Brad Ausmus talks Tek, from an article by the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo this morning:
Baseball sources indicated last night that Varitek will accept his option and will notify the Sox as soon as today.
Varitek's place as one of the top catchers in Red Sox history is secure. Sox' pitching certainly flourished during his heyday. To this day, Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe still consider him the best catcher they ever threw to.
Varitek remains a leader on the team and should be able to remain that way even in a backup role.
One player who has been through the transition is Brad Ausmus, who backed up Russell Martin in Los Angeles this season.
"I think Jason is going to be OK," Ausmus said. "What I did was I approached it from Day 1 like I was going to be the backup and I was going to do everything I could to help Russell. We pored over scouting reports every day and came up with a good plan for that particular game. I know Jason is going to do the same thing because he’s so respected and we all know he's the best in the game at being prepared. Nobody works harder than Jason Varitek in preparing a pitcher to pitch that day. He can still do that with Victor and it will be a big help to Victor. I'm sure some of that happened last season with the two of them.
"The one thing I found having all that time is you tend to get bored. You tend to try to find things to do. Last year I just sat with Don Mattingly and we went over the game inning by inning and move by move. It's a way of kind of staying in the game. There were times I'd think to myself, 'Gee, I would have done it this way.' Or, 'I wished I'd been out there,' that kind of thing. There's a definite mind-set you have to have and after you’re a starter for a long time you just have to accept that that part of your career is over.
"It's not easy, but I think you're going to have some pitchers who want to throw to Jason. You hope that doesn’t become a problem and it probably won't. But knowing how professional Jason has been, I think he’ll transition to it just fine."
To read the entire article, click here.