BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox wrapped up their offseason bargain hunting Friday by reaching a preliminary agreement with catcher and captain Jason Varitek that pays him half as much in 2009 as he made last season.
Varitek heads into his 13th major league season, all with the Red Sox, with a guaranteed $5 million for 2009 and a player option of $3 million or a team option of $5 million for 2010, two people familiar with the talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not yet final.
That’s quite a drop from the four-year, $40 million deal that ended after last season and less than he would have made had he accepted the team’s offer of arbitration in early December.
But it was in keeping with the Red Sox strategy of conservative contracts while the New York Yankees went on a spending spree that amounted to $423.5 million in long-term deals for three free agents: first baseman Mark Teixiera ($22.5 million per year) and pitchers CC Sabathia ($23 million per year) and A.J. Burnett ($16.5 million per year).
The Red Sox handed out cheaper, one-year deals to pitchers John Smoltz ($5.5 million) and Brad Penny ($5 million) and outfielder Rocco Baldelli ($500,000). They also signed catcher Josh Bard, who made $2.2 million with San Diego last season, and reliever Takashi Saito, who was paid $2 million by the Los Angeles Dodgers last season.
The Red Sox traded outfielder Coco Crisp to Kansas City for reliever Ramon Ramirez. Crisp is due to make $5.75 million next season in a deal that includes an $8 million club option for 2010 with a $500,000 buyout. The Royals paid Ramirez $387,000 last season.
Also gone from Boston’s payroll are Manny Ramirez, who was traded to the Dodgers last July, and Curt Schilling, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury that required surgery.
Varitek came relatively cheap, in part because there was no great demand for his services after the worst offensive season of his career. If he plays under the player option, he could earn an additional $2 million in 2010 based on games started: $400,000 each for 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 games.
He must take a physical before the agreement is completed.
Widely praised throughout his career by Boston’s pitchers for his skill in handling them, opposing hurlers usually fared well when Varitek came to the plate last year. The switch-hitter, who turns 37 on April 11, hit. 220 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs in 131 games. For his career, he is batting .263 with 161 homers and 654 RBIs in 1,330 games.
Varitek also struggled trying to throw out base-stealers. They had an 81.2 percent success rate against him last season, worse than 19 other major league catchers.
With pitchers and catchers due to report to spring training Feb. 12, the Red Sox set a deadline of Friday for Varitek to accept or reject their offer. Their only catcher with considerable major league experience was Bard, and there was a chance they’d have to keep George Kottaras or Dusty Brown, who split time at Triple-A Pawtucket last year, as their No. 2 catcher.
Varitek, an All-Star in 2003 and 2005, had declined the Red Sox offer to go to arbitration, which would have resulted in a non-guaranteed one-year contract if no agreement was reached before a hearing. The team decreased his desirability to other clubs because the offer of arbitration requires a club to give up a first-round draft choice if it signed Varitek.
Varitek is the Red Sox career leader in games at catcher with 1,273. Carlton Fisk, who also played with the Chicago White Sox, is second with 990 games with Boston. Varitek was obtained on July 31, 1997, in one of the most lopsided trades in Red Sox history — they also picked up pitcher Derek Lowe from the Seattle Mariners for reliever Heathcliff Slocumb.
The Red Sox had set deadlines with other clients of Scott Boras, including pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka before the 2007 season and Teixeira before the first baseman signed with the Yankees last month.
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AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.
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