Season brought Varitek to his knees
Jason Varitek, who struggled offensively even before undergoing arthroscopic surgery in August to repair a cartilage tear in his left knee, ended the season on a dismal note, striking out a startling 13 times in his last 18 at-bats.
Varitek batted just .213 after coming off the disabled list Sept. 3, a month after his knee operation, and struck out 29 times in 61 at-bats, the most K's he's had in any month in his career (that counts two strikeouts Oct. 1).
Varitek batted a career-low .238 in 103 games this season, 34 points below the career average of .272 he took into this season. In the last month, he had more than twice as many strikeouts as hits (13).
``He had a tough year," manager Terry Francona said Monday. ``Jason didn't ever really get locked in. Some of it was physical. When you have a knee, when you lose your base, it's very difficult. Your legs look like they were running out from underneath him. Sometimes he didn't have that leg to hit with, depending on what side of the plate he was on.
``Jason made a comment to [bench coach Brad Mills] in the dugout, `I've got a lot of work ahead of me.' The good news is he's a good worker. He'll figure it out."
Varitek has two years left on the four-year, $40 million deal he signed after the 2004 season. The captain turns 35 April 11.
In a recent interview, general manager Theo Epstein was asked if he thought Varitek needed another catcher to share his load more equitably.
``I think he's still a catcher very capable of carrying a load," Epstein said. ``Every opportunity to lessen his load will pay dividends later in the season. There are ways to protect him, even if he doesn't like it. He's the ultimate gamer."
The Sox made a deal for a catcher at the waiver deadline, trading David Wells to the Padres for George Kottaras, a lefthanded-hitting catcher who was playing in Triple A and is now in the instructional league in Florida for conditioning work.
``That was important for us to look ahead," Epstein said. ``Before that trade, we didn't have catching prospects coming up. We all felt it was important to acquire a player who a couple of years down the line can make an impact at the catching position."
