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Schilling’s Remarks Contradict Boras
By Administrator | November 26, 2008
Recent reports have suggested that free agent catcher Jason Varitek is prepared to accept a reduced role — in Boston or elsewhere — over the remaining years of his career. Many of those reports have speculated that the Red Sox are engaged in a search for the heir apparent at the position and that the team might be more likely to bring him back to Boston if there was a mutual understanding that he would play less frequently.
Curt & Shonda Schilling during the Q&A portion of the Curt’s Pitch reception last Thursday at The Hyatt Regency in Boston… photo copyright, Anne Haggerty
Varitek’s agent, Scott Boras, is all about the money… and such reports of diminished expectations can only serve to hurt his client. So he is engaged in a full court press to debunk the offending reports.
This morning, Ian Browne posted an article for MLB.com in which Boras responds to those reports. The unber-agent proclaims: “Jason Varitek intends on being a full-time player for many years to come. He’s in great shape. His defense, his game-calling skills, his leadership skills are extraordinary and at the highest level. There’s no catcher that has a higher win-loss percentage starting a game than Jason Varitek. Any reports of anyone saying otherwise are inaccurate”.
Or maybe they’re not… maybe Boras is just doing his ‘agent thing’.
Unfortunately my website was down last week in the days immediately following the “Curt’s Pitch for ALS” news conference and reception, so I have been unable to report on the fete up until now… but Curt Schilling would beg to differ with Boras’ contention.
Schilling was asked about Varitek on a couple of occasions during the night. At one point during the press conference, in response to being asked what he expected would transpire with the backstop in the upcoming weeks, Schilling said: “I talked to ‘Tek briefly over the course of the last couple of days and I think that he understands that he’s not at that point in his career where he’s going to catch 135 games. And I’m not sure that he’s mad about that. It’s a great situation if you can work it out where he spends a few years here, at a minimum, and he brings along the kid who (the Sox) want to fill that role”.
A short time later, in response to a similar question during the reception Q&A, the big right-hander remarked: “I know he wants to finish his career here. I think he understands that it’s a little different landscape now than it was a couple of years ago (in that he will not be a full-time player) and I’m not going to speak for him as far as what he’s looking for, but I know he’s interested (in remaining with the Red Sox). They’ve had talks. There is a lot of stuff going on right now, I think, with the team out looking right now for the young “next guy”… and I think that’s working in parallel with their discussions with him”.
The teammate and friend is saying that Jason understands he will be transitioning out of a full-time role over the course of the next couple of years… the agent is saying that he intends to be a full-time player for “many years to come”.
Who do you believe?
Topics: Sox Front Office, Sox Players, Uncategorized |
