Jason Varitek whirlwind might ruin Red Sox's future relationship with franchise icons

Jason Varitek is no longer a member of the Boston Red Sox organization, and it was far from a clean breakup. In fact, it was a profoundly confusing process that involved the Red Sox at one point announcing that Varitek had been "reassigned" to a new role within the organization, suggesting that he was very much still on board despite the firing of Alex Cora and five other coaches.

Speaking of Cora and that quintet of ousted coaches, Varitek posed with all of them a few hours after the firing in a viral photo that featured a smiling Varitek flashing a thumbs down.

The photo led most Boston fans to the belief that Varitek had, in fact, been fired, and yet, the Red Sox's press release on Sunday expressed the contrary:“Game Planning and Run Prevention Coach Jason Varitek has been reassigned to a new role within the organization,” it read. “Details of his reassignment will be announced at a later date.”

Was Jason Varitek fired by the Red Sox, and did they lie to the press about it?

Also on Sunday, Varitek's wife tweeted out a farewell-type message to Boston that complicated the plot further.

There it was: Varitek was definitely not coming back. His loyalty to Cora and his disgust with the organization's decision meant that he wouldn't accept whatever new assignment was in store. Or so we all thought.

By Sunday night, confidantes of Varitek confirmed to media members that he wasn't returning to the Red Sox. But here's the kicker: one of those confidantes also revealed that Varitek had never actually been "reassigned" at all.

This suggests that Boston's official press release featured a blatant lie about upper management's decision on Varitek, most likely in an attempt to brand Varitek's exit as his choice rather than the organization's — a possible attempt by the Red Sox to save face with a fanbase that loves Varitek the same way it adores David Ortiz and other franchise icons of the last 25 years.

But the lie backfired, and quickly. Now Boston's dysfunctional upper management looks even worse, if that's even possible at this point.

Red Sox icons won't look fondly on organization's mishandling of Jason Varitek

You can be sure that Ortiz and other ex-Red Sox have been warily monitoring this entire Varitek debacle, knowing that it doesn't bode well for the Craig Breslow-centric regime's future relationship with franchise greats. "If they didn't take care of Varitek, why would they care about me?" some of these guys might be thinking.

Not dissimilar to how Breslow and Boston's front office needlessly excommunicated Rafael Devers and abandoned their investment in him far too easily, Boston may have just carelessly burned some bridges with ex-players due to this Varitek disasterclass.

The entire ordeal reeks of robotic antipathy, which, oddly enough, is exactly the stench that one imagines filling any room inhabited by Breslow and/or team president Sam Kennedy and owner John Henry, the latter two of whom were reportedly dead silent during a meeting on April 26, during which Breslow addressed the Red Sox players about Cora's firing. Was upper management's Varitek lie also fed to the players during this meeting? We can probably connect the dots on that one.

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