The Boston Red Sox have done a great job of keeping former World Champions around to preserve the desired culture across all levels of the organization.
Boston's new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow is a former World Series-winning reliever. Manager Alex Cora was a key cog for the 2007 World Series run. Then, there are several former players in advisory and coaching roles to further promote the City of Champions attitude needed to be a perennial contender.
One of the most involved former players is Jason Varitek. The former catcher and captain currently serves as the game-planning coordinator for Cora's staff. Varitek has been with the Red Sox organization in some form -- player, executive, coach -- since 1997.
While Varitek has found what he's been looking for in Boston for almost three decades, he might need to head elsewhere to achieve his next big goal -- managing.
“I understand that’s the future of where this goes, being able to have right fits and right opportunities to lead and manage a team," Varitek told MassLive's Chris Cotillo at the Pedro Martinez Foundation Gala on Friday. "Currently, it’s not necessarily about that. It’s about doing the best job that I can to provide with our pitchers and catchers and help them be the best that they can be. If those opportunities fit right, then you have to look and really think hard about it.”
Varitek took a phone call from San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi regarding the club's manager vacancy this offseason following the firing of Gabe Kapler. The call was more of an inquiry, if anything, and did not lead to Varitek formally interviewing for the position. Any chance of that happening dissolved when Bob Melvin became available.
Still, Varitek is headed down that path, and will be blocked as long as Cora remains in his current role. There is a chance Varitek could be Cora's successor when the latter decides to move into a front-office role -- something he's expressed interest in eventually transitioning into.
If not, Boston will have to say goodbye to the captain, and share him with another franchise.
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