Alex Cora Explains Red Sox Role Change For Jason Varitek

Jason Varitek will be on the Red Sox staff for a sixth-straight season, but the franchise Hall of Famer received a modified title for this season.

Varitek served as the “game-planning coordinator and catching coach” on Alex Cora’s staff. This year, he’s the “game-planning and run prevention coach” after Boston hired Parker Guinn away from the New York Yankees as a catching instructor and bullpen catcher. While Varitek’s title change might seem like aesthetics, it actually means a lot more for Cora’s staff.

“With Tek, I like the fact he’s not going to be locked in with the catchers. “He’s going to be more like a rover with us,” Cora told reporters Friday, as seen on NESN. “The game-planning part of it, there’s nobody better than him. They’re going to have that, but at the same time, kind of be around me most of the time, be on the other fields, being that voice. Everybody in this organization, me included and people around our area, we take him for granted. ‘Oh, he’s the captain. He’s going to be OK.’ But he wants more. He wants to learn more. His goal is to become a big league manager and the more time he spends with us, the better it’s going to be for his career. I think the whole team is going to benefit from this.”

Varitek interviewed for the San Francisco Giants manager job in 2023 but turned it down. As Cora noted, Varitek hasn’t shot down a future career as a manager, and it seems like the Red Sox want to help him out while also providing a benefit to the organization, too.

Boston made big additions in the offseason, and the coaching staff is making strides to keep up with those changes as the Red Sox look to achieve their goal of returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2021.