Catcher George Kottaras has been released by the Red Sox. (AP)

With Jason Varitek set to return to the Red Sox as a backup catcher and Victor Martinez returning for the 2010 season, the Red Sox’ catching situation seemed set for the 2010 season. As a result, it comes as little surprise that the Red Sox put catcher George Kottaras on relief waivers, according to a team source. UPDATE: According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Brewers were awarded a waiver claim on Kottaras on Wednesday.

Kottaras hit .237 with a .308 OBP, .387 slugging mark, a homer and 10 RBIs in 2009. The 26-year-old — who was acquired from the Padres in exchange for David Wells in 2006 — served primarily as Tim Wakefield‘s personal catcher over the first half of the 2009 season, working well enough with the pitcher that Wakefield was named to the All-Star team for the first time in his career.

Kottaras was out of minor-league options, and so rather than trying to pass him through outright waivers, the Sox put him on unconditional release waivers. As of today, he will be a free agent, free to negotiate with all clubs. (NOTE: Kottaras did not achieve free agency due to the Brewers’ waiver claim.)

Fernando Cabrera, who was placed on outright waivers by the Sox earlier this month, also elected free agency. The right-hander allowed five runs and struck out eight in 5.1 innings for the Sox after forging a 1.71 ERA for Triple-A Pawtucket.

The Red Sox issued the following press release about a flurry of Sept. 1 activities, which featured four minor-league call-ups (outfielders Brian Anderson and Joey Gathright from Triple-A Pawtucket, infielder Chris Woodward from Pawtucket, and pitcher Junichi Tazawa from the Rookie Level Gulf Coast League) as well as the reactivation of catcher George Kottaras from the 15-day disabled list: Read the rest of this entry »

The Red Sox just may have better catching than we thought.

Since acquiring Victor Martinez on July 31, the Sox now have two All-Star catchers who figure to be under Boston’s control through the 2010 season. In addition, the team will have some decisions to make regarding George Kottaras, who was placed on the DL on August 1 with with a lower back sprain and has played his last nine games in Pawtucket. Amongst all the bodies in the system, who is the team’s catcher of the future?

“Mark Wagner,” says a source within the organization with what can only be perceived as the utmost confidence.

Of course, that source within the organization happens to be one Mark Wagner himself, and unfortunately for the 25-year-old, it’s not that simple. Looking at the system as a whole, Wagner isn’t the only minor-league catcher jumping off the page. In fact, he may not even be Boston’s catching prospect. With both Double A Portland’s Luis Exposito and High A Salem’s Tim Federowicz also making great strides, the spot’s future is uncertain to say the least.

In short, Wagner brings to the table great game-calling ability, a plus pop time, a streaky bat, and outstanding confidence. Exposito brings size, outstanding defensive abilities, and a bat that has hit for average (.290 over the last two seasons). Additionally, Exposito brings a level of professionalism uncharacteristic of someone who was suspended for nearly all of the ’07 season for attitude problems. Federowicz, like Wagner, calls an excellent game, has a gun for an arm and has surprised Boston with offensive growth. Read the rest of this entry »

Neither Nick Green nor George Kottaras were considered candidates to even make the 25-man roster coming out of Fort Myers in early April.

But as the Red Sox stand two games ahead of the Yankees in mid-June, their presence in the bottom third of the batting order has been no small reason why the offense has suddenly picked up the pace.

In the last week, the Red Sox knocked out A.J. Burnett and Chien-Ming Wang after 2 2/3 innings. They got to Philadelphia’s Antonio Bastardo and ushered him out after just one inning. And Tuesday night, they showed Florida starter Chris Volstad the showers after 3 2/3 innings.

On Tuesday, the trio of Jacoby Ellsbury, Green and Kottaras went 6-for-12 with 3 RBIs and four runs scored as the Red Sox won the opener with the Marlins, 8-2, at Fenway Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Wakefield takes the mound tonight for the first time since his dazzling — and mightily important — gem last Wednesday. The 42-year-old’s outing against Oakland has been well-chronicled, but it bears some further mention. He went 7.1 innings before permitting a hit, and delivered a complete game, just his sixth since 1998.

Wakefield, paired with rookie catcher George Kottaras, carried a no-hitter deeper into a game than he had with either Doug Mirabelli or Kevin Cash. Clearly, Kottaras and Wakefield are working well together. Kottaras has one passed ball, but it came on Sunday when Jon Lester was on the mound. The catcher has gone two starts without whiffing on a Wakefield offering.

Perhaps more importantly, he’s done an excellent job of allowing the pitcher to maintain his rhythm. Wakefield likes to avoid wasting time with pitches, preferring an almost seamless progression: pitch-catch-return, pitch-catch-return. If a catcher fumbles his pitches, even with the bases empty, the tempo can be disrupted. Kottaras caught the pitcher so well on Wednesday that Wakefield was able to maintain that drumbeat without any compromises.

“We always try to get a rhythm with a pitcher,” said Kottaras. “You want to keep the guy going, go with the flow of the game.”

Kottaras continues to work with the knuckleball machine, which broke camp with the Red Sox and now sits in the batting cage tucked behind the Sox dugout. The piece of equipment produces alternately frustrating, hilarious and challenging results for those who try to tame it, but clearly, it has served a useful function as well. Kottaras has gotten plenty of work with some of the nastiest knuckleballs that physics can concoct, and Wakefield doesn’t have to spend all of his free time sacrificing his shoulder by hucking flutterballs in the direction of the rookie.

Both through that work in between the days when he catches, and because of his work with Wakefield both during spring training and the regular season, Kottaras is becoming increasingly comfortable as Wakefield’s batterymate. He describes himself as “a little bit” more confident now than at the beginning of spring training, feeling that he can now do a better job of detecting when something gets out of whack in the knuckleballer’s delivery, and understanding the action on the unique pitches.

“I’ve been able to see things with his delivery a little better, getting a little more familiar, but it’s still not easy,” said Kottaras. “The more I’m around him, the more I can pick up little things here or there to help him.”

Kottaras makes his fourth start of the season, and third with Wakefield, against the Twins today. He will be ready. After all, prior to yesterday’s game, he worked with the knuckleball machine.

In his quarter of a century as a professional coach, Gary Tuck has developed a reputation as the foremost catching instructor in baseball. If he hasn’t seen a catching drill or a piece of catching equipment, it likely doesn’t exist.

And so when the Red Sox bullpen coach and catching instructor says that the machine that spits knuckleballs in a batting cage behind the Red Sox clubhouse is the only one that he’s ever seen, it bears notice. The origins of the unusual piece of equipment are slightly murky — one Sox employee thought that it had been rigged by Tuck, while Tuck said that the machine was around when he joined the club in 2007.

Regardless of its creation, the practical value of the machine is noteworthy. Earlier this spring, Sox manager Terry Francona described the unique challenge posed by trying to catch Tim Wakefield, a man whose knuckleball moves unlike any other in professional baseball.

“Wakefield’s a different animal,” said Francona. “He’s ruined guys’ careers. The ball is not a normal knuckleball. That’s why he’s 42 years old and still pitching in the major leagues. It affects our decision-making. It has in the past. It’s something you always have to be aware of, because there’s a lot of guys who just can’t catch it. … You watch someone on another team who seems to be handling a knuckleball, then you put them back there with Wake and it goes right by him.”

Yet the machine, perhaps more than anyone else who throws the pitch for a living (with no disrespect meant to the likes of Sox prospect Charlie Zink), may offer the closest facsimile to the movement of Wakefield’s pitches. On Wednesday morning, George Kottaras (the front-runner for the job of Sox backup catcher) and Dusty Brown squatted in the cage as a modified pitching machine released balls without any spin.

The balls offered a Wakefield-esque lesson in physics, as they sailed in all directions in often-uncatchable fashion. Brown and Kottaras did their best to stay back, not to lunge at balls that were willing to dart in all directions without the control of Boston’s resident knuckleball specialist.

The task was greeted with a mix of amusement and frustration, the occasional profanity being barked by a pitch that proved elusive. In a best-of-five drill between Kottaras and Brown, each catcher corraled three balls.

“It’s really good. It’s coming in a little harder (than Wakefield’s pitches), but it throws a few where I’ve seen action kind of like Wakefield’s,” said Kottaras.”It’s a good tool to work on in between days. I had never seen one of those before (coming to the Sox). It’s a good drill, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Kottaras received raves for his most recent pairing with Wakefield. On Tuesday in Tampa Bay, he was virtually flawless during the pitcher’s 5.1 innings of shutout ball. Former major-league catcher and manager Buck Martinez stopped in the Red Sox broadcast booth with Jon Rish and Joe Castiglione for a couple of innings, and noted that the ability of Kottaras to catch cleanly each Wakefield offering – on a night when his pitches were remarkably active – was exceptional and impactful. The fact that Kottaras did not miss, even with the bases empty, allowed the pitcher to stay in a great rhythm on the mound that lent itself to effectiveness: throw, catch, return, throw…

Most of the credit, of course, belonged to Wakefield and Kottaras, the pitcher for delivering nasty knucklers, the catcher for squeezing them. But it seems fair to say that a unique piece of equipment also played a small part in a pairing that showed quite a bit of promise.

“It works really well,” said Kottaras. “You’ve got to do something to prepare yourself, and (the machine) is a big help.”

Red Sox manager Terry Francona talked briefly with George Kottaras on Wednesday morning, telling the catcher only that he would not be making the trip to Sarasota on Thursday to play the Reds, instead staying behind to catch Wakefield in a minor-league game. It wasn’t until a few hours later that Kottaras received a call from his agent with potentially career-changing news.

Josh Bard, who had been presumed (by virtue of his veteran status and his frequent work with knuckleballer Tim Wakefield this spring) the favorite to win the back-up role, had been cut by the Sox. About five minutes later, Kottaras received another call from Red Sox bullpen and catching coach Gary Tuck confirming the news and its implications: Kottaras is in the driver’s seat to claim the job of Boston’s backup catcher.

The 25-year-old Kottaras admits that, after six years in the minors, the idea that he is on the cusp of a major-league job is tantalizing. Nonetheless, he does not take it for granted. Read the rest of this entry »