Varitek and most others decline arbitration

LAS VEGAS – Free-agent catcher Jason Varitek declined an offer of salary arbitration from the Boston Red Sox by Sunday’s midnight ET deadline, potentially taking the team’s captain one step closer to severing a relationship that began in 1997.

Varitek was one of 22 free agents who declined arbitration offers from their former teams, a list that included the highly sought CC Sabathia, Francisco Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Manny Ramirez.

The only two free agents who accepted salary arbitration, making them signed players for next season, were relievers David Weathers of the Cincinnati Reds and Darren Oliver of the Los Angeles Angels. They will return to those teams and have their 2009 salary determined by an arbitrator.

Teams retain the right to negotiate with their free agents who declined arbitration and teams will receive compensatory draft picks for their free agents offered arbitration. For a Type A free agent (top-tier players), a team receives the signing team’s first-round pick if it is below the first 15 picks in the draft, and a supplemental pick between the first and second rounds. If the signing team has a pick in the first 15 slots, the team that loses the free agent will get the signing team’s second-round selection and the sandwich pick.

There had been speculation that Varitek, who will be 37 in April and is coming off the worst offensive season of his career (.220, 13 home runs, 43 RBIs), might accept arbitration, assuring him a salary at least equal to the $10 million he was paid in 2008, a figure he might have trouble attaining on the open market.

Varitek could still return to the Red Sox, but it likely will take a multiyear deal for Boston to make that happen, and they may have competition for his services.

Ramirez, who was paid $20 million in 2008, almost certainly would have been in line for a significant raise had he accepted arbitration from the Dodgers. But he and his agent, Scott Boras, have not wavered from their demands for a long-term deal, though the list of teams willing to sign the 36-year-old Ramirez has yet to form. The Dodgers originally proposed a two-year deal that would have guaranteed Ramirez $45 million; now that he has turned them down again, it remains to be seen if the Dodgers will return to the negotiating table.