During SportsDesk last night on NESN, Cole Wright spoke with Heidi Watney about Jason Varitek’s situation and his meeting with Boston Red Sox owner John Henry. From what I can gather is that Watney spoke with Varitek.
Here are some highlights of what Watney had to say:
- Varitek called on Thursday to request a meeting to “clear the air.”
- The Red Sox were upset with Scott Boras and weren’t returning his phone calls so Varitek put things in his hands.
- He told Henry that he wants to retire as a member of the Red Sox but not after one year which is what the Red Sox are sticking with.
- He is more interested in playing multiple years than the money.
- He wasn’t aware that teams would have to give up draft picks to sign him and he takes full responsibility for that decision.
- Watney thinks that Varitek and the Red Sox will come to some type of two-year agreement.
http://www.dailymotion.com/videox82c63video courtesy of NESN
to Erin from Jason-Varitek.com for passing this along.
HE WAS NOT AWARE ABOUT THE DRAFT PICKS? WHAT A JOKE !!!
IT’S HILARIOUS THAT NO ONE SEEMS TO “UNDERSTAND” WHY PLAYERS PRODUCTION TOTALS DROPPED SO SIGNIFICANTLY THE PAST YEAR… DUH!!! CAN ANYONE COMPREHEND THIS??? DOES ANDRUW JONES ENORMOUS DROP OFF MAKE SENSE TO YOU???
TEAM OWNERS CONTINUE TO GET SWINDLED , WAKE UP!! HELLO!!!
It is amazing that some players don’t know the rules of certain things. But then again, this is only the second time Varitek faced free agency in his career.
Ian, what’s most amazing to me is how many people are suddenly convinced Varitek is lying about not knowing. What in God’s name do they think he’d be trying to gain by admitting to a pretty huge mistake that he didn’t actually make? And while it’s all very charitable that he blames himself, not Boras, it’s no shock that a player would trust his agent of 16 years, the best agent in the business, to tell him about that sort of thing. As you say, this isn’t exactly a familiar scenario for him. It was a big mistake, but not an extraordinary one.
It’s still not as bad as Donovan McNabb not knowing about the overtime rule. Plus it’s not his job to know that stuff. That’s Boras’ job to tell him.
What’s he trying to gain?
I think it’s called crawling back on your hands and knees !!
500,000 base salary (because he is such a nice guy..HA!!! HA!!! HA!!!)
500,00 bonus if he bats at least .230 (HA! HA! HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
500,00 bonus if he can throw out at least 3 out of 10 attempted steals (HA!!!)
Bye Bye A.Hole !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think you’ll see Varitek get a 2-year deal for around $10-15 million or a 1-year deal with a club option that would pay him around the same thing as the 2-year deal.
‘Sounds about right. ‘Tek’s meeting with Henry helped put the focus back on him, rather than the feud with Boras, and I imagine they’ll come to an agreement soon now, something like what you describe.
It is nice to see Tek’s name back in the news again because it was getting scary not hearing anything that involved him as of late.
Crawling back? From where? He didn’t turn on the team. He had nowhere to crawl back from. His goal hasn’t changed, even now: he’s still hoping for more than one year.
He told his agent multiple years were more important than the money he’d get in arbitration, and then waited for Boras to handle it. And when it became clear that Boras was stuck too far in Boston’s bad graces to make any headway, he called up Henry to himself, and got the focus back where it needed to be: on his position, instead of on the feud with his agent. It wasn’t an apology. And how would making up a story about not knowing the draft pick scenario have helped if it had been?
OK, let’s put it all on Boras. First he gets Texiera’s wife to take the blame for the choice of New York in attempt to deflect blame from himself. When that doesn’t work and the Red Sox are still pissed, he recruits Tek’s girlfriend to take over the negotiations for him. Pitiful !!
Um, not sure how that comment is relevant to anything. But you seem to take Scott Boras for an amazingly powerful human being.
Not to suggest Occam’s Razor or anything, but doesn’t it strike you as just a hair more likely that Teixeira’s wife really did say she’d like to live in NY, and that Tex and Boras chose to keep it under their hats until the deal closed?
She definitely wanted to live there because NY is closer to Maryland and Atlanta than Boston is.
The Yankees were smart about the talks with Boras. They kept it out of the media and didn’t make the negotiations public which is what the Red Sox always try to do but somehow it just doesn’t work out that way for them.
Is it true that Heidi and Tek are dating? My buddy’s father told me this the other day and I am wondering if it is true or not. Does anyone know?