It appears that Junichi Tazawa has indeed agreed to sign with the Red Sox, if you believe these reports out of the Japanese media. He is slated to begin at Double-A Portland next year; let’s hope he develops.
Varitek talks at a standstill
The purported offer to free agent Jason Varitek is not an official offer, according to agent Scott Boras. For his part, Tek is not interested in a part-time role for 2009, which could be a sticking point. With catching being such an obvious need, and Boston having so much young pitching, teams have contacted the Red Sox about many catching options. Should the Sox decide to move on without the Captain, they won’t be without plenty of options.
Lugo to Tigers falls through
The rumor that the Tigers are interested in shortstop Julio Lugo is no longer true. It was rumored that Detroit was offering either Dontrelle Willis or Nate Robertson for him, but as I wrote here, I didn’t like either option.
More evidence that the market for Varitek could be vastly overrated:
http://tigers-thoughts.blogspot.com/2008/10/just-say-no-to-varitek.html
Coming into this offseason I didn’t think ANY other team would be at all interested in Varitek. I feel like at this point he is only valuable for this team considering the money he wants.
I really hope he comes back, but not as a starter like he wants to.
Multiple sources are basically confirming the Tazawa signing:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/articles/2008/11/29/tazawa_moves_closer_to_deal_with_red_sox
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081129&content_id=3695687&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos