Pedro Martínez Wants Answers For Why Red Sox Moved On From Jason Varitek originally appeared on NESN.
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The Boston Red Sox made some major coaching changes a couple of weeks ago, headlined by the firing of Alex Cora. Jason Varitek was removed from the big league staff.
Varitek was Pedro Martínez’s catcher for all seven seasons that the Hall of Famer was in Boston, and he was reassigned when the Red Sox made the changes to their staff. According to The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey, although the Red Sox said he was reassigned, that is not the case.
“Though the Red Sox said they reassigned Varitek to a different role in the organization after he was fired as the team’s game-planning coordinator, a league source said that was not the case,” wrote McCaffrey. “The Red Sox have yet to clarify the role offered to Varitek, noting in a news release the night of the firings that details of his reassignment will be announced at a later date.”
Martínez wants answers for why the Red Sox moved on from his battery mate and good friend. Martínez was at Fenway Park on Friday and spoke to the media about Varitek.
“They’re going to let me know, there’s got to be a reason because Tek means so much to this city,” Martínez said. “To me, Tek is a legend here, and I’m not going to go into details because I don’t know. If I knew, I’d tell you straight up, too. I’d tell you why (he was reassigned), but I don’t know. But it’s very unfortunate that I don’t get to see my batterymate out there, giving me a hug or probably receiving the baseball from me when I threw it today.”
It remains to be seen what happened with Varitek. If the Red Sox were going to fire him, they would have announced it. Perhaps they reassigned him, and he refused. The entire situation is unclear, and like many fans, Martínez wants an explanation.
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