Return of the Captain

So after turning down the $10 million dollar offer the Red Sox made at the beginning of the free agent period, Jason Varitek has signed with the Sox for $5 million this year and perhaps $3 million in 2010.  Do you think Varitek is thanking Scott Boras for having his best interests here?  Despite the money he was able to get for Texeira and others, Boras has failed Varitek and Ramirez in this post-season.  He had legitimate offers for both players in the range that they wanted to be and now both will have to settle for lower salaries.  I'm not complaining that the players are getting paid less, in this economy they should be, but that Boras the Uberagent has tried so hard to drive up the price on his clients that it has actually cost them money.

One of the worst things that may have happened this off-season is that the greed of the Yankees and their free agents (among others, it's not restricted to the Yankees by any means) has left a definitive bad taste in the mouth of not just the fans but other owners.  If lower gate revenues (almost guaranteed this year as evidenced by reduced ticket requests for even the Red Sox) weren't enough, this feeling is going to see many of next year's free agents not looking at the pay days that their colleagues received this year.

Any other season would have people beating down the door for people like Ben Sheets, Manny Ramirez, and Bobby Abreu.  Yet here we are, 12 days from pitchers and catchers and none of them has a job yet.