What exactly does Varitek do as ‘game planning coordinator’?
Over 15 seasons, a ritual took place in a corner locker of the Red Sox clubhouse. Jason Varitek, highlighters in hand, would devour a three-ring binder of information in advance of a game.
While Varitek played on several boisterous Red Sox teams, with loud cross-talk among teammates, a cone of respectful silence surrounded his work. No one wanted to disturb the remarkable intensity he brought to an academic undertaking.
“I was afraid of Jason,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who was a teammate of Varitek’s from 2005-08. “I never went to his corner. I have so much respect for him.”
Varitek was, in the words of Red Sox pitching coach Dave Bush, “way ahead of his time.” He maintained nearly perfect recall of every pitch he’d ever called against an individual hitter, creating a rich database of information from which to draw.
In many ways, this positioned Varitek perfectly for his role on the Red Sox coaching staff in 2021. Shortly after Cora’s return in November, Varitek was named the team’s game planning coordinator, officially becoming a full-time member of the big league staff after eight years as a special assistant to the general manager and catching coach.
Varitek’s appointment merely affirms how his day-to-day role with players has grown. He estimates that hespent about 110 games with the team in 2018 and 2019, then was with them for every game of the 2020 season. The role of game planning coordinator was a natural outgrowth of a combination of his skills, his role in recent years, and the explosion of information in the game.
The sheer volume of information, layered on top of video work to focus on tendencies, is immense — particularly if a pitching coach wants to work directly with pitchers on finding the right mechanics and shape for pitches.
“We’re looking at a lot of information — certainly more than what one person can do by themselves,” said Bush. “It’s more than what I can do my myself, for sure.”
The limiting factor of time, along with the value of having multiple perspectives, has resulted in an expanding circle when it comes to game planning. Within that circle, someone like Varitek — who has experience distilling massive amounts of statistical and scouting information and making it digestible for players — can make an enormous contribution.
“There’s more information, there’s different things to adapt to, but it still comes downto getting that in a usable form to get these players to be the best versions of themselves, the way they do it and the way they can comprehend it and utilize it,” said Varitek.
“Things have changed over time, from some of the human elements. But it still [comes down to] execution and ability to throw strikes and pitchers’ ability to use their stuff. Adifferent flavor, but it’s baseball.
“It’s all combined together as one. The more those entities work together, the better the end product is.”
The number of contributors to a pitching game plan is far-reaching — from Cora to members of the analytics department to video advance scouts to coaches involved in defensive positioning.
“It’s one big collective team,” said Varitek, “but you have different spokes to hit different avenues and ultimately come up with the same thing: getting people out and winning baseball games.”
The final report on how to attack an opponent will be assembled by Bush, bull pen coach Kevin Walker, and Var itek. They are en trusted with communicating plans of attack to the pitcher sand catchers, while emphasizing that those on the mound and behind the plate have the freedom togo off-script.
“It’s important that the players know that whatever information we have is not just being spit out by a computer and spreadsheets,” said Bush. “It’s been digested by a person, we understand it, we think it’s the right stuff, and we’re available to talk through it.
Notes
Ricahrds believes Sox will be ‘sneaky good’: Outside of a few teammates and coaches, JetBlue Park was empty Thursday when Garrett Richards popped out of the dugout at 9:28 a.m.
The Red Sox had a day off. But at this point in spring training, starting pitchers take the mound every five days whether there’s a game or not so they can remain on track for the season.
Throwing to catcher Jett Bandy with no fielders behind him, Richards went five innings and threw 79 pitches.
“Any time you touch the mound, I feel like you’ve got to take that seriously,” Richards said. “That’s where you make your money. I go into these games with the same intensity I would if we were playing another team.”
It was a decidedly informal affair. The catchers called balls and strikes, and catching coach Jason Varitek ran the bases.
But Richards got into it. With a runner on first and one out in the fourth inning, Chris Herr mann grounded a pitch up the middle. A theoretical double play ball for sure, but Richards was told to keep pitching.
Franchy Cordero followed with a one-hop smash back to the mound that Richards made a nice play on.
“Nowit’s over!” he said, and the coaches agreed.
Richards looked sharp. He faced 24 hitters and struck out six. There was one walk and six hits. Maybe seven. One virtual run may have scored in the last inning.
“Threw a lot of strikes, controlled a lot of counts, got a lot of weak contact when the ball was put in play,” Richards said. “I’m really building off outings now. It’s getting better and better every time I get out there.
“Starting to feel some real good familiar stuff.”
Richards was signed to a one-year, $10 million contract in early February, with the Sox holding an option for 2022. The Sox hope his presence, along with the return of Eduardo Rodríguez, will improve what was one of the worst rotations in baseball last season.
Workday for them: Matt Barnes, Hirokazu Sawamura, and Marcus Walden also pitched. Barnes faced six hitters, striking out three and throwing 25 pitches. Sawamura worked two innings and retired all six hitters he faced, the final four by strikeout. Walden threw an inning and allowed one hit. … Cordero had 11 at-bats. He struck out four times and had three hits, including a double. The outfielder has been piling up plate appearances behind the scenes and should be ready for a Grapefruit League game soon.