Projo Sox Blog

Click the play button below to hear Sean McAdam's comments, recorded this morning. The topics: Jason Varitek's contention that he is not finished as a productive hitter, his value on the free-agent market, the availability this weekend of J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell, Paul Byrd's latest date with the Blue Jays, and some help from the Minnesota Twins, who beat the Rays in dramatic fashion last night.

Here's what Sean said about Varitek's value to other teams:
"I think the interesting part is whether teams are going to again assume that Varitek is just naturally going to stay with Boston, and won't entertain anything serious to leave. And then you go beyond those who wonder, well, if we're making any sort of effort here to just drive the price up for him to remain with the Red Sox. I think that there's been a decent amount of young catching coming along in the last few years, and you're starting to see the fruits of a guy like Dioner Navarro in Tampa, who got the opportunity to play. ... I think it's going to be tough sell for him to get any sort of multiyear deal. i think it's a situation where he has more value to the Red Sox because of his institutional knowledge of the pitching staff and his experience here, than some other team might be willing to take a long-term gamble on a guy whose having a career-worst year at this point."

And on Lowell and Drew:
"There's going to be a conference call today involving Lowell with some specialists to see what can be determined, and what the best course of action would be in the short term. Drew reported to the training staff that he felt about the same yesterday, and that's presumably without much physical activity on an off-day, so I think they go back to treatment and see how he feels today after some batting practice and physical activity on the field, and take it day to day."

 Tags  J.D. Drew Jason Varitek Mike Lowell Sean McAdam SoxTalk

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