The departure of valuable free agents can be an important part of an organization’s renewal.

If teams offer salary arbitration to their top free agents only to see them reject the offer and sign with other teams, they can receive draft pick compensation. The top class of free agents — known as Type A free agents — as determined by a formula from the Elias Sports Bureau net two top picks (usually either a first- or second-round pick from the team that signs the player, as well as a sandwich round pick between the first and second rounds). A second tier of free agents — Type B — net a team a sandwich-round pick.

The Sox have acquired a number of key prospects through compensation picks, including: Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Jed Lowrie, Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price (both part of the trade for Victor Martinez), Bryce Brentz, Anthony Ranaudo and others.

While revised draft rules are currently under negotiation between the owners and the Players’ Association, those rules are not expected to impact this year’s class of free agents. Instead, the “old” rules of draft pick compensation are believed by multiple sources to apply to this year’s free agent class.

That, in turn, may have played a part in a Red Sox option decision today. Reliever Dan Wheeler is a Type B free agent. The Sox held a $3 million option on his contract for the 2012 season. While that isn’t unreasonable for a right-handed reliever with a strong track record (especially prior to the 2011 season) in the AL East, the Sox declined the option. Now, they have the option to offer Wheeler arbitration and get a draft pick if he signs with another club.

MLBTradeRumors.com offered a full list of Type A and Type B free agents here. Among the Red Sox players who have filed for free agency, here are the notable ones who could entitle the club to draft pick compensation:

Type A — David Ortiz

Type A — Jonathan Papelbon

Type B — Dan Wheeler (team option)

Type B — Jason Varitek

The Sox have been talking to Ortiz during the exclusive negotiating window between teams and their own free agents. As of this weekend, WEEI.com reported on Sunday, there had been no contact between the Sox and Papelbon.

Wheeler was 2-2 with a 4.38 ERA, 1.115 WHIP, 7.1 strikeouts per nine innings and 1.5 walks per nine. The Rhode Island native started the year poorly, carrying an ERA of 11.32 when he landed on the disabled list for the first time of his career in the first week of May. After returning, he was one of the Sox’ most effective relievers, with a 1.53 ERA from mid-May through the beginning of September. However, a forearm injury rendered him ineffective and then unavailable for most of September (another of the many causes of the Sox’ September collapse), leading to his season-ending numbers.

As for Varitek, the Sox did not offer him arbitration when he was a Type B free agent last year, based on the expectation that he would accept (coming off a $3 million salary in 2010, the second year of a two-year, $8 million deal). This year, Varitek is once again a Type B, though he had a lower base salary ($2 million), which could have an impact on whether or not he is offered arbitration, insofar as — if he accepted — he would be in line for a lower salary this year than had he accepted arbitration a year ago.

The Sox also declined their option on Scott Atchison, who would have earned $200,000 over the major league minimum. He remains on the club’s 40-man roster, however, after going 1-0 with a 3.26 ERA in 17 big league games spanning 30 1/3 innings. The 35-year-old right-hander is out of options, but fell just short of arbitration eligibility. That being the case, the Sox can set his salary for 2012.

Jason Varitek

Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek defended his teammates and lashed out at the unnamed sources who have been revealing clubhouse details during an appearance on Wednesday’s Hill-Man Morning Show on WEEI sister station WAAF.

During his hour-long appearance, Varitek said the team disharmony was not at the level that has been reported, nor did the team tune out manager Terry Francona.

“Did this team respect Terry Francona? I would say yes,” Varitek said. “Everybody has their own respect for their own manager, yes. … I honestly can’t speak for anyone. But, yes, he is your boss. What I believe in is you’re going to have coaches you don’t like, you’re going to have management you don’t like, you have players you don’t like, but I’m still going to play with that utter respect. This is my elder. This is the way I was brought up, the way I was raised. No matter what, I’m going to respect them and treat them with that same respect.

“Whether guys are going to go in a foxhole with somebody, at this point it doesn’t matter. Because you have to function. He’s still our boss. It doesn’t matter what happens. He makes the lineup, we go out and play. He makes the lineup, we go out and play. And with him, whether or not guys would go in a foxhole or have that much respect, you have to. You don’t get to that many wins and those things going on.”

Added Varitek: “What I disagreed with was that this team didn’t like each other. I believe this team liked each other. Whether [Francona] lost this team or didn’t lose that team and he felt that way, that’s the way he felt. Whether he does or doesn’t, and feels like he loses this team, those things, in my opinion, it always comes back to us. Because when it comes down to it, whether his chain of command, he’s our manager, we have directions, we have to perform. We didn’t perform.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Dustin Pedroia suggested that he was upset by the portrayals of the Red Sox clubhouse as dysfunctional. (AP)

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia interrupted his vacation in Mexico to call into the Big Show and discuss the Boston Globe article that portrayed the Sox clubhouse as an environment rife with dysfunction, in which teammates lapsed into apathy about the performance of the club as the season slowly drifted away.

Pedroia took issue with the characterization of the Sox clubhouse, suggesting that it featured numerous leaders, and pointing the fault for the team’s epic collapse to poor play on the field.

Pedroia suggested that he was “upset” about the portrayal of the clubhouse, and that he was “[hurt]” by the suggestion that manager Terry Francona‘s job had been compromised by personal problems.

That said, Pedroia vowed to put behind him the brutal disappointment of the end of the season. He suggested that he wants to remain in Boston for the duration of his career even with the departure of Francona, and he said that the team would feature renewed resolve entering 2012.

“We’ll come back motivated, I promise you guys,” said Pedroia.

To listen to the complete interview, click here. A transcript of the conversation is below:

On the Boston Globe article on Red Sox clubhouse dysfunction:

I’m pretty upset about it. A lot of the stuff that was said was pretty much not fair. It hurts, man. It’s not good.

What’s true?

We’re all baseball players. I showed up to work every day ready to beat the other team. So did everyone else. We’re a family. We had the best record in baseball up until Sept. whatever, and then we ran out of gas. That doesn’t have anything to do with Tito or Theo or any players or what went on in the clubhouse. The leadership was there. We had guys that cared. We didn’t play well in the end. That’s it. Read the rest of this entry »

Catcher Ryan Lavarnway had a memorable performance on Tuesday night. (AP)

BALTIMORE — Ryan Lavarnway had long since proven his credentials as a hitter. For three years as a Red Sox minor leaguer, the 24-year-old had demonstrated that he had the makings of a legitimate big league hitter, thanks to both a sound, disciplined plate approach and a compact swing that produced more consistent power than any other Sox minor leaguer.

Even so, there had been skepticism at times about his defense. He was viewed by some as wooden behind the plate — even though he’d worked hard for years to improve his behind-the-plate athleticism. There were questions about his ability to control the running game, even though he’d thrown out 37 percent of attempted base stealers while making just one throwing error in 2011, the top marks among Sox minor league catchers. And then there were the questions about whether he was up to the task of being a signal caller who could earn the trust of a pitching staff.

“It was rumored he wasn’t great defensively but he was a good hitter,” Sox catcher Luis Exposito, Lavarnway’s teammate last year in Double-A and this year in Triple-A, said before the game. “For me, he’s definitely, from what I’ve heard and seen, developed into a good catcher. He’s done the work he’s needed to do. He’s developed himself into this situation where he’s the guy tonight.”

And so he was. Lavarnway, who enjoyed a stint as the Sox DH at the end of August and also spent a few innings behind the plate in the late innings of some games, made his first big league start as a catcher on Tuesday night, at a time when both Jason Varitek and Jarrod Saltalamacchia had been injured. Read the rest of this entry »

Josh Beckett was outstanding for the Red Sox in his first start since spraining his ankle on Sept. 5. (AP)

Before Friday’s game, Rays skipper Joe Maddon – a veteran of a 1995 Angels team that endured one of the biggest pennant race collapses in big league history — noted that when a team is feeling the weight of a meltdown, all it needs is for one or two players to lift the weight off the whole team.

Josh Beckett proved to be that player for the Red Sox Friday, giving Boston its first quality start in nine games while also giving the Red Sox a chance to collect a sorely needed 4-3 win over the hard-charging Rays. The win put the Sox back up by four games in the wild card race, and ensured that Boston will have no worse than a two-game pad in the standings when the Rays leave town.

Beckett shined in his first outing since spraining his ankle 10 games ago against the Blue Jays. The righthander allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out seven and walking just one over six innings. With the win, Jon Lester can approach Saturday’s start as a chance to stick a dagger in the Rays’ playoff hopes, rather than as a game that the Sox must approach with desperation.

Here’s a look at what else went right (and what went wrong) for the Red Sox on Friday.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX Read the rest of this entry »

Jason Varitek still stands alone as the most trusted player on the Red Sox.

Captain Jason Varitek is proving to be somewhat of an ageless wonder for the Red Sox. And certainly, he among the most trusted on the team. Just ask Josh Beckett, Jarrod Saltalamacchia or the manager Terry Francona.

He proved to be both ageless and trusted on Wednesday night as he came up with a key double on a hit-and-run play to tie the game after the Yankees had the momentum with a four-run sixth. His execution of that play in the bottom of the sixth with Josh Reddick at first base – called for by Francona – was a great example of what Varitek is all about.

Just get the job done.

“The hit-and-run [double], it’s perfect, it goes down the line, climbs up the wall, goes past the outfielder, and Red is running like crazy and that was a big play in the game,” Francona said. “Then the home run. We’ve gotten a lot of offense from our catching. It’s really been terrific. It’s come from two guys but still we’re getting the offense.”

Phil Hughes, after walking Reddick, was looking to get Varitek off-balance, not hard to do since the Red Sox catcher tends to fly open. Well, fly open he did, getting his front foot up and down before the late-breaking curveball even arrived at the plate.

But even though his timing was off, Varitek didn’t miss a beat – keeping his bat back while his legs and backside were already gone, and driving a double down the left field line and off the top of the sidewall, scoring Reddick. The pool cue shot knotted the game, 5-5.

“It’s just the other things, like today, it was a hit-and-run and trying to get a guy over,” said Varitek, who added a two-run homer in the eighth for insurance. “You’re trying to do the little things and I was able to accomplish both and one ball happens to go out of the park. We had a hit-and-run, it’s something we practice. Tito does a lot with me, and has over the years. It’s one of the first this year but it came at the right time.”

Varitek now has 10 home runs to go with his 32 RBIs and .240 average. At 39 years, 142 days, he became the oldest Red Sox player to homer since Ellis Burks at 39/210 on April 8, 2004. Varitek and Saltalamacchia also became the first pair of Red Sox catchers with double figures in homers since Bob Tillman (14) and Jim Pagliaroni (11) in 1962. Read the rest of this entry »

Jason Varitek would tell you his game is based more on working with pitchers, like Saturday's starter Jon Lester, than aiming for the fences. (AP)

He was there because he had clubbed a two-run home run, the only for his team that game, in the second inning of a 9-3 win over the Athletics. He was there because he went 2-for-4 total for the game, just the eighth multi-hit game of the season for him and the first one he had tallied since July 10, and drove in three of the team’s nine runs on the day. He was there for his offense. Emphasis first on the “offense,” second on the “his.”

But when Red Sox catcher and captain Jason Varitek stepped up to the mic on Saturday, rather than have the mics come to him in front of his locker, the veteran had one thing to say.

“Cool.”

See, the seat in the press conference room usually isn’t designated for guys who have been squatting for nine innings. It’s there for the manager to give his pre- and post-game thoughts and for that night’s starting pitcher to break down his latest outing.

However on Saturday with the weather causing the Red Sox to quickly prepare for the second game of a doubleheader, the team decided to bring Varitek to the press instead of the other way around.

So how did Varitek handle his more stately press accommodations with all the media cameras and recorders in Fenway Park pointed his way?

He chose to deflect the attention.

The man who bears the C on his jersey said no more than three sentences about his home run – the big event that caused him to be the center of attention in the first place – even though it was his ninth home run of the season, a solid number for a player considered to be a second catcher on his team’s roster. They were as follows.

“I hit it pretty good. The kind of balls that are hit in that direction tail off and head left toward the corner. I hit it good.”

When asked about his personal goals and if his .234 average, nine homers and 26 RBI, all of which would represent his best numbers since being relegated to essentially backup status in 2010, met those goals, Varitek would have none of that talk.

“I have team goals, I always have,” he said. “What happens from there, there’s so many elements in the game that you’re trying to do. I try not to spend too much time worrying about that stuff.” Read the rest of this entry »