This seemed like a topic worth asking Red Sox coach Jason Varitek about. The former catcher was renowned for his extensive pre-game preparation and game-calling.
That made his answer a bit of a surprise.
“Open-minded,” Varitek said. “Those are the words.”
Varitek wants to see how the Marlins fare before he passes judgement. He’s had a front row seat to baseball’s data revolution since joining the Red Sox coaching staff in 2012 and is open to change.
But Varitek does believe catchers have the best vantage point to make in-game adjustments and deviate from game plans based on how a batter reacts to the certain pitch or situation.
“You hope you can train that and continue to develop that, right?” he said.
Varitek caught four no-hitters during his career and helped lead the Red Sox to two World Series championships. He remembers numerous times when a pitch was called from the dugout.
“There has always been some sort of control depending on who the [manager] is,” Varitek said. “Part of the process is that push and pull back and forth. That’s how you learn.”
Varitek wonders if other teams would think twice about trading for a Marlins pitcher or catcher if they count on a coach to call every pitch and lack the instincts to react within a game.
“If they’ve played in that system for X amount of years, that’s a big difference,” he said.
Sox catcher Connor Wong doesn’t like the idea of dumbing down his position.
“It’s part of the game that makes catching fun and at the same time really difficult,” he said. “You have to learn the pitchers and then do your homework and get ready for their hitters.
“If that’s part of the game the Marlins are taking away, maybe they want one less thing for the catcher to do so they can focus on hitting. I can see both sides of it. But I don’t know how a coach would see if a hitter was scooting close to the plate or scooting back. There are a lot of little adjustments hitters make.”
The Marlins tried it for the final nine games of last season with assistant pitching coach Alon Leichman calling pitches. Miami had a 3.11 ERA in games against the Rangers, Phillies, and Mets. That’s a small sample size but enough for them to continue it into this season.
Leichman was named Colorado’s pitching coach in December. New president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta is open to see if it could work for the Rockies.
Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet is not a fan.
“It feels too calculated,” he said. “I feel like there’s maybe some situations where it could be pros, but far more where there would be cons. It’s a lot easier to understand the feel and the speed of the game when you’re in it.
“You’re in the dugout, but you’re not in the battle. I feel like if anyone’s going to have the feel for the situation, it’s going to be the catcher and then the pitcher and then the coach in that order.”
As a player, Varitek had three-ring binders in his locker full of scouting reports and other bits of information about opposing hitters. Now all that knowledge can be accessed in seconds.
Maybe calling every pitch from the dugout is the next innovation. It wasn’t too long ago when a pitch clock and ghost runners on second base in extra innings seemed like heresy.
“If it works, all 30 teams will be doing it,” Varitek said. “You can’t be afraid to adapt.”
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.
