "Type A" free agent despite a season in which his swing took as long as an Alewife-to-Braintree "T" ride. Any team that signs him would have to relinquish a first-round draft pick, a far steeper price to pay than any salary upon which the two sides agree.
Any team, that is, except Boston.
Varitek has the right to wait as long as he can to see if any other team gets desperate -- or, for that matter, if the Red Sox get desperate. But there's no reason to get desperate. The season doesn't start today. The season doesn't start for almost a month and a half. Varitek could sit around through half of spring training to give teams one last chance to pony up enough money to pry him away from the Red Sox. He's presumably staying in shape and taking swings in the offseason; all he'd need to do is get to know the pitchers with which he'd be working.
And that would be almost a non-issue if he returned to the Red Sox. All he'd need to do would be to get to know Brad Penny and John Smoltz. A veteran like Varitek doesn't need six weeks of spring training.
Both sides are waiting to see if the other will blink. Trouble is, Varitek is the one with no leverage. Eventually, he'll have to blink. And that's why there's no reason to panic about not having an established catcher on the roster at this point of the offseason -- the Red Sox have their catcher right where they want him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
FA status is not based only on the previous seasons's performance. I imagine you knew that already, but its worth noting thats why Tek is a type A after his offensive "performance" last year.
Of course -- but you'd think that when a player is as old as Varitek and clearly on the downslope of his career, that would be taken into consideration, too. It's not like last season was just a blip. I would say most baseball people expect next year's numbers to be pretty similar to last year's.
You can't have Joe Mauer! You can't! NO!
You weren't pursuing him?
Oh.
...
It's just as well. We'd rather like to keep him.
"Catching is hard on my knees."
Word: ingeli
Yeah, I think the FA status needs more consideration. I think it should be about percieved worth, indicated by the player signing with a team. It seems better that a players status be decided once he has signed, although that brings more risk to the table for teams who are more weary of losing their draft picks if they dont know ahead of time. Shit, i dont know. Your right though, it seems projections should be in consideration, or perhaps age.
It would be very interesting if they considered doing away with draft-pick compensation; not only does it hurt free agents, but it messes with the free-market aspect of free agency.
Plus, as a few people already have pointed out, compensation gives teams less reason to make July trades, and since most people like talking about July trades, that's another downside.
Post a Comment