It's V-Mart Over V-Tek

By Rick Eggleston
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

With the baseball season coming to its official close on the field following the Yankees’ impressive six-game drubbing of the Phillies — so much for picking Philly — all eyes turn to MLB's general managers meetings in Chicago.

Not surprisingly, the Red Sox arrived in Chi-Town this week with their own issues. At the top of their list is veteran catcher Jason Varitek, who has until midnight tonight to decide whether to exercise his $3 million player option after the team announced that it wouldn’t pick up his $5 million team option. That’s because they wisely picked up last season’s mid-year acquisition — and Varitek replacement — catcher Victor Martinez’ $7.1 million team option instead.

While working out a long-term deal with Martinez has yet to be discussed, the Red Sox would be smart to get something done soon. Martinez, whose .303 average, 23 homers and 108 RBI ranked him among the team’s offensive leaders, is the Sox’ catcher of now and for the future. Varitek, on the other hand, is yesterday’s news.

Should Varitek, who’s coming off a career-worst season at the plate where he finished with a .209 average, activate his player option, he’d become a $3 million backup catcher for the Sox. Not a bad payday for guy whose skills both defensively and offensively have deteriorated in recent years. Thus, Varitek’s value has decreased, and he would be hard-pressed to do any better in free agency.

The exact opposite remains true for Martinez, who if he’s permitted to reach free agency if the Sox don’t hammer out something with the former Indians backstop soon, will be able to command top dollar on the open market. Whether he elects to do that is entirely up to the Sox, who certainly possess the resources to get him to stay.

Then again, Martinez could play hardball and choose to test the waters himself no matter what the Sox offer. Hopefully, this won’t be the case for the mere fact Scott Boras isn’t Martinez’s agent.