1/17 Update: Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe reports that the meeting between the pair was requested by Varitek and that according to him it went okay. Varitek didn’t say whether or not the Red Sox were interested in bringing him back at all.
Buster Olney of ESPN.com says that Varitek doesn’t have much leverage with the Red Sox at all. (The link is an ESPN insider link so here’s the text of what Olney had to say.
I ran this question past multiple executives this week: Is there any price at which you would be willing to sign Varitek, knowing that you’d have to give up a top draft pick? (Varitek is a Type A free agent, and if he signs elsewhere, he would, in almost all cases, cost that team a first- or second-round pick as compensation.) The answer, in each case, was no. In other words, those executives believe — again, this is their perspective, and not necessarily the view of every club official with every team — that even if Varitek were to play for minimum wage, the upside of having Varitek on your team would not outweigh the value of the draft pick.
If their view is universal, Varitek is in a really tough spot.
1/16: I just got home from doing a favor for one of my friends and saw that Boston Red Sox owner John Henry and Jason Varitek are going to meet tonight. The best part. No Scott Boras.
Reached by phone a short time ago, Varitek would confirm only that he is meeting with Henry “tonight,” in the Atlanta area, where Varitek makes his offseason home. Varitek would not specify a location of the meeting other than to say it would not be at his home
With things not going the way he hoped, hopefully this face-to-face meeting will get Varitek behind the plate with the Red Sox in 2009.
1/16 UPDATE: Dan Roche of WBZ adds his thoughts on the meeting.
