Boston Red Sox
“[We] look forward to continuing dialogue as we go forward.”
There appears to be little clarity regarding Jason Varitek’s future with the only big-league club he’s ever played for.
The two-time World Series champion and former Red Sox catcher was “reassigned to a new role within the organization” after Alex Cora and several other coaches were fired in late April, the team said at the time.
Varitek — who served as Boston’s “game planning and run prevention coach” to open the 2026 season — has still not returned to the Red Sox organization that he’s been a part of in some capacity for three decades, according to team president and CEO Sam Kennedy.
“We’ve connected with each other, but we’ve got no update on that,” Kennedy said of Varitek’s reassigned role with the team during the Red Sox’ end-of-year press conference at Fenway Park on Monday.
When asked if Varitek is currently a member of the Red Sox organization, Kennedy replied: “He is not, but [we] look forward to continuing dialogue as we go forward.”
According to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo, there might have to be some serious fence mending before Varitek returns to the Red Sox in any sort of official role.
“Varitek was particularly upset by the April firings of Cora and his colleagues and felt betrayed by the organization, leading to a frosty few months since,” Cotillo wrote on Monday. “He has not publicly commented on the Red Sox since the shakeup and it’s unclear if he’d ever want to return in any role.
“He has appeared at some team-related charity events in recent weeks, sources said, but is purposefully keeping his distance and a low profile.”
Varitek — who played with the Red Sox from 1997 to 2011 — served as a special assistant after his retirement in 2012 before eventually joining Boston’s uniformed coaching staff in November 2020. He remained in Boston’s dugout as part of Cora’s staff until his “reassignment” in late April.
Varitek joined Cora and the rest of Boston’s fired coaches on a flight back to Boston after the Red Sox cleared out a significant portion of the team’s coaching staff — with Varitek delivering a “thumbs down” gesture while taking a photo with Cora and his crew.
Speaking in May, Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez expressed confusion over the decision to remove Varitek from Boston’s dugout.
“To be honest, I’m not gonna go into details without knowing why because I haven’t really been inside the offices. I’m pretty sure they’re gonna let me know,” Martinez said about the decision to reassign Varitek, who was his primary catcher in Boston. “There’s gotta be a reason, because ‘Tek means so much to this city, just like every one of us. Like David [Ortiz], like all of us that won in ‘04, and the legends that were out there.
“To me, ‘Tek is a legend here. I’m not gonna go into details because I don’t know. If I knew, I’ll tell you straight up, too. I’ll tell you why. But I don’t know. But, very unfortunate that I don’t get to see my battery mate out there, giving me a hug and probably receiving the baseball from me when I threw it today.”
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