14 Responses to “Is Jason Varitek worth having?”

1. Joe Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 8:32 am

   It would be nice to neutralize this by pitcher. I notice in 2009, Varitek had a big dose of Beckett and Lester, Kottaras was pretty exclusive to Wakefield, and Victor got Clay Buchholz and a lot of fill-ins (Tazawa, Bowden, etc.). 2010 doesn't seem to be as unbalanced between the two, other than Wakefield being exclusively with Martinez. Varitek's numbers do look better, but it's interesting to note that Beckett got clobbered with Varitek behind the plate.

   As a Sox fan, I'm OK with the signing. I just don't want to see more than 60 starts (at the very most) from Varitek.

2. Dan Gorgone Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 8:55 am

   This question is a valid one, certainly, though considering the way things are shaping up, the more important question for the Red Sox might be: will Jarrod Saltalamacchia be able to handle starting (or even platoon) duty? I'm much more confident in Tek considering the success they had with him as the backup catcher before he got hurt last season.

3. Andy Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 8:56 am

   Neil told me the other day that he's salty on Salty.

4. AdamE Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 am

   From Peter Abraham:

   "Varitek's career line against lefties is .279/.359/.471 and Saltalamacchia's career line against righthanders is .273/.343/.422. If they reach those averages in 2011, the Red Sox will get well above the league average when compared to other catchers."

5. Andy Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 9:19 am

   Yeah--Varitek finished with an OPS+ of 100 last year, which obviously would be wonderful to get again. But, he did it playing basically only the first couple of months before getting injured (and before he had a chance to wear down like he did the two previous seasons.)

   If they can use Tek selectively and get an OPS+ around 85-90, then he's worth it, provided Saltalamacchia or another catcher does reasonably well as the main catcher.

6. Tmckelv Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 10:29 am

   I think Varitek is worth having just for his defense (there are not a lot of great hitting catchers out there - so we are comparing him to himself from a few years ago). the pitchers have confidence in him and he has A LOT of experience in big games/situations. His hitting may be "middle of the pack" for catchers now, but as a Yankee fan, he still seems to come up with big hits (maybe a little more quality over quantity at this point).

   I would just use him as the main catcher (100 games), maybe for specific pitchers (if there are any that pitch particularly well with varitek) and bat him 8th, and let him perform his "Captain's" dutys.

7. Basmati Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 2:26 pm

   I find this stuff interesting as the Angels have had a similar problem for some time. Mike Napoli adds value with the bat but is a below average catcher. Jeff Mathis adds defensive value but is poor with the bat. The splits on this site can probably help with these sorts of decisions.

   I just looked at the splits, over 5 years Mathis has a tOPS+ of 96 and a OPS+ of 53! Napoli has a tOPS+ of 105 but a OPS+ of 118.

   This year the Angels have to decide whether to keep both of these guys, considering they also have Bobby Wilson and Hank Conger coming through. I would say looking at the above numbers Napoli looks the better bet but his tOPS+ has got worse every year and you wonder if he has a future there. I also think Mathis has much more potential with the bat, as his postseason OPS of 1.150 shows.

   Amazingly Mathis has a dWAR of -0.8 to go with an oWAR of -1.5. Napoli has a dWAR of -2.0 but an oWAR of +13.0.

   It does seem a bit of a liability to carry a guy who hits like Mathis or even Varitek of recent times. However $2m is not big money especially for the Red Sox and Varitek clearly adds value defensively, so it might be good to have him around for the younger guys to learn from. Lets face it it's very difficult to find a catcher with good defensive skills and great hitting, they're few and far between and every team wishes they had a Mauer.

8. Austyn Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 5:38 pm

   What is tOPS? It is just the OPS of the hitters when Varitek is catching?

9. Carl Says:
   December 3rd, 2010 at 11:50 pm

   Tek is quite worth it. He's a useful hitter and he's a fine defensive catcher - I don't think it's a coincidence that he's caught no-hitters from 4 different starters. he's the team captain and will be a fine mentor for Saltalamacchia.

   A better question is: who is a better backup catcher in the majors?

10. rico petrocelli Says:
    December 4th, 2010 at 6:22 am

    Captain V was holding out for 5 years at $23MM but caved

11. Daily Links – Weekend Edition Says:
    December 4th, 2010 at 8:46 am

    [...] at the Baseball Reference Blog tries to determine what value Jason Varitek has for the Sox both at and behind the [...]

12. Sean Says:
    December 4th, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    Just a piece of the master plan. Martinez was out because they don't like him catching and have a DH at a reasonable cost and low year term. Catcher may be a position where the Sox *hope* to get decent offensive productivity, but will be happy if the catching duties are filled. Salty/ Tek is what we have.

    Now that the Red Sox may have acquired A-Gon, they will have bonafide power at the infield corners and now need to go out and get a major league outfielder with pop (Werth?).

    You hope for good health, that Lackey and Beckett rebound and Papelbon, too, and you go to war with that.

13. Is Jason Varitek worth having? | Topicco – Find, Read, Share Says:
    December 6th, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    [...] here: Is Jason Varitek worth having? This entry was posted in Sports and tagged original-table, victor-martinez. Bookmark the [...]

14. Johnny Twisto Says:
    December 15th, 2010 at 10:56 am

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