Let me preface this blog by saying the following: Jason Varitek has been an integral part of the Red Sox for over a decade now and he has been an important part of the team's recent run of success. I respect his work ethic and appreciate everything he has done for the Red Sox. That being said, the Red Sox now face a choice of what to do with Jason Varitek and the time may have come to part ways with The Captain.

I understand the desire to bring Varitek back but re-signing Varitek can't be done just because we as fans feel emotionally attached to him and it certainly shouldn't be done just because of everything he's done for the Red Sox in the past. He's been compensated to the tune of $55,682,500 dollars through 2008 by the Red Sox for everything he's done before. His next contract, as any contract, should be about what he's going to do for the Red Sox, not what he has done.

Which, of course, brings us to the question of should the Red Sox re-sign Varitek and, if so, what exactly can the Red Sox expect from him going forward?

At this point, it is safe to say that Jason Varitek is no longer an effective, let alone a mediocre, hitter. His last season as an effective MLB hitter was 2005 where he hit .281/.366/.489. Since 2005, in 1,223 at-bats covering 2006 to 2008 Varitek has authored a cumulative batting line of .237/.335/.393; a line which, by virtually any MLB standard, regardless of position, is terrible. Additionally, he is having a harder time just putting the ball in play and his strikeouts, as a percentage of his at-bats, are increasing year-by-year with 23.9% in 2006, 27.4% in 2007 and 28.9% in 2008.

I recognize that Varitek is a catcher and that, as such, he is not expected to be a good hitter; however his 2008 OPS places him 16^th in the AL among catchers with at least 200 at-bats. There is a point though at which Varitek’s lack of hitting detracts from whatever defensive additions he brings to the team and Varitek is still a good, though not great, defensive catcher. He ranked 2^nd in the AL in fielding percentage (.996) in 2008 but ranked 9^th in the AL with only 22.2% of would-be base stealers throw out and that is without Varitek catching Wakefield.

So, am I advocating that the Sox show Varitek the door? Not quite.

If you dig a little further into his statistics, you’ll find that in 2008 Varitek hit left-handed pitching (.284/.378/.484) far better than he hit right-handed pitching (.201/.293/.323). The solution to the Varitek situation would seem, to me, to be to platoon the catcher position with Varitek playing against left-handers and a to-do-determined amount of right-handers while finding a left-handed hitting catcher who can hit right-handers better than Varitek and can pitch hit against right-handers late in the game for Varitek if needed and give Tek more time off which, hopefully, will keep Tek’s body in better shape and should hopefully improve his bat as well.

I don’t believe Varitek can be a full-time catcher anymore, not with his inability to hit right-handers. His ineffectiveness at the plate turns the Red Sox line-up into an NL-style line-up with a virtual automatic out against right-handers in Varitek.  To keep Varitek effective he needs more rest and a platoon partner to take on a greater amount of the workload. And if Varitek insists on staying only if he continues as the Sox full-time catcher; playing in roughly the same amount of games — and he played in 81% of the Red Sox games in 2008 — then the time may have come to thank him for all he did and move on.

Edit: In response to the question of who to platoon with Varitek, I don't really have the answer to that. I'm sure if I did some digging I could come up with a couple of viable candidates but without knowing who is a free agent, available by trade or might be non-tendered it's hard for me to suggest a specific person at this time.