Varitek still rock solid: Veteran has staff's trust

February 18, 2007 | Boston Herald | By Tony Masserotti


FORT MYERS - For a catcher, especially, turning 35 is death. Your joints ache. Your legs become sandbags. Your bat turns to pureed squash.


Jason Varitek is not quite there yet, but his day is creeping up. He knows it and everyone else knows it. Two seasons into a four-year, $40 million contract, Varitek is coming off a season during which he batted .238 and spent a month on the disabled list, the kinds of things that inspire people to suggest that a player is getting, you know, old.


With that comes the obvious question:


Can he still do it?


“That’s a thing I have to go out and still be able to prove,” Varitek admitted yesterday at Red Sox' spring training facility. “I believe in myself and in my ability to accomplish things. I see no reason why I can’t continue to perform.”


 A word to the wise here: Don’t count this guy out just yet. First, Varitek is built like a truck driver and could easily turn the average skeptic into road pizza. Second, he is in positively phenomenal shape, seemingly chiseled from the block of granite that produced, among others, the David. (We’re talking Michelangelo’s work, not Ortiz.)


Last year, among the 21 major league catchers with at least 400 plate appearances, Varitek ranked 16th in OPS; a year prior, he was first. That is a drop that would cause many to lose consciousness, though it can have the opposite effect on a professional athlete.


It can wake you up.


Not that Varitek ever has been the type to need an alarm clock.


“I don’t know exactly what I hit, but outside of my average, I thought I had a pretty normal year,” Varitek said. “Yes, I did have little (physical) issues to deal with. Did that make a difference? No. I got into a hole and I wasn’t able to get out of it.


“The one thing about my position is that I can help us win ball games doing other things. I can be part of a championship team taking care of the little things. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I have a job.”


Before anyone suggests that the Red Sox made a mistake by giving Varitek a four-year deal following the 2004 championship season, stop and ask the following question: What was the alternative? Chief among the potential replacements eyed by the Sox was Damian Miller, who had significantly fewer home runs and RBI than Varitek last year in virtually an identical number of at-bats. Miller has never won a Silver Slugger or Gold Glove, awards Varitek claimed as recently as 2005.


Of course, none of that even begins to measure the simple value of Varitek’s presence behind the plate, something pitcher Josh Beckettaddressed on Friday. Asked what advice he would give to Daisuke Matsuzaka this spring, Beckett gave a simple answer: Trust Varitek. For a big-market team like the Red Sox, just the confidence that Varitek brings to the pitching staff might be worth $5 million a year.


“I’m an aide,” Varitek said when asked of his role with the pitchers. “I try to evaluate what they do best and keep them out of troublesome circumstances in games, but it comes down to them executing what they can and cannot do.”


On April 11, Varitek will turn 35. That date also happens to be the Sox’ second scheduled home game of the year, an affair that will likely feature Matsuzaka’s first career start at Fenway Park . Predictably, Varitek yesterday handled countless questions about Matsuzaka, about communicating with his pitcher, about helping him through his transition into the majors.


If Matsuzaka is as smart as we think he is, he will take Beckett’s advice.


So will we.