Varitek: Not saying 'yes' or 'no' to managing

Speaking on a conference call Friday, Jason Varitek clarified his newly appointed position as a special assistant to general manager Ben Cherington, while also touching on any future aspirations.

Regarding the possibility of Varitek managing one day, the former catcher said, "If I answered it either way right now, I wouldn't be giving myself the best opportunity. I'm not in a position to make that a 'yes' or a 'no' at this point."

Varitek, who is with the rest of the front office in Fort Myers for organizational meetings, explained that his current role has a "huge gray area" and that he is simply going to "learn as much as I can."

"I'm going to be involved in a lot of different areas to learn a lot different things -- everything from meetings to player development to things along those lines," he added.

Varitek said he plans on participating some in catching instruction, starting with minor leaguers, although "that's a little further ahead."

He noted that the decision to return to baseball in some capacity only came after he settled into life after retirement.

"When I got the foundation of my family set up, having another child, getting to spend more time with my older children," Varitek said. "This is just something we worked on and it just happened to fall later at the end of the summer."

As for missing the game throughout the 2012 season, he said, "That's literally a double-edged sword. It was the first Fourth of July I didn't play a game. My kids let me know that. I came to rest with it immediately, but did I miss it? Absolutely. I came to rest with it pretty easy right away."

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