Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe quotes Scott Boras as saying that the Red Sox would have to come to him about an extension for Jason Varitek. Boras and Varitek are open to a deal, but I guess they don’t want to sound desperate and give up their leverage.
Tek turns 36 in April; the Red Sox are going to want to minimize their risk. They could roll the dice in hopes of signing him after the season, as they did with Mike Lowell and Curt Schilling. It can be tough to measure the value of a catcher, but Baseball Prospectus has Varitek worth $4.6MM in ’09 and dropping off significantly after that.