John Flaherty Retires

Recent Red Sox signee and one-time draft choice John Flaherty has announced his retirement from the game of baseball. Flaherty, who played the last few seasons with the New York Yankees, signed with the Sox in the offseason as a potential replacement for Doug Mirabelli. He caught Wakefield a few days ago in a spring training game and had a hard time of it. With his retirement, Josh Bard becomes the primary catcher over the next couple days, as well as the leading candidate to start the season in Boston, over journeyman Ken Huckaby.


Flaherty's retirement is a good and bad thing. It's good because it means that a younger catcher, Bard, will be able to give Varitek the time off he'll need. A younger set of legs will be able to do more than a vet like Flaherty.

The downside, however, is that Flaherty's intelligence as a catcher will no longer be available to the Sox. Catching a knuckleball is a difficult task (remember Tek's "chopsticks" quote?). Flaherty is known for his malleability as a battery mate and for his ability to handle a staff. Recall that Randy Johnson used Flaherty as his personal catcher, which was less a commentary of the shortcomings of Jorge Posada than on the abilities of Flaherty.

It'll be nice to see a younger face behind the plate from time to time, and Bard's age has to, by default, increase his upside, limited though it may be.

Though his career was far short of the Hall of Fame, John Flaherty was widely respected in the baseball world. Hopefully he'll show up someplace as a coach or manager, and keep his knowledge about being a backstop in the game.