Well, now we'll find out.

Jason Varitek has been an admired member of the Boston Red Sox for a dozen years. In some minds, he's been the face of the franchise. But never will we learn more about the man's true priorities -- not to mention the depth of his pride -- than in the coming days.

The Red Sox have a formal contract offer on the table to the soon-to-be-37-year-old catcher, and by initial appearances it is a generous one given the circumstances. The Red Sox have proposed a one-year deal for $5 million, with the team holding an option for the same amount for 2010. Should the club not pick up the option, he would still have the opportunity to return at a $3 million salary. In essence, the offer guarantees him $8 million over the next two seasons.

Yes, it's a sizable pay cut from the $10,442,000 he made last year in the final year of the four-year, $40 million deal he signed following the 2004 season. But with all sentiment removed from the equation, this much is true: It's more money than he's worth at this stage of his baseball career.

I've written this countless times this offseason during this seemingly never-ending story, so what's once more? The days when Varitek was a useful member of a lineup are gone, and they're not coming back. He's batted .222 in 614 at-bats since the All-Star break in 2007 -- a full year-and-a-half, which tells you that this isn't a slump or a trend, but the cruel reality. If he hits .240 in the coming season, chances are he got a lifetime's worth of gorks, dying quails, and groundballs with eyes.

It cannot have escaped agent Scott Boras's notice that Gregg Zaun -- a soon-to-be-38-year-old whose adjusted OPS was 14 points higher than Varitek's last season -- settled for a one-year, $1.5 million deal with Baltimore. That is the market for useful but declining catchers, and they should be grateful that the Red Sox are apparently -- and uncharacteristically -- willing to pay him for services rendered while allowing him to save face after some dubious decisions.