At this rate, Boston Red Sox fans are going to develop abandonment issues.
While still mourning the passing of franchise legend Jerry Remy last October, they bid farewell to Dennis Eckersley, who retired at the end of the season. Could they be about to lose another franchise icon to another team?
On Thursday morning, Jason Varitek’s wife Catherine tweeted this tantalizing tidbit. What do these three non-Boston places have in common? All have MLB teams in need of a manager.
The Texas Rangers fired Chris Woodward in mid-August, the Miami Marlins announced that Don Mattingly would not return in 2023, and Tony La Russa stepped down from the White Sox due to health issues.
Varitek’s name has been floated as a future manager for years now, and he’s had more than enough exposure to the leadership role. In his playing days, he was Boston’s most recent captain, a title that hasn’t been passed down to Xander Bogaerts yet in part because people still view Tek as such. Less than a year after retiring, the Sox hired him as a special assistant to then-GM Ben Cherington. That role evolved into Special Assistant to the President of Baseball Operations under Dave Dombrowski, and then Special Assistant/Catching Coach. Ahead of the 2020 season, he transitioned into a full-time uniformed coaching role as Game-Planning Coordinator, and prior to the 2021 season, Player Information Coach. On occasion, he’s actually stepped in to manage, such as when Alex Cora has been ejected from a game.
If Varitek was to depart, it would be a shocking pivot from the organization’s end-of-season announcement that the entire coaching staff would return in 2023. Still, it’s worth noting that Cora has given his coach and former teammate a ringing endorsement to manage in the majors:
"“He will manage in the big leagues. He will. But it’s a process, and we talk about it. I think, with time, somebody’s going to give him a chance and he’s going to kill it. He’s going to be great. I have so much respect for him. We’ve got a friendship and we like each other and he has been amazing to me through the whole process. He was there for me.”"
Losing Varitek would be a blow to fans and players for both practical and sentimental reasons. He’s a huge part of the fabric of this franchise, not to mention he knows exactly how to beat the Sox. His potential departure is also a reminder that – as Pedro Martinez cautioned recently – the Sox are at risk of losing the culture cultivated by Varitek, Martinez, and David Ortiz.
In that way, the captain’s departure would be an incalculable loss.
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